Religious feast in the Christian liturgical year:
"Easter (Greek: Πάσχα, Pascha) is the most important religious feast in the Christian liturgical year. Christians believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead three days after his crucifixion. Many Christian denominations celebrate this resurrection on Easter Day or Easter Sunday (also Resurrection Day or Resurrection Sunday), two days after Good Friday. The chronology of his death and resurrection is variously estimated between the years 26 and 36 A.D."
Eastertide or the Easter Season:
"Easter also refers to the season of the church year called Eastertide or the Easter Season. Traditionally the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until Ascension Day but now officially lasts for the fifty days until Pentecost. The first week of the Easter Season is known as Easter Week or the Octave of Easter. Easter also marks the end of Lent, a season of prayer and penance."
"Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. Easter falls at some point between late March and late April each year (early April to early May in Eastern Christianity), following the cycle of the Moon. After several centuries of disagreement, all churches accepted the computation of the Alexandrian Church (now the Coptic Church) that Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon, which is the first moon whose 14th day (the ecclesiastic "full moon") is on or after March 21 (the ecclesiastic "vernal equinox")."
Spring Break: ( )
"Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover not only for much of its symbolism but also for its position in the calendar. It is also linked to Spring Break, a secular school holiday (customarily a week long) celebrated at various times across North America, and characterized by road trips and bacchanalia."
Easter Bunny:
"Cultural elements, such as the Easter Bunny, have become part of the holiday's modern celebrations, and those aspects are often celebrated by many Christians and non-Christians alike. There are also some Christian denominations who do not celebrate Easter."
The Easter Bunny is not a modern invention. The symbol originated with the pagan festival of Eastre. The goddess, Eastre, was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit. ( History of Easter )
"Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts, in that they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars (both of which follow the cycle of the sun and the seasons). Instead, the date for Easter is determined on a lunisolar calendar, as is the Hebrew calendar."
The Easter Egg predates the Christian holiday of Easter:
Easter Traditions: ( )
"As with many other Christian dates, the celebration of Easter extends beyond the church. Since its origins, it has been a time of celebration and feasting and many Traditional Easter games and customs developed, such as Egg rolling, Egg tapping, Pace egging and Egg decorating. Today Easter is commercially important, seeing wide sales of greeting cards (Internet E-Greeting for Easter) and confectionery such as chocolate Easter eggs, marshmallow bunnies, Peeps, and jelly beans. (see National Jelly Bean Day) Even many non-Christians celebrate these aspects of the holiday while eschewing the religious aspects."
About Easter
"Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover not only for much of its symbolism but also for its position in the calendar. The Last Supper shared by Jesus and his disciples before his crucifixion is generally thought of as a Passover meal, based on the chronology in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 26:17; Mark 14:12; Luke 22:7). The Gospel of John, however, speaks of the Jewish elders not wanting to enter the hall of Pilate in order "that they might eat the Passover", implying that the Passover meal had not yet occurred (John 18:28; John 19:14). Thus, John places Christ's death at the time of the slaughter of the Passover lamb, which would put the Last Supper slightly before Passover, on 14 Nisan of the Bible's Hebrew calendar. According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, "In fact, the Jewish feast was taken over into the Christian Easter celebration." wikipedia/Easter
Modern avoidance controversy
"In the modern-day United States, there have been instances where public mention of Easter and Good Friday have been replaced with euphemistic terminology. Examples include renaming "Good Friday" as "Spring holiday" on school calendars, to avoid association with a Christian holiday while at the same time allowing a state-sanctioned day off. (Note that the modern North American "Spring Break" can no longer be assumed to correspond with any version of Easter week.)"
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See Also:
Have you ever wished for a classic Easter special to show your kids? Here Comes Peter Cottontail is a Rankin & Bass production that bears a marked similarity to the beloved Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.
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Resources:
Who Doesn't Love Easter!
Easter was always my Daddy's favorite holiday. Off to church we would go in all our new clothes, then back home- While Mother was doing finishing touches on our Traditional Easter Dinner, Daddy was outside hiding all the Easter Eggs. Daddy would hide eggs for both children and adults while Mother always took care of all the prizes. Hiding the eggs was quite the job for Daddy. It would take him a long time because he believed in lots of Easter Eggs. In fact we always had around 100 decorated eggs! The hiding of the eggs had to be just right and Daddy was the right person for the job! Daddy would remember where he hid every single egg too! Wow! Once the egg hunt was over, we all sat around the patio eating boiled eggs with salt and pepper-
