April is the most famous of the old months: Bede names it after the goddess Éostre – the root of our word „Easter". Around its meaning cluster both truth and invention.
Name & Meaning
Bede writes that Éosturmónath took its name from the goddess Éostre, for whom feasts were held in it; today it is read as the paschal month. From this Jacob Grimm reconstructed a Germanic *Ostara in 1835. Linguistically the name is tied to „east" and the dawn – the place where the light rises.
Evidence & Myth-Check
The evidence is thin: Bede is the only source. A possible but uncertain clue is the some 150 Rhineland votive stones of the Matronae Austriahenae (Morken-Harff near Cologne). Plainly false is the popular equation „Easter = Ishtar" – a pure 19th-century invention.
Work & Custom
Full spring: the sowing is under way, the cattle go to pasture, the first lambs are born. It is the time of spring-cleaning and new beginnings – a feast of the rising light.
Bede’s Testimony
Éosturmónath, now read as the paschal month, once had its name from their goddess, who was called Éostre.
— Bede, De temporum ratione ch. 15.
Sources
Bede, De temporum ratione ch. 15 (sole source); Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie 1835 (*Ostara); Matronae Austriahenae (Rhineland).