Easter is the central religious feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to Christian scripture, Jesus was resurrected from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. Some Christians celebrate this resurrection on Easter Day or Easter Sunday (also Resurrection Day or Resurrection Sunday), two days after Good Friday and three days after Maundy Thursday.
Traditionally the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until Ascension Day but now officially lasts for the fifty days until Pentecost. The first week of the Easter Season is known as Easter Week or the Octave of Easter. Easter also marks the end of Lent, a season of fasting, prayer, and penance.
Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, as well as by its position in the calendar. In most European languages the feast called Easter in English is termed by the words for passover in those languages and in the older English versions of the Bible the term Easter was the term used to translate passover.
Relatively newer elements such as the Easter Bunny and Easter egg hunts have become part of the holiday’s modern celebrations, and those aspects are often celebrated by many Christians and non-Christians alike.
Significance
The New Testament teaches that the resurrection of Jesus, which Easter celebrates, is a foundation of the Christian faith. The resurrection established Jesus as the powerful Son of God and is cited as proof that God will judge the world in righteousness.
God has given Christians:
“a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”.
Christians, through faith in the working of God are spiritually resurrected with Jesus so that they may walk in a new way of life.
Easter is linked to the Passover and Exodus from Egypt recorded in the Old Testament through the Last Supper and crucifixion that preceded the resurrection. According to the New Testament, Jesus gave the Passover meal a new meaning, as he prepared himself and his disciples for his death in the upper room during the Last Supper. He identified the loaf of bread and cup of wine as symbolizing his body soon to be sacrificed and his blood soon to be shed.
Corinthians 5:7 states,
“Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed”
this refers to the Passover requirement to have no yeast in the house and to the allegory of Jesus as the Paschal lamb.
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Easter eggs
Easter eggs are a popular sign of the holiday among its religious and secular observers alike.
As with many other Christian dates, the celebration of Easter extends beyond the church. Since its origins, it has been a time of celebration and feasting and many Traditional Easter games and customs developed, such as Egg rolling, Egg tapping, Pace egging and Egg decorating. Today Easter is commercially important, seeing wide sales of greeting cards and confectionery such as chocolate Easter eggs, marshmallow bunnies, Peeps, and jelly beans. Even many non-Christians celebrate these aspects of the holiday while eschewing the religious aspects.
Easter eggs or spring eggs are special eggs that are often given to celebrate Easter or springtime.
The egg was a symbol of the rebirth of the earth in celebrations of spring and was adopted by early Christians as a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus.
The oldest tradition is to use dyed or painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as jelly beans. These eggs are often hidden, allegedly by the Easter Bunny, for children to find on Easter morning. Otherwise, they are generally put in a basket filled with real or artificial straw to resemble a bird’s nest.
Origin
The egg is widely used as a symbol of the start of new life, just as new life emerges from an egg when the chick hatches out.
At the Jewish Passover Seder, a hard-boiled egg dipped in salt water symbolizes the festival sacrifice offered at the Temple in Jerusalem.
There are good grounds for the association between hares (later termed Easter bunnies) and eggs, through folklore confusion between hares’ forms (where they raise their young) and plovers’ nests.
Dates for Easter
1982–2022
Year – Date
2001 – April 15
2002 -March 31
2003 – April 20
2004 – April 11
2005 – March 27
2006 – April 16
2007 – April 8
2008 – March 23
2009 – April 12
2010 – April 4
2011 – April 24
2012 – April 8
2013 – March 31
2014 – April 20
2015 – April 5
Wishing U a Very “HAPPY EASTER”
Wid Luv And Best Wishes..
May That EASTER Day Brings
LOT of Happiness And JOYS in ur LIFE.
May u Live Long LIFE…
And That EASTER day Will comes in UR life Hundred Times…
Remember me in ur prayers and share the EASTER EGGS wid me..
May the angels protect u…
may the sadness forget u…
may goodness surround u…
and may God always bless u…
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