Easter.—The English term, according to the Ven. Bede (De temporum ratione, I, v), relates to Eôstre, a Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring, which deity, however, is otherwise unknown, even in the Edda (Simrock, Mythol., 362); Anglo-Saxon, eaester, eaestron; Old High German, ôstra, ôstrara, ôstrarün; German, Ostern. April was called easter-monadh. The plural eaestron is used, because the feast lasts seven days. Like the French plural Paeques, it is a translation from the Latin Festa Paschalia, the entire octave of Easter. The Greek term for Easter, πάσχα, has nothing in common with the verb πάσχειν, " to suffer", although by the later symbolic writers it was connected with it; it is the Aramaic form of the Hebrew word pesach (transitus, passover). The Greeks call Easter the πάσχα ἀναστάσιμον; Good Friday the πάσχα σταυρώσιμον. The respective terms used by the Latins are Pascha resurrectionis and Pascha crucifixionis. In the Roman and Monastic Breviaries the feast bears the title Dominica Resurrectionis; in the Mozarabic Breviary, In Laetatione Diei Paschoe Resurrectionis; in the Ambrosian Breviary, In Die Sancto Paschoe. The Romance languages have adopted the Hebrew-Greek term: Latin, Pascha; Italian, Pasqua; Spanish, Pascua; French, Pâques. Also some Celtic and Teutonic nations use it: Scotch, Pask; Dutch, Paschen; Danish, Paaske; Swedish, Pàsk; even in the German provinces of the Lower Rhine the people call the feast Paisken not Ostern. The word is, principally in Spain and Italy, identified with the word "solemnity" and extended to other feasts, e.g. Sp., Pascua florida, Palm Sunday; Pascua de Pentecostes, Pentecost; Pascua de la Natividad, Christmas; Pascua de Epifania, Epiphany. In some parts of France also First Communion is called Pâques, whatever time of the year administered.