Easter is the celebration of the Resurrection for the Christians. All this crap about bunny eggs, goddesses and hanky panky in the moonlight is just so much camel crap.
I picked the Wikipedia version for the explanation.
Easter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Christian and cultural festival. For other uses, see
Easter (disambiguation).
Easter
Eastern Orthodox Christian icon depicting the
Harrowing of Hell or Descent into
Hades[1][2][3] (cf.
Resurrection of Jesus in Christian art)
Type Christian, cultural
Significance Celebrates the resurrection of Jesus
Celebrations Church services, festive family meals,
Easter egg hunts and gift-giving
Observances Prayer,
all-night vigil,
sunrise service
2014 date 20 April (Western)
20 April (Eastern)
2015 date 5 April (Western)
12 April (Eastern)
2016 date 27 March (Western)
1 May (Eastern)
Related to Passover, of which it is regarded the Christian equivalent;
Septuagesima,
Sexagesima,
Quinquagesima,
Shrove Tuesday,
Ash Wednesday,
Clean Monday,
Lent,
Great Lent,
Palm Sunday,
Holy Week,
Maundy Thursday,
Good Friday, and
Holy Saturdaywhich lead up to Easter; and
Thomas Sunday,
Ascension,
Pentecost,
Trinity Sunday, and
Corpus Christi which follow it.
Easter[nb 1] (
Old English usually
Ēastrun,
-on, or
-an; also
Ēastru,
-o; and
Ēostre),
[4] also called
Pasch(derived, through
Latin:
Pascha and
Greek Πάσχα
Paskha, from
Aramaic: פסחא, cognate to
Hebrew:פֶּסַח
Pesaḥ),
[nb 2][5][6][7][8] or
Resurrection Sunday,
[9][10] is a festival and
holiday celebrating the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, described in the
New Testament as having occurred three days after
his crucifixion by
Romans at
Calvary.
[11][12] It is the culmination of the
Passion of Christ, preceded by
Lent (or
Great Lent), a forty-day period of
fasting, prayer, and
penance.
The week before Easter is called
Holy Week, and it contains the days of the
Easter Triduum, including
Maundy Thursday (also known as Holy Thursday), commemorating the
Last Supper and its preceding
foot washing,
[13][14] as well as
Good Friday, commemorating the
crucifixion and death of Jesus.
[15] In western Christianity,
Eastertide, the Easter Season, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts seven weeks, ending with the coming of the fiftieth day,
Pentecost Sunday. In Orthodoxy, the season of Pascha begins on Pascha and ends with the coming of the fortieth day, the
Feast of the Ascension.
Easter is a
moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the
civil calendar. The
First Council of Nicaea (325) established the
date of Easter as the first Sunday after the
Paschal Full Moon, the
full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March (taken to be the date of the
equinox).
[16]Ecclesiastically, the equinox is thus reckoned to be on 21 March (although the astronomical equinox occurs on 20 March in most years), and the "Full Moon" is not necessarily on the astronomically correct date. The date of Easter therefore varies from 22 March to 25 April inclusive.
Eastern Christianity bases its calculations on the
Julian calendar, whose 21 March corresponds, during the 21st century, to 3 April in the
Gregorian calendar, and in which therefore the celebration of Easter varies between 4 April and 8 May.
Easter is linked to the Jewish
Passover by much of its symbolism, as well as by its position in the calendar. In many languages, the words for "Easter" and "Passover" are identical or very similar.
[17]Easter customs vary across the
Christian world, and include
sunrise services, exclaiming the
Paschal greeting,
clipping the church,
[18] and decorating
Easter eggs, a symbol of the
empty tomb.
[19][20][21]The
Easter lily, a symbol of the resurrection,
[22][23] traditionally decorates the
chancel area of
churcheson this day and for the rest of Eastertide.
[24] Additional customs that have become associated with Easter and are observed by both Christians and some non-Christians include
egg hunting, the
Easter Bunny, and
Easter parades.
[25][26][27] There are also various traditional
Easter foods that vary regionally.
Easter - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
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