Why is Easter celebrated: History, Celebrations, Easter Eggs & All You Need To Know About the festival.

The very awaited festival of the Christian community is approaching, the preparations must have begun. But today also there is a majority of population who have only heard of Easter and the only knowledge they have about the festival is that it is celebrated by the Christians. If you have always wondered what Easter Sunday is all about, the story, the celebrations and most certainly the very popular Easter Eggs, you have landed on the right page. This article very briefly covers all you need to know about Easter.

History & Significance

Easter, the principal festival of the Christian church year is celebrated to mark the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his Crucifixion. The origin of the festival dates back to the beginnings of Christianity, and it is probably the oldest Christian observance. Teutonic mythology has evidences of its origin. It was derived from the name Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, to whom the month of April was dedicated. The preparation begins very early off, on the Ash Wednesday from which the period of penitence in the Lent begins. The Lent and the Holy week end on the Easter Sunday.

Celebration

Easter is celebrated as a very joyous and happy occasion and the Sunday prior to the Easter Sunday is called Palm Sunday which marks the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem. Various churches begin the celebration in the late hours of Saturday through a religious service called Easter Vigil. A lot of Churches start the Easter Sunday celebrations at Midnight on Easter Eve. Candles and flowers are used in churches all over the world to start the Easter Day Midnight celebrations. Priests wear their best, brightest robes to celebrate. Non religious celebrations include the tradition of Easter eggs, which represent fertility and birth and Easter bunny which delivers chocolates and sweets to kids on Sunday morning.

If a Church has a model of a tomb in it from Good Friday, it will be empty with the stone rolled away, as it was on the first Easter Day. There are a large number of traditional Easter games and customs in the Christian world. Many of these games incorporate Easter eggs. The most well known, widespread and popular among the games until the modern times are the egg rolling, egg hunt, egg tapping, and egg dance.

Easter Eggs

Easter eggs, are eggs that are often very well decorated. They are usually used as gifts on the occasion of Easter. They are also called Paschal eggs. The oldest tradition is to use dyed and painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs wrapped in coloured foil, hand-carved wooden eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as chocolate.

We hope that the ongoing lockdown doesn't affect the happiness of the holy festival and you get to celebrate this Easter with your family members (maybe on a con call) with the same enthusiasm.  

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