EASTER AND RELATED HOLIDAYS

Although the Christian religion gave the worrld Easter as we know it today, the celebration owes its name and many of its customs and symbols to a pagan festival called Eostre.  Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of springtime and sunrise, got her name from the word east, where the sun rises.  Every spring northern European peoples celebrated the festival of  Eostre to honor the awakening of new life in nature.  Christians related the rising of the sun to the resurrection of Jesus and their own spiritual rebirth.  

The Crucifixion did, of course, historically occur in the spring.  The Last Supper, which took place on a Thursday, the day before the Crucifixion was a tradicional.  Jewish Passover feast.  The early Christians celebrated Easted on the same date as Passover.  But they were dissatisfied with this data because they wanted Easter to fall on a Sunday every year, and Passover did not.  For some time, Easter was celebrated on different dates in different places.  Finally, in 325  A. D.  a council of churchmen solved the problem with the help of astronomers.  They decided that Easter should be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after March 21.  The full moon was important because, many years ago, it helped to guide travelers who wished to join friends and relatives at big Easter festivals.

Many modern Easter symbols come from pagan times. The egg, for instance,  was a fertility symbol long before the Christian era.  The ancient Persians, Greeks, and Chinese exchanged eggs at their spring festivals.  In Christian times the egg took on a new meaning, symbolizing  the tomb from which Christ rose.  The ancient custom of dyeing eggs at Easter time is still very popular with American children.

The Easter bunny also originated in pre-Christian fertility lore. The rabbit was the most fertile animal our ancestors knew, so they selected it as a symbol of new life.  Today, children enjoy eating candy bunnis and listening to stories about the Easter bunny, who supposedly brings Easter eggs in a fancy basket.

Traditionally, the meats associated with Easter are lamb and ham.  Both of these meats have had symbolic meaning since ancient times.  In the Old Testament, Abraham used the ram as a sacrifice after God  ordered him not to skill his son Isaac.  The sacrificial lamb has always been a part of the Passover tradition.  For Christians, the lamb symbolizes the sacrifice of Christ.  For thousands of years, the pig has been a symbol of good luck.  On Easter Sunday, smoked or cooked ham is the traditional main course in both Europe and the United States.

Easter is a time for rejoicing. The continual rebirth of physical life on earth symbolizes the eternity of spiritual life.  But the deeper significance of Easter lies in a profound paradox.  The story of Christ implies that for all Christians the source of eternal life is physical death.

Christians observe several holidays in remembrance of the last days of Christ and His Crucifixion:

Shrovetide  is the English name for the three or four days precceding Lent.  Years ago, when Lenten restrictions were far more rigorous than they are today, Shrovetide was celebrated everywhere by parties, games, dances and feasting.  It is still carnival season in many European Countries.

The last day of Shrovetide is called Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras  (French for fat Tuesday).  In the United States, a few southern cities have elaborate Mardi Gras celebrations.  The most famous one occurs in New Orleans, Louisiana.  The New Orleans Mardi Gras lasts six days and features torchlight parades, beautiful floats, marching bands, and masked costume balls.  Thousands of tourists come to see this event.

Lent begings with Ash Wednesday.  On this day, when a Catholic approaches the church altar,  the priest makes the sign of the cross on his forehead with penitential ashes.  Lent extends for forty weekdays before Easter Sunday.  It honors the forty days that Jesus spent alone in the desert, fasting and praying.

Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, conmemorates tha day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey with the people cheering and spreading pal branches on the parly before him.

Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday) comes three days before Easter.  It is in remembrance of Christ´s Last Supper with His disciples.  Maundy means a command.  At the Last Supper, Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another.

Good Friday, the saddest of Christian holidays, recalls the Friday of the Crucifixion.  It is a day of  penitence and mourning.  The name is probably a corruption of God´s Friday Current American Good Friday customs include eating hot cross buns (spiced rolls decorated with the mark of the cross) and attending church services.

Easter Sunday begins early for many American families.  Many people attend sunrise services, a custom bought to this country by European settles.  Easter is a family day.  After services, relatives get together for large Easter dinners.

It is an almost universal custom to put on new clothes at Easter -  a whole new outfit or at least a new hat or new pair of gloves.  This custom predates.  Christianity, originating in pagan spring festivals. It also reflects the early Christian custom of new white Easter robes for the newly baptized. Now many American cities have Easter parades.  People enjoy the return of milder weather by walking outdoors to displey their new spring clothes.

PASSOVER

Passover,  the festival which Jesus was celebrating at  the Last Supper, is still one of the most important Jewish holidays.  It is a tribute to freedom, commemorating the liberation of the Hebrews from slavery in ancient Egypt.

According to the Book of Exodus, almost four thousand, years ago the Hebrews were kept in bondage in Egypt.  The men were used as workers to build great Egyptian monuments.  Whwn Moses asked Pharaoh the ruler of Egypt, to let the Hebrews make a religious pilgrimage, Pharaoh refused.  For this refusal, God punished Egypt with a series of horrible plagues.  The last and worst plague was the death of every Egyptian firstborn.  The Hebrews escaped this punishment by sprinkling their doorposts with the blood of a lamb.  The Angel of Death "passed over"  households so marked.  Thus, the holiday is called Passover.

After this final plague, Pharaoh agreed to release the  Hebrews.  Then he changed his mind and sent his soldiers  after them.  Another miracle - the parting of the Red Sea  -  allowed the Hebrews to escape from their Egyptian pursuers.

While preparing to flee from Egypt, the Hebrews ate flat, unleavened slabs of bread  (called matzos) because there was no time to wait for their dough to rise.  Today,  Jews all over the world observe Passover and eat matzos in memory of the hardships their ancestors suffered.  Ortodox and Conservative Jews outside Israel observe the holiday for eight days,  Reform Jews and Israeli Jews for seven.

Passover, like all Jewish holidays,  begins at sundown.  On the first and second nights of the holiday, Jewish families have a especial feast called a seder.  Before and after dinner, prayers are recited, songs are sung,   and the story of the deliverance from Egypt is retold. Foods with symbolic significance - matzos, lamb, eggs, and wine - appear on the table and are part of the religious service.

The Passover story of delivery from bondage was to many Christians a foreshadowing of man´s redemption from sin through the death and resurrection of Christ.  Those in many ways the spring holidays of Easter and Passover remind us of the common heritage of Christians and Jews the world over.

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