Happy Easter — one of those annual events that falls on a different date each year. If you’re interested as to how the date of Easter is calculated, you can check this blog’s entry of December 22, 2020 for my attempt to explain it.
Easter is a Holy Day — the day that Jesus Christ rose from the dead after 3 days in the tomb following his execution by Jewish officials. That’s what Easter is really all about, but there other things that have become “tradition” that are about as complicated as arriving at the date for Easter every year.
The early Christians decided they needed to come up with familiar (and relevant) ways to help get their new religion off the ground, so they used familiar symbols to get the ministry moving and help explain what they were trying to say.
Take the Easter Bunny, for instance. Just like Santa Claus has no Christian significance to Christmas, the Easter Bunny has no real connection to Easter.
None of the Gospels ever mention the Easter Bunny, but rabbits have a long history of being a symbol of fertility and new life. Another Pagan symbol was eggs — a symbol of the preciousness of life. In the middle ages, it was forbidden to eat eggs during lent, so once Easter arrived, they painted the shells to celebrate the end of this period and that Christ rose from the dead.
The origin of the term “Easter” comes from the pre-Christianity goddess, Eostre. In the late 7th and early 8th centuries, a Monk, named Venerable Bede, wrote about his observations of how the early Christians celebrated the Resurrection (Easter.) They called their celebration Eosturmonath after the Germanic goddess Eostre. She was recognized as the bringer of springtime and flowers and after all the celebrations in her honor, the name stuck for the Christian celebration of the Resurrection.
When we think of Easter, we usually think of chocolate, hot-cross buns and eggs — but Pretzels are also an Easter snack. Pretzels are associated with Easter because the twists resemble arms crossing in prayer. It was a tradition for Germans to eat a pretzel and a hard-boiled egg for dinner on Good Friday.
Easter, like most everything, has evolved over the years, but it’s true meaning remains the same. So if an Easter egg hunt is in your plans for today, just remember that these egg hunts are proof kids can find things when they really want to….
— 30 —