Easter Sunday 2024: Easter is a Christian festival and cultural holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. According to the New Testament, this happened on the third day of his burial after the Romans crucified him at Calvary around 30 AD. It is also known as Pascha or Resurrection Sunday. It marks the culmination of Jesus Christ's Passion, preceded by the 40 days of fasting, prayer, and penance known as the Great Lent.
What is the meaning of Easter Sunday?
Easter is associated with the Jewish Passover due to its name, origin, and symbolism, as well as its calendar position. The English term comes from the Saxon spring festival, Ēostre. The Christian Easter and the Jewish Passover share the same name in most European languages, and in the early English translations of the Bible, the term Easter was used to refer to the Jewish holiday.
What is the history and significance of the Easter Eggs and Bunny?
Easter is a day of feasting and festivities when people participate in traditional Easter games like egg rolling, egg tapping, and egg decorating, as well as attend prayer services and decorate and distribute Easter eggs.
Eggs, in general, were a traditional symbol of fertility and rebirth in Christianity. But the Easter eggs in particular symbolize the empty tomb of Jesus, from which Jesus was resurrected. In addition, one ancient tradition was the staining of Easter eggs with the colour red ‘in memory of the blood of Christ, shed as at that time of his crucifixion.’
Numerous sources claim that the Easter egg custom originated with the early Christians in Mesopotamia. From there, it was carried by the Orthodox Churches to Siberia and Eastern Europe, and then by the Catholic and Protestant Churches to the rest of Europe. Also, the widespread usage of Easter eggs, according to mediaevalist scholars, is due to the prohibition of eggs during Lent, after which, on Easter, they have been blessed for the occasion.
Some places have adopted a modern tradition of substituting wooden eggs with carvings, plastic eggs filled with chocolate, or chocolate-covered foil-wrapped chocolate eggs.
The now-famous Easter bunny originated in Germany and was first referred to in German literature in the 17th century. Aside from the solid chocolate eggs, many other traditional Easter foods are popular throughout the world. One such food is the Hot Cross bun, where the cross on these yeast-dough buns filled with raisins represents the cross that Christ died on.
Several other Easter traditions include sunrise services or late-night vigils, exclamations and exchanges of Paschal greetings, flowering the cross, the wearing of Easter bonnets by women, clipping the church, and the decoration and communal breaking of Easter eggs.
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