The History of Easter

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Transcript

• Easter - the holiest day of the Christian calendar
• A celebration of Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead
• So what does this miracle have to do with a bunny delivering painted eggs?
• The answer lies in a hundred generations of rituals and customs
• According to the gospels of the New Testament
• Jesus Christ and his apostles entered Jerusalem to observe Passover, the Jewish holy season that celebrates the Hebrews' release from slavery
• After the Passover supper, Jesus was arrested
• And on what is now called Good Friday, he was crucified
• Two days later he rose from the dead
• Those of Jewish origin were the first to celebrate the resurrection, likely as a new facet of the Passover festival
• In fact, the Easter celebration was called "pascha"
• It's derived from the word "pesach," the Jewish translation for Passover
• Originally, Easter was celebrated two days after Passover, so it fell on any day of the week
• But Easter Wednesday just didn't feel right
• In 325 A.D., Roman Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicaea ruled the Easter must fall only on a Sunday, the day when Christ rose
• Easter Sunday would be the first Sunday to follow the full moon after the spring equinox
• It could occur anywhere between March 22nd and April 25th
• Around this same time, Christians began one of the first recorded rituals of the modern Easter celebration: the lighting of the paschal candle
• Its flame a reminder of Christ's resurrection: light out of darkness
• As Christianity spread throughout Europe, different pagan customs blended into the holidays
• In fact, the actual word Easter may have come from Eostre, the goddess of spring and fertility, which brings us to the Easter egg
• Eggs have been a mythological symbol of birth for thousands of years
• Christians adopted the egg as an Easter custom sometime around the 13th century
• The yolk inside a shell represented Christ's emergence from the tomb
• Eggs were painted red to represent the blood Christ shed on the cross
• The colorful Easter egg soon hatched its own traditions
• A popular one was egg rolling
• In 1876, congress prohibited kids from playing on the capitol grounds
• So president Rutherford B. Hayes opened the White House lawn to the little rollers
• After that, the White House Easter Egg Roll became a tradition
• So when did that Easter bunny hop into the scene
• The fertile rabbit had long been a symbol of new life in European pagan celebrations
• Beginning around the 16th century parents told children that if they behaved, on the eve of Easter, the "osterhase" would come and lay colorful eggs
• Children built nests in their homes to entice the rabbit to visit and so began the customs of the Easter egg hunt and the Easter basket
• To help fill out those baskets, 19th century European chocolatiers began making egg-shaped chocolates
• The sweet trend quickly spread throughout the world
• Today billions of dollars are spent each year on Easter candy
• Easter - it's a joyful day when Christians celebrate the resurrection
• For two thousand years customs have been added - some spiritual and some fun
• But Easter is also the time for families to gather and welcome spring, when new life emerges after the dead of winter