Easter Day celebration is one of the most prominent celebrations in the Christian calendar. It is the celebration holiday for the Resurrection of Christ. After the crucifixion of Christ, his death, and burial, He rose from the dead three days later and conquered death, and redeemed all from sin.
This article will explain in details what the Easter Day celebration stands for and some other affiliation to the things people do while celebrating Easter.
Easter is celebrated annually and it’s mostly celebrated on a Sunday which is called Easter Sunday. According to the history of the bible, the word doesn’t occur in the scripture but the Jewish Christians in the early church celebrated the Passover which naturally was adopted into a commemoration of the sacrifice Jesus paid.
The Origin of Easter
Easter was originally derived from “Eostre,” a Saxon word, it was the goddess that the sacrifice of Passover was offered. According to research, another probability is Norse eostur, eastre, or Ostara, this meant “the season of the growing sun” or “the season of new birth.”
Easter was likely linked to the changing season but from a more solid background. The celebration and whole importance of Christmas comes from Christianity.
Christian Meaning of Easter
As earlier explained, Easter is significant because Jesus Christ’s victory over death and His resurrection is the hope for all believers that eternal life is granted unto them. Easter means the full confirmation of all that Jesus did on earth and the essence of his sacrifice. If he had not risen from the dead, there wouldn’t be anything like Christianity in the world today.
He would have been regarded as a prophet or just a teacher but his resurrection proved that He was indeed the begotten Son of God and he overcame death and conquered sin and flesh. The resurrection of Christ is the core of the Christian gospel. It didn’t only affirm Christ as the prophesied one but as King also and the Son of God.
Pagan Origin of "Easter"
For pagans, Easter didn’t first mean or signify the resurrection of Christ from the dead; the purpose of Easter was the holiday of renewal and rebirth for the Saxons.
The early Christian missionaries brought the Saxons into Christianity and because their spring holiday occurred close to the same season that a traditional memorial was held for Christ’s death and resurrection they celebrated it alongside the Pagan Festival and it became popularly known as Easter.
After this, they moved further to change the honour that was bestowed during the festival to a new Christian significance which meant they celebrated Christ during Easter.
During Easter, there are a lot of images and concepts that include Easter bunnies in the designs. What is the Easter bunny connection to this celebration that is sourced from the Christians?
Easter Bunny's Connection to Christianity
The origin and meaning of the Easter bunny started in the 13th century in Germany. The Teutons worshipped pagan gods and goddesses and they had a notable goddess that was called Eostra also known as Ostara or Ēostre. She was regarded and revered as the goddess of fertility and spring by these Germanic people and the word Easter was etymologically connected and coined from the goddess’ name.
Because of the great breeding tendency of the rabbit, it was a symbol for the goddess Eostra. In 595 AD, a Pope called Pope Gregory sent the Roman Monks to convert the Anglo Saxons and when they got converted they accepted the celebration of 'The death and Resurrection of Christ' but they continued the celebration of the spring renewal and continued to use the rabbit to symbolize.
This was handed down from people to people and that’s how the concept of the Easter bunny started which isn’t all right according to the Bible. The sole purpose of the Easter Day celebration is Christ.
For countless years the popular colour at Easter is purple, let’s talk about why the colour is associated with Easter.
The Colour Purple at Easter
To fully understand why the purple colour is a significant colour during lent and Easter Day celebration we must first note the importance of the colour in the olden times.
For ancient society, purple dye was a very rare commodity around, it was expressly difficult to obtain because it is obtained from harvesting some particular set of marine snails. The hard work that is done to produce the dyes made purple clothing materials very expensive and rare.
It was said to be only worn by kings and their royal family members or other high-ranking officials in the society. This in turn made the colour purple a mark that signifies royalty and sovereignty.
As recounted by history, when Jesus was tortured by the Roman soldiers he was dressed in a purple robe as a sign of mockery because it’s for kings and royalty. They put the crown of thorns on his head and beat him in mockery. He claimed to be the king of the Jews. To further humiliate Jesus and his status they removed the purple robe from him and Pilate got them to put a sign on his cross.
The words “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” was inscribed on it in Latin. In remembrance of the mockery that Jesus received, the church adopted the colour purple into church customs. Many churches would display the purple colour during lent which meant that they were mourning the physical and emotional pain that Jesus had to go through to die and resurrect.
In the olden churches, the clergy would be dressed in purple clothing and the altars in churches would be decorated with purple colour, which meant a proclamation of Jesus as the true King of the Jews.
These are the notable events and things to note that are associated with the celebration of Easter Day. Majorly the Christians are the ones that truly celebrate Easter and they use the celebration as a time to draw closer to God and appreciate him for sending His son to die for the world and save us from sin.
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