Easter history

Bunny and eggs are two traditional symbols of Easter.

Easter time is here. We decided to research the history of Easter and how it all got started in the first place. Today Easter is celebrated in nearly every country, most with their own variations and traditions. The differences being mainly what types of food are eaten on Easter Sunday.

The Easter season used to refer to that time of the year from Easter Day until Ascension Day, a period of 40 days, but it now is generally considered to last for the 50 days until Pentecost. Ascension Day was the day when Jesus ascended, or went up to heaven as recorded in the Bible in Luke 24:50. Pentecost was the day the Holy Spirit was given, as described in Acts 2:1.

But it wasn’t always that way. Easter, as most of us know it, is a Christian holiday, or holy day. It is celebrated by all Christian churches and it primarily and historically celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

In the early years of Christianity, Christian missionaries encountered various people groups, mostly in Northern Europe, that celebrated the return of spring with a big festival. These parties would go on for days and they worshipped their goddess fertility and springtime, in the hopes that their fields and livestock would be more productive.

That particular goddess, like many false gods, was known by a lot of different names. The one that stuck in connection to the springtime festival was Eastre. The symbol of the Easter bunny also originated with the worship of this goddess. Her earthly form was apparently a rabbit.

When some of the tribes converted to Christianity, they could no longer celebrate the goddess, so the pageant was changed to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection instead. The church Council of Nicaea in 325 AD issued several rules regarding Easter, one of which was changing of the spelling from Eastre to Easter.

The other main ruling they made was to regulate the day Easter fell on each year. It was decreed that all Christians should follow the Church of Rome by observing Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon in spring, that is, after March 21. If the Jewish Passover falls on the same day, Easter was to be moved to the following Sunday.

Easter eggs have also been around for a long time, considerably predating Christianity. The egg was a symbol of rebirth in many cultures. They were often decorated and given as gifts, a tradition which is still with us today.

One of the widely observed traditions of Easter is that of Carnival and Lent. Lent starts 40 day before Easter and is a time of sacrifice where people give up some enjoyable activity or food item, such as watching TV or eating chocolate. The idea is to make it a time of inner cleansing and reflection upon the sufferings of Jesus Christ before his resurrection.

Carnival, or Mardi Gras, gradually developed with the idea that the 40 days of Lent would be easier if everyone got all their merry-making out of their system first. Carnival is usually celebrated on the Tuesday (known as fat Tuesday) before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.

Today most Americans choose to partake in the traditions they see as fun and ignore the other parts. Christians who take their faith seriously tend to focus on Easter Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.