Ian - I'm taking my stuff from discussions on the web - have to admit they are third hand - I don't have access to much else.

"Passion" (in this context - the Passion of Christ) derives from Pascha - which came from Passover. I *think* the emotion has a seperate derivation.

DMcG - correct - baptism at the Easter Vigil and "Easter" is the Feast of the Resurection plus the week following - the Easter Octave. (Which is TECHNICALLY still true - though in common usage most people just refer to the Feast of the Resurection as "Easter")

I just wanted to point out the Eostre/Easter thing pertains only to English/German language groups -

Easter has been historically tied to the Judiac Passover celebration (still is pretty much - though Passover and Easter can get out of synch as slightly different rules are used to figure the date of celebration) and most language groups do NOT use a derivation of Eostre in reference to the celbration.

Of course there are those who also point at Passover as being 'stolen' from one or another pagan spring ritual.

But then again - I'd have my doubts that ANY religion is completly free of concepts that used somewhere else.