From chocolate eggs to the crucifixion of Christ, what is Easter all about?
While Easter is the most important date on the Christian calendar, it is also the most confusing, since it changes every year. Easter is not a fixed date because it is counted based on the lunar calendar which is dependent on the phases of the moon. It was a council of Christian bishops in 325 AD, the First Council of Nicea, in the time of Emperor Constantine, which decided Easter day should fall on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring Equinox which falls some time on March 21.
Easter always falls between March 22 and April 25. It always has to be a Sunday to celebrate the day of the resurrection of Jesus after his crucifixion. It is the oldest festival of the Christian Church.
Good Friday is believed to be the day Christ was crucified. The following three days are referred to as the Easter Triduum. After Triduum, Christians believe Christ rose from the dead.
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Maundy Thursday is the remembrance of the Last Supper Jesus shared with his 12 disciples.
The first day of the Lenten season begins with Ash Wednesday, which is preceded by Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, the time right before Lent when all rich foods like eggs and milk are used up before the fasting period begins.
The season of Lent lasts 40 days, excluding the Sundays between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. This is the fasting period, when Christians avoid a certain food or give up a vice. The period of fasting is a reminder of the time Jesus went into the wilderness and fasted for 40 days.
Lent is also a time when people remember the sufferings of Jesus and pray the 14 Stations of the Cross. In some areas, people perform portrayals of the Passion of Christ as a reminder of Christ's sacrifice.
Many of the traditions people follow during Easter are not really related to the religious festival. The origin of the practice goes back to the time of the ancient Roman Catholic Church which sought to make Christianity more appealing to non-Christians and so mixed the celebration of Jesus' resurrection with the festival of spring that was celebrated around the same time. Spring is a time of rebirth, and the rituals were a celebration of fertility, of which the eggs and the bunny were symbols.
And so the resurrection of Jesus seen also as "new life" came to be celebrated along with Easter traditions. Easter is called such as an obscure reference to a German goddess Ostara which was Old High German for Ostern, German for Easter, both related to the word "east." It has also been attributed to another goddess, Eastre/Eostre, found in passing reference in writings by the Venerable Bede, in the eighteenth century.
The Easter bunny is also said to have originated in Germany in 1682 where a bucktoothed Easter hare brought chocolate to well-behaved children, an echo of today's Easter Bunny and his bringing of Easter eggs.
