EASTER

EASTER

What is Easter?

Easter is the time for holidays, festivals and a time for giving chocolate Easter eggs. But Easter means much more....

Easter is the oldest and the most important Christian Festival, the celebration of the death and coming to life again of Jesus Christ. For Christians, the dawn of Easter Sunday with its message of new life is the high point of the Christian year.

What is the Easter story ?

Easter is the story of Jesus' last days in Jerusalem before his death.The Easter story includes Maundy Thursday (the Last supper leading to the Eucharist), Good Friday (the day on which Jesus was crucified) and Easter Day (the day on which Jesus came back to life).

It is a sad story because Jesus was killed. But the story has a very happy ending, because Jesus came back to life and visited his friends and followers once more. He did not die at all, but went back up to Heaven to be with God, his father.

Many fishermen will not set out for catch on Good Friday.

Where does the name 'Easter' come from?

Pagan traditions give us the English word "Easter" which comes from the word "Eostre". The Anglo-Saxon word for April was "Eostre-monath" (the month of openings). However, it should be remembered that Christians celebrated the resurrection of Christ long before the word "Easter" was used, and the word they used for the celebration was "Pascha", which is derived from and linked to the Jewish festival of Passover.

According to Bede, the English monastic historian, the English word Easter comes from the Anglo-Saxon name for the month of April, which was known as "Eostremonath" in the AngloSaxon tongue and since Pascha was most often celebrated in Eostremonath, the English Christians began calling it "Easter". Bede also notes that the month was named after the Anglo-Saxon goddess Esostre.

Rituals related to the goddess Eostre focus on new beginnings, symbolized by the Easter egg, and fertility, which is symbolized by the hare (or Easter bunny).

Why does the date of Easter move?

Easter is called a moveable feast because the date of Easter changes every year. Easter Sunday can fall on any date from 22 March to 25 April.

The reason for this variation in the date of Easter is based on the lunar calendar (moon) rather than our more well-known solar one.

Easter always falls on the first Sunday following the full Moon (the Paschal Full Moon) after 21 March. If the Full Moon falls on a Sunday then Easter is the next Sunday.

Why do we give eggs at Easter?

Easter is a Christian festival. For Christians the custom of giving eggs at Easter celebrates new life. Christians remember that Jesus, after dying on the cross, rose from the dead. They believe that, through his resurrection, Jesus defeated death and sin and offers people the promise of eternal life if they follow his teachings.

E a s t e r s u p e r s t i t i o n s

Bread or cakes baked on this day will not go mouldy.

Eggs laid on Good Friday will never go bad.

The planting of crops is not advised on this day, as an old belief says that no iron should enter the ground (i.e. spade, fork etc.).

Hot cross buns baked on Good Friday were supposed to have magical powers. It is said that you could keep a hot cross bun which had been made on Good Friday for at least a year and it wouldn't go mouldy.

Hardened old hot cross buns are supposed to protect the house from fire.

Sailors took hot cross buns to sea with them to prevent shipwreck.

A bun baked on Good Friday and left to get hard could be grated up and put in some warm milk to stop an upset tummy.

Having a hair cut on Good Friday will prevent toothaches the rest of the year.

C o n v e r s a t i o n

· When is the holiday celebrated?

· Is it celebrated as a family or a group?

· Are there special foods connected with the holiday?

· Is gift giving a part of this holiday?

· What are some of the things that are done to show that this holiday is being observed?

· Do you enjoy the holiday?

· Do you decorate the outside of your house for the holiday?

o Is the inside decorated? How?

· Do you see your relatives during this holiday?

· What do you usually do for this holiday?

· Do you have any special family traditions?

· Are cards sent or given for this holiday?

· What traditional colors are associated with this holiday?

· Do you think holidays are important? Why?

· What special clothing/customs are associated with Easter?

· What is your worst Easter memory? Tell us about it.

· Do you celebrate Easter differently now than you did when you were a child?

· Why do we celebrate Easter?

· Did the original meaning of Easter get lost?

· Many of the symbols of Easter (from the name of the pagan goddess Astarte) are hand-overs from an ancient fertility religion which celebrated the return of fertility during the Spring. These symbols include rabbits, famous for their reproductive capacity and eggs as signs of fertility. Does it matter if these pagan elements have been incorporated into Christian festivals?