Eostre (Old English *Ēostre*, attested in Bede's *De temporum ratione*, 725 CE) was the **Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, dawn, and rebirth — celebrated in the Anglo-Saxon month of *Eosturmonath* (April)**. **The Christian feast of Easter takes its English name from her** — uniquely in any European language, which otherwise uses variants of *Pascha* (Greek/Latin). **Jacob Grimm reconstructed a Continental Germanic counterpart Ostara** in *Deutsche Mythologie* (1835); her sacred animal was the hare. **The modern Easter egg and Easter Bunny are believed to descend from her cult**.
Featured in Bede's *De temporum ratione* (725) and the Grimms' folkloric reconstructions.
Eostre reduces to three — the number of spring-dawn goddess.