This article is about the Christian and cultural festival.
| Easter (Pascha / Resurrection Sunday) | |
|---|---|
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Icon of the Resurrection, with Christ, having kicked down the gates of Hades and pulling Adam and Eve out of the tombs. Christ is flanked by saints, and Satan, depicted as an old man, is bound and chained. (SeeResurrection of Jesus in Christian art.)
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| Type | Christian, cultural |
| Significance | Celebrates the resurrection of Jesus |
| Celebrations | Church services, festive family meals, Easter egg decoration, and gift-giving |
| Observances | Prayer, all-night vigil, sunrise service |
| 2014 date | 20 April (Western) 20 April (Eastern) |
| 2015 date | 5 April (Western) 12 April (Eastern) |
| 2016 date | 27 March (Western) 1 May (Eastern) |
| Related to | Passover, of which it is regarded the Christian fulfillment; Septuagesima,Sexagesima, Quinquagesima,Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Clean Monday,Lent, Great Lent, Palm Sunday,Holy Week, Maundy Thursday,Good Friday, and Holy Saturday which lead up to Easter; and Thomas Sunday,Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christiwhich follow it. |
Easter[nb 1] (Old English usually Ēastrun, -on, or -an; also Ēastru, -o; and Ēostre),[1] also called Pasch (derived, through Latin:Pascha and Greek Πάσχα Paskha, from Aramaic: פסחא, cognate to Hebrew: פֶּסַח Pesaḥ)[nb 2][2][3][4][5] or Resurrection Sunday,[6][7] is a festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial after his crucifixion by Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD.[8][9] It is the culmination of the Passion of Christ, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance.
The week before Easter is called Holy Week, and it contains the days of the Easter Triduum, including Maundy Thursday, commemorating the Maundy and Last Supper,[10][11] as well as Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus.[12]In western Christianity, Eastertide, the Easter Season, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts seven weeks, ending with the coming of the fiftieth day, Pentecost Sunday. In Orthodoxy, the season of Pascha begins on Pascha and ends with the coming of the fortieth day, the Feast of the Ascension.
Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts in that they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Juliancalendars which follow only the cycle of the sun; rather, its date is determined on a lunisolar calendar similar to the Hebrew calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established two rules, independence of the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity, which were the only rules for Easter explicitly laid down by the council. No details for the computation were specified; these were worked out in practice, a process that took centuries and generated a number of controversies. It has come to be the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March,[13] but calculations vary in East and West. Details of this complicated computation are found below in the section Date.
Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, as well as by its position in the calendar. In many languages, the words for "Easter" and "Passover" are identical or very similar.[14] Easter customs vary across the Christian world, and include sunrise services, exclaiming the Paschal greeting, clipping the church,[15] and decorating Easter eggs, a symbol of the empty tomb.[16][17][18] The Easter lily, a symbol of the resurrection,[19][20] traditionally decorates the chancel area of churches on this day and for the rest of Eastertide.[21] Additional customs that have become associated with Easter and are observed by both Christians and some non-Christians include egg hunting, the Easter Bunny, and Easter parades.[22][23][24] There are also various traditional Easter foods that vary regionally.
Etymology
Main article: Names of Easter
The modern English term Easter, cognate with modern German Ostern, developed from an Old English word that usually appears in the form Ēastrun, -on, or -an; but also asĒastru, -o; and Ēastre or Ēostre.[nb 3] The most widely accepted theory of the origin of the term is that it is derived from the name of a goddess mentioned by the 7th to 8th-century English monk Bede, who wrote that Ēosturmōnaþ (Old English 'Month of Ēostre', translated in Bede's time as "Paschal month") was an English month, corresponding to April, which he says "was once called after a goddess of theirs named Ēostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month".[25]
In Greek and Latin, the Christian celebration.... To continue reading, click here.
Until next time!
Cherise, the Mompreneur
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