Easter

Easter Activities (Activity Books) Jesus Is Coming! (Easter Board Books)

What Is Easter? The Easter Story

Dates for Easter Day (Easter Sunday):

Year		Western		Eastern
2008		March 23		April 27
2009		April 12		April 19
2010		<-- April 4 -->
2011		<-- April 24 -->
2012		April 8		April 15

Easter, also called the Passion, and Pascha in the Orthodox church, is a Christian commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Easter feast runs from Good Friday through Holy Saturday and Sunday (Easter Day) and including Easter Monday. Devout believers will attend church services during this period, the first three days being a time of sorrow, relating as they do to the death and burial of their saviour, while Easter Sunday is a time of joy celebrating his resurrection, taken as a model for the resurrection of all believers. In many countries in the West, some or all of the days are designated as public holidays.

The word Easter is rather ambiguous, and can be used to refer to:

• The whole of the celebrations relating to Easter activities
• The eight day feast called the Octave of Easter (Roman Catholic)
• The three day observance of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Day
• The four day period from Good Friday to Easter Monday
  or
• Eastertide – the seven weeks from Easter Day to Pentecost.

Easter in the Church

Easter is a variable feast in the Christian liturgical calendar, which means that although it is observed each year, the dates are not fixed by the secular calendar. Within the Christian denominations there are differences in timings.

In the West, Easter marks the end of the 46 days of Lent. See Lent for a list of significant days and dates. The Orthodox Easter (or Pascha) comes at the end of Holy Week. The sequence of events is:

• Start of Great Lent
• the week after the fifth Sunday of Great Lent is Palm Week
• Palm Week ends on Lazarus Saturday which brings Great Lent to an end and is followed by
• Palm Sunday the next day (with the fast continuing)
• Holy Week (and the continuing fast) follows
• Easter takes place and fasting ends
• Bright Week follows

Some denominations reject the celebration of Easter (and in some cases even Christmas) because they believe them to be tainted with idolatry and/or paganism. This objection is usually based on the words of 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 in the King James Version of the Bible:

Jehovah’s Witnesses observe a yearly commemorative service of the Last Supper and the subsequent death of Jesus Christ on the evening of 14 Nisan according to the lunar Hebrew calendar. It is commonly known and referred to as The Memorial or the Lord's Evening Meal. This is the only religious feast observed by them.

Easter as a Celebration

Although not many families get together for a special meal at Easter, for those that do, roast duck or roast goose makes a festive meal, although a chicken or capon may be substituted. Other traditional foods for this time of year include Hot Cross Buns (spiced fruit buns with a pastry cross on the top) and Simnel cake traditionally decorated with 11 marzipan balls to signify the apostles, excluding Jusas Iscariot.

Eggs for Easter

In the West, the religious aspect of Easter has been generally forgotten and replaced by a celebration of Spring, modelled in part on the pagan festivities of Eostre. The Elizabethans used to decorate eggs with gold leaf at this time of year echoing a very ancient tradition: three thousand years ago, the Chinese gave each other scarlet-dyed eggs. In Preston and Scarborough, eggs are rolled downhill on Easter Monday. A related tradition is the Easter Egg Hunt - a kind of treasure hunt where each clue leads to another egg. Great for keeping the children amused.

Nowadays, gifts of chocolate or other sweets are given to children, life-partners and so on, still usually cast in the form of eggs or other shapes, such as rabbits (the 'Easter Bunny'), ducks and other spring-related items.

What if you don't want to give sweet stuff?

Many children eat so much chocolate at this time that they become ill. Also, there are people who are trying to reduce their weight or have other health concerns that make sugar consumption a problem. If you prefer not to give sweets, for whatever reason, a small gift such as a book makes an appropriate substitute.

For those a little older, the Ministry of Sound has a wide range of CDs, DVDs, T-shirts and other music-related items, and Grand Prix Legends has a choice of Grand Prix and Formula One merchandise, from books to diecast models and everything in between.

Things to make and do for Easter

Easter recipes

Easter Cakes » Easter Spice Cake » Hot Cross Buns » Lemon Curd » Roast Chicken » Roast Capon » Roast Duck » Roast Goose » Simnel Cake » Spring Gateau

Things to do

If you would like to read a book that goes into the whole Easter story, you could try The Easter Story from the Usborne Bible Tales series.