Celebrate Hope and Renewal on Easter

Easter is a spring festival that celebrates resurrection of Christ three days after his crucifixion. It is a holiday that celebrates hope, faith and renewal.

All the Christian moveable feasts and the entire liturgical year of worship are decided as per Easter. The dates of Easter keep changing every year, for example, Easter 2010 is on 4th April. The Lent season precedes Easter. Lent is a 40-day period of fasting that asks for repentance culminating in Holy Week. It is then followed by a 50-day Easter Season that stretches from Easter to Pentecost.

It is a very well known fact that the symbols most associated with the festival of Easter are the Easter Bunny and Easter eggs. Since, this is a festival with pagan origins, its symbols too share a history as ancient as this holiday.

Easter Bunny is considered symbolic with the pagan festival of Eastre, or Easter (of today). The egg represents rebirth in many cultures the world over. It is customary to wrap eggs in a gold leaf or decorated in natural colours of leaves and flowers. Children too hunt coloured eggs and place them in Easter baskets along with the plastic or chocolate Easter eggs. Commonly given Easter gifts are Easter Gift Baskets, Easter Eggs and Easter Bunnies/Bears.