Easter

April 03, 2021

Easter

Hello there!

Easter is celebrated after 40 days of lent which starts on Ash Wednesday and ends on good Friday. The week leading to good Friday and Easter Sunday is marked as a holy week.

Easter Sunday marks the Resurrection of Jesus three days after his death on the day he was crucified. For many Christian Churches, Easter is the joyful end to the Lenten season of fasting and penitence.

Easter is celebrated as a joyous holiday because it represents the fulfilment of the prophecies of the Old Testament. In commemorating the Resurrection of Jesus, Easter also celebrates the defeat of death and hope of salvation.

Christian tradition holds that the sins of humanity were paid for by the death of Jesus and that his Resurrection represents the anticipation believers can have in their own resurrection.

Much of Easter has something to do with the easter bunny and eggs. I have always wondered why. Eggs really? How are they related to easter? And the bunny? Apparently, many ancient cultures according to crosswalk.com, viewed eggs as a symbol of life. Hindus, Egyptians, Persians and Phoenicians believed the world begun with an enormous egg. The Persians, Greeks and Chinese, gave gifts of eggs during spring festivals in celebration of new life all around them.

Early Christians apparently looked at the connection eggs had to life and decided eggs could be a part of their celebration of Christ’s resurrection.

In addition, in some areas, eggs were forbidden during Lent; therefore, they were a delicacy at Easter.

Now let’s go to the Easter Bunny or rabbit distributing eggs. There are several reasons for the rabbit or hare to be associated with Easter, all of which come through pagan celebrations or beliefs. The most prominent being the hare’s fertility. Easter comes during spring and celebrates new life.

The hare is also an ancient symbol for the moon. The date of the Easter depends on the moon. This perhaps helped the hare to be absorbed into Easter celebrations.

Of all Easter symbols, the lamb is probably the most strongly Christian. Other than the fact that lambs are young animals born in springtime, it has no strong ties to pagan traditions. The lamb comes from the Jewish Passover where each family killed a lamb as a sacrifice. When Christ became the Passover Lamb for everyone, the lamb became a symbol for his sacrifice.

John 1:29, ‘The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”’

1 Peter 1:18-21, ‘For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.’

Easter is a time to remember the death and resurrection of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. It’s a time to remember the love that God has for each one of us each every day. The love that is so unconditional and beyond comprehension that should settle in our hearts and remind us to love and know that we are loved and yes, saved by his grace.