SoRaiseYourGlasses

Easter

Easter has a number of meanings and traditions and is often associated with some of the ancient Spring festivals but fundamentally Easter is the most important of all the Christiam festivals, celebrating the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus, when he rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion on Good Friday. For Christians everywhere, the morning of Easter Sunday is a joyful occasion when new life is celebrated, and when vows of faith are renewed.

The Easter story in Christianity is the story of the final journey of Jesus into Jerusalem, and the events that followed his arrival. He came into the city to great public acclaim and Christians now celebrate that arrival with the feast of Palm Sunday. Later in the week they celebrate Maundy Thursday, when Jesus brought his disciples together for the Last Supper at which he performed the first Eucharist, and then Good Friday when Jesus was crucified. The story culminates with his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Where did the name "Easter" originate?

The word Easter has its roots in Anglo Saxon - they are called what we know as the month of April "Eostre", meaning literally "openings", so that April was the month of openings. The Jews celebrated their "passover" at the time that Jesus was crucified and rose again, and since the passover was most often celebrated in April, the name Easter became the English name for the festival.

Traditions associated with Easter

The most well known tradition around Easter is the giving and receiving of eggs. The rituals that were related to the goddess Eostre, from whom the Anglo Saxons named the Christian festival, were focussed on new life or new beginnings. The egg, which houses new life,  is the perfect symbol for this new life, and so the traditions of eggs associated with Easter came about. The Easter chicks are, of course, the natural product of the Easter Eggs. The other potent symbol associated with the goddess Eostre was fertility, represented by the hare, and so we have the origins of the Easter bunny!

The first eggs given as an Easter gift were birds eggs, often brightly painted to make them more attractive. Many people still paint eggs today for easter, although it is the most common Chicken eggs that tend to be used today.

There are a number of foods which have become associted with Easter - these include the hot cross buns we eat on Good Friday. Symbolising the cross on which Christ was crucified, these spicy currant buns have a bakers cross on them to mark them out. Eaten warm with butter they are delicious and make a perfect breakfast! The Simnel cake is the traditional Easter cake - a fruit cake topped with a single layer of marzipan and eleven balls of marzipan on top to represent the twelve apostles, less Judas, who betrayed Jesus to the authorities and which led to his crucifixion. Easter biscuits, or cakes, are aften eaten on Easter Day as well - these are spicy and contain currants, just as hot cross buns do. The main meal of the day is traditionally roast lamb because this is the meal eaten by the Jews at their passover.

Celebrating Easter

All Christians and many others besides celebrate Easter. For thousands of children the excitement is associated with receiving choclate eggs, which have largely replaced the real, painted ones first given at Easter. It is a time when families and friends come together and so food is an all important part of the celebration. The decorations which are used for the traditional cakes, biscuits and meal times are always evolving, but you'll find a lovely selection here that you may find useful.

The date of Easter

The date for Easter 2010 is April 4th. The date is determined by the lunar calendar, and so it moves around on our calendar. It is always the first Sunday after the first full moon following the 21st March. If the full moon is on a Sunday then Easter will be on the next Sunday.