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Easter Sunday is the most important date in the Christian church.
In the bible, it is the day when Mary Magdalene found that an empty tomb in the cave in which Jesus had been placed following his death by crucifixion on the previous Friday.
It signifies the end of the 40 days of Lent, meaning Christians who gave up something during lent to signify Jesus’ time in the wilderness, can indulge themselves again.
Easter Sunday is also when church bells will be rung again, having been silent during Lent.
The name Easter is derived from ‘Ostara’ or ‘Eostre’, a pagan goddess of fertility, whose feast was celebrated on the Vernal Equinox. The word East is also derived from her names, as is Oestrogen, the female hormone. In Saxon culture, the Hare was sacred to Ostara and the modern tradition of the Easter Bunny is a distant echo of that.
However, In most languages other than English and German, the holiday’s name is derived from Pesach, the Hebrew name of Passover, a Jewish holiday to which the Christian Easter is intimately linked.
Easter depends on Passover not only for much of its symbolic meaning but also for its position in the calendar. Read more about the date of Easter.
The Easter Bunny is now an established part of the Easter traditions. In Europe and America, the Easter Bunny visits the garden of children leaving chocolate eggs and treats for the children to find on Easter Egg hunts.
Rabbits and hares don’t have any direct connection to any Christian tradition and it is interesting to note that the pagan goddess, Ostara was always traditionally accompanied by a hare. The modern tradition derives from a German custom that was first recorded in the 16th century. It may seem strange for a rabbit to be laying eggs, but as eggs were part of the foods banned during Lent, then the reintroduction of eggs would have been a welcome treat, no matter how they arrived in the garden.
It was once thought that hares could give birth without conceiving, which may have made them a way of explaining the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary. It is also said that the sight of Rabbits appearing from their underground burrows is a reminder of Jesus appearing from the tomb after his resurrection on Easter morning.
On Easter Sunday, the traditional meat for dinner is lamb. The lamb was a sacrifice during the Jewish Passover, and it became a symbol for Jesus. It is also seasonal as Spring lamb is particularly tender and noted for its subtle flavour.
Three facts about Easter Sunday
Though the method of calculating the date has changed, Easter first became an official Christian holiday in AD 325 at the first council of Nicaea presided over by Roman Emperor Constantine.
Easter is celebrated at different times by Eastern and Western Christians. It is because the dates for Easter in Eastern Christianity are based on the Julian calendar, while Western Christianity follows the Gregorian calendar.
The idea of the Easter bunny giving candies and eggs is said to have originated in Germany during the middle ages.
Orthodox Easter, also called Greek Easter is the principal festival of the Orthodox Church.
In the bible, it is the day when Mary Magdalene found that an empty tomb in the cave in which Jesus had been placed following his death by crucifixion on the Friday before.
It signifies the end of the 40 days of Lent, meaning Christians who gave up something during lent to signify Jesus’ time in the wilderness, can indulge themselves again.
In Egypt, Coptic Easter Monday is celebrated on the same day as Orthodox Easter Monday. The day forms part of a wider spring festival called ‘Sham El Nessim‘ and is a national holiday.
The date is different from Western Easter as the other Christian Churches base the date of calculating Easter on the Gregorian calendar, but the Eastern Orthodox Church still uses the earlier Julian calendar for calculating the dates of festivals, which also includes Easter.
The name Easter is derived from ‘Ostara’ or ‘Eostre’, a pagan goddess of fertility, whose feast was celebrated on the Vernal Equinox. The word East is also derived from her names, as is Oestrogen, the female hormone.
However, In most languages other than English and German, the holiday’s name is derived from Pesach, the Hebrew name of Passover, a Jewish holiday to which the Christian Easter is intimately linked.
Easter depends on Passover not only for much of its symbolic meaning but also for its position in the calendar. The Orthodox church uses the Julian calendar for the calculation of Easter, whereas the Western churches use the Gregorian calendar. This difference can often mean that Orthodox Easter falls later than Easter observed elsewhere. The earliest date it can fall is 4 April and the latest is 8 May.
Modern Easter celebrations revolve around eggs. They may be painted, rolled down hills or eaten if they are of the chocolate variety. The Christian tradition of egg is aid to represent rebirth and resurrection – new life being born from the egg. It’s also been said that egg recalls the shape of the stone that rolled away on Easter Sunday form the tomb that held Jesus’ body.
This egg tradition is almost certainly a distillation of a much older pagan custom celebrating spring. The ancient Persians celebrated their new year at the time of the vernal equinox by painting eggs.
Its adoption into the Christian traditions would have been quite seamless, as eggs were banned during the period of Lent preceding Easter.
The custom of decorating eggs is perhaps most famous in Ukraine. Known as Pysanky eggs, they are painted when raw as the uncooked eggshell absorbs the colored dye better than when cooked.
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