Ishtar

Yes, meet Easter! This is Ishtar (pronounced similarly). In Assyria she was worshiped as the goddess of erotic love, new life, Spring, fertility and more. She is also known by other names, such as Aphrodite, Venus, Semiramis, Astarte and Ashtoreth. She is the queen of heaven who is spoken of in the scriptures, the wife of Nimrod / Baal, and the mother of Tammuz.

The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven [hot cross buns]; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. (Jer 7:18)

But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble. But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” The women also said, “And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands’ permission?” (Jer 44:17-19)

Worshiping this goddess is part of the reason Yehovah (the LORD) kicked us (Israel) out of His land and dispersed us among the nations. Will we ever learn not to be involved in this kind of wickedness?

And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.” So He brought me to the door of the north gate of Yehovah’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz. [Tammuz died at 40 years old and this is where Lent comes from.] Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.” So He brought me into the inner court of Yehovah’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of Yehovah, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of Yehovah and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east [This is the sunrise service]. And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.” (Eze 8:13-18)

Here are a couple illuminating videos I have found on this subject.

Easter (Pagan)

Easter Charade