A Joyous Passover
(Excerpt from Dr. Blosser's article):
I noticed in Sandro Magister's post on Good Friday, in which he offered Easter greetings in four different languages, that the English language is the only language of those four (English, Italian, French and Spanish) in which the term for Easter lacks any etymological connection to the Jewish word for Passover. Here they are:
Best Wishes for a Happy Easter! (English)
Tanti auguri di buona Pasqua! (Italian)
Joyeuses Pâques! (French)
¡Feliz Pascua de Resurrección! (Spanish)
'Pasqua', 'Pâques', and 'Pascua' are each etymologically derived from the term Pesach (Hebrew: פֶּסַח) or, more precisely, the verb "pasàch" (Hebrew: פָּסַח) which is first mentioned in the Old Testament account of the flight from Egypt (Exodus 12:23) in Moses' words that God "will pass over" the houses of the Children of Israel during the last of the Ten Plagues of Egypt, in which the first-born were killed. ("Passover," Wikipedia).
Read more here.
