Easter

A story of happy celebration

I suspect every religion has a Spring festival of some sort. For Christians it is Easter.

This year we celebrate Easter on Sunday, April 4th.

The date for Easter is determined as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal Equinox (which this year was March 20th).

That seems like a pagan approach to selecting the highest Holy Day of the Christian calendar. One wonders how these things get started.

My guess is that the date was selected to coincide with some ancient pagan festival in the way Christmas was selected to be near the Winter Solstice celebration. That way ancient Pagans who became Christians could still look forward to Winter and Spring celebrations that occurred at about the same time of the year as in their Pagan traditions.

Easter is celebrated with dyed eggs and candy, Easter Egg hunts, and stories about the Easter Bunny. According to tradition, the Easter Bunny hides the colorful Easter Eggs (hard boiled eggs dyed different colors) around the yard. Kids search for them and put them in baskets. The child finding the most eggs often gets a prize.

I grew up thinking that was Easter. I loved the chocolate bunnies and had fun biting off their ears. Only later in life did I learn about the religious significance of the day.

To Christians, of course, Easter celebrates the day Christ rose from the dead. It is the day that a woman, Mary Magdalene (according to one account, or a group of women according to another) went to the tomb early in the morning to prepare Jesus’ body for burial and discovered it empty. He was not there; he had risen!

It is the story of Christ’s rising from the dead, and thereby conquering death for all of us, that gives Christians their hope that they too will someday rise from the dead and live with Christ eternally in heaven.

We celebrate Easter with church attendance. Women and girls dress up in new Spring outfits. We say “He has risen!” and others reply “He has risen, indeed”

We celebrate with Easter lilies and tulips and an afternoon feast. We often cook a ham and after dinner we eat chocolate bunnies and brightly colored candy eggs. We may even eat some of the Easter Eggs.

We wish each other “Happy Easter,” and we hope that the joy and peace of the day will infect everyone for the rest of the year. Before hand, many send out Easter cards to wish friends and family a blessed day.

Happy Easter everyone!

Happy Reading, Writing, Celebrating and Connecting!

This story was written in response to the Weekly Spiritual Tree prompt “Celebration” posted by Simran Kankas. Thank you, Simran, for the inspiration.

You can find the prompt here: