(What most people don't know.
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary- shows that the word Easter comes from the name of an old Teutonic goddess of spring.)

Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend p 341 "Early in history the egg became a symbol for sex, reproduction and life. The egg represented a resurrection and after life and was used to cast magical spells'
(Long before Jesus was born eggs were used in religious worship)

A Treasury of American Superstition page 361
"The hare represented abundant life and the fertility of the earth... Because hares were born with eyes open, they were sacred to the 'open eyed moon' in Egypt, and thus connected with Easter, as the date is set by the moon's orbit to this day. The Germans made the hare sacred to the goddess Eastre, and said that on Easter Eve it would lay eggs for good children."

(As you can see the early Christians saw in these pagan rituals symbols of Christ's resurrection to new life. So obviously they 'borrowed' some of the heathen customs. Even tho' God commands his people NOT to follow the ways of the heathen, and NOT to use pagan customs to worship Him!)

Alexander Hislop's The Two Babylons p. 105
"Among the pagans the Lent season seems to have been as indispensible preliminary to the great annusl festival in commeration on the death and rresurrection of Tammuz, which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing."

(It was believed that the pagan god Tammuz died and was resurrected. He was a counterfeit Messiah. The mourning of his death was held annually- a kind of Lenton season. Obviously, this pagan god has influenced present day religious practices. There are no instructiions in the Bible for Christians to observe a period of Lent. Nor is there any Biblical authority for the practice of attending Easter sunrise services either. Just the opposite Ezek 8 :13-16.)

The Two Babylons by Hislop p 140-105
"the forty days abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, in the spring of the year, is still observed by the Yezidis or pagan Devil- worshippers of Koordistan, who have inherited it from thier early masters, the Babylonians. Such a Lent of forty days was held in spring by the Pagan Mexicans...Such a Lent of forty days was observed in Egypt..."

Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition- Easter
"There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament or in the writings of the Apostolic fathers...The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed. Thus the Passover, with a new conception added to it, of Christ as the true Paschal Lamb and the first fruits from the dead continued to be observed.
Although the observance of Easter was at a very early period in the practice of the Christian Church, a serious difference as to the day for its observance soon arose between the Christians of Jewish and those of Gentile descent, which led to a long and bitter controversy. With the Jewish Christians...the fast ended on the 14th day of the moon at evening without regard to the day of the week. The Gentile Christians on the other hand identified the first day of the week with the resurrection, and kept the preceeding Friday as the commeration of the crucifixion, irrespective of the day of the month.
Generally speaking, the Western Churches [catholic] kept Easter on the first day of the week, while the Eastern Churches followed the Jewish rule.
Polycarp, the disciple of John the Evangelist, and bishop of Smyrna, visited Rome in 159 to confer with Anicetus, the bishop of the see, on the subject, and urged the tradition which he had recieved from the apostles of observing the 14th day.Anicetus, however, declined. About 40 years later,(197), the question was discussed in a very different spirit between Victor, bishop of Rome, and Polycarp, metropolitan of proconsular Asia [the territory of the Churches at Ephesus, Galatia, Antioch, Philadelphia and all those mentioned in Rev 2 &3- the churches established through Apostle Paul]. That province was the only portion of Christendom which still adhered to the Jewish usuage prevailing at Rome.This Polycrates firmly refused to agree to, and urged many weighty reasons to the contrary, where upon Victor proceeded to excommunicate Polycrates and the Christians who continued the Eastern usuage. He was, however, restrained from actually proceeding to enforce the decree of excommunication...and the Asiatic churches retained their usuage unmolested. We find the Jewish ususge from time to time reasserting itself after this, but it never prevailed to any large extent.
A final settlement of the dispute was one among the other reasons which led Constantine to summon the council at Nicaea in 325. At that time the Syrians and Antiochenes were the solitary champions of the observance of the 14th day. The decision of the council was unanimous that Easter was to be kept on Sunday, and on the same Sunday throughout the world, and that 'none hereafter should follow the blindness of the Jews.'
...the few who afterwards separated themselves from the unity of the church [Roman Catholic}, and continued to keep the 14th day, were named 'Quarto- decimani' and the dispute itself is known as the 'Quarto deciman controversy."

A Treasury of American Superstition p. 362
"To imitate Nature's emergence in her own gorgeous attire of delicate green, in ancient times, when Easter was New Year's Day, people cast off their old clothes to start the New Year right. Therefore the custom of wearing a new outfit on Easter is a holdover from this time. The custom of wearing new clothes prevailed also in Northern Europe as it was considered discourteous and therefore bad luck to greet the Scandinavian goddess of spring, or Easter, in anything but a fresh garb, since the goddess was bestowing one on the earth. Needless to say, the Easter parade on Fifth avenue, New York, is the most famous survival of this old custom. There is an old superstition that wearing three new things on Easter assures good luck throughout the year. It is interesting also, that in early times, the Easter 'Bonnet' was a wreath of flowers or leaves. The circle or crown expressed the round sun and its course in the heavens which brought the return of spring."