The
Story of Easter
Easter is a time of springtime festivals. In Christian countries
Easter is celebrated as the religious holiday commemorating the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, the son of God. But the celebrations
of Easter have many customs and legends that are pagan in origin
and have nothing to do with Christianity.
Scholars,
accepting the derivation proposed by the 8th-century English scholar
St. Bede, believe the name Easter is thought to come from the Scandinavian
“Ostra” and the Teutonic “Ostern” or “Eastre,”
both Goddesses of mythology signifying spring and fertility, whose
festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox.
Traditions
associated with the festival survive in the Easter rabbit, a symbol
of fertility, and in colored easter eggs, originally painted with
bright colors to represent the sunlight of spring, and used in Easter-egg
rolling contests or given as gifts.
The
Christian celebration of Easter embodies a number of converging
traditions with emphasis on the relation of Easter to the Jewish
festival of Passover, or Pesach, from which is derived Pasch, another
name used by Europeans for Easter. Passover is an important feast
in the Jewish calendar which is celebrated for eight days and commemorates
the flight and freedom of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
The
early Christians, many of whom were of Jewish origin, were brought
up in the Hebrew tradition and regarded Easter as a new feature
of the Passover festival, a commemoration of the advent of the Messiah
as foretold by the prophets.
Easter
is observed by the churches of the West on the first Sunday following
the full moon that occurs on or following the spring equinox (March
2I). So Easter became a “movable” feast which can occur
as early as March 22 or as late as April 25.
Christian
churches in the East which were closer to the birthplace of the
new religion and in which old traditions were strong, observe Easter
according to the date of the Passover festival. Easter is at the
end of the Lenten season, which covers a forty-six-day period that
begins on Ash Wednesday and ends with Easter. The Lenten season
itself comprises forty days, as the six Sundays in Lent are not
actually a part of Lent. Sundays are considered a commemoration
of Easter Sunday and have always been excluded from the Lenten fast.
The Lenten season is a period of penitence in preparation for the
highest festival of the church year, Easter.
Holy
Week, the last week of Lent, begins with the observance of Palm
Sunday. Palm Sunday takes its name from Jesus’ triumphal entry
into Jerusalem where the crowds laid palms at his feet. Holy Thursday
commemorates the Last Supper, which was held the evening before
the Crucifixion. Friday in Holy Week is the anniversary of the Crufixion,
the day that Christ was crucified and died on the cross. Holy week
and the Lenten season end with Easter Sunday, the day of resurrection
of Jesus Christ. |