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.

Easter Day Celebrations

Easter is on 12th April 2009, Sunday.

Easter festival is derived from two ancient traditions: one Judeo-
Christian and the other Pagan. Both Christians and Pagans have celebrated death and resurrection themes following the Spring Equinox for millennia. Most religious historians believe that many elements of the Christian observance of Easter were derived from earlier Pagan celebrations.

Easter was variously celebrated on different days of the week, including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In that year, the Council of Nicaea was convened by emperor Constantine. It issued the Easter Rule which states that Easter shall be celebrated on the first Sunday that occurs after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox.

The Easter Bunny is not a modern invention. The symbol originated with the pagan festival of Eastre. The goddess, Eastre, was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit.

As with the Easter Bunny and the holiday itself, the Easter Egg predates the Christian holiday of Easter. The exchange of eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Easter was first celebrated by Christians.