Easter

Easter is a sacred holiday. Also called Pascha, it is the most important religious feast in the Christian liturgical year.[1] It celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, which Christians believe occurred on the third day after his crucifixion some time in the period AD 27 to 33. Many non-religious cultural elements have become part of the holiday, and those aspects are often celebrated by many Christians and non-Christians alike.

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 is termed a movable Christian holy day because 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.

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).[2] 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.[3] According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, "In fact, the Jewish feast was taken over into the Christian Easter celebration."

Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
1.1 Germanic languages
1.2 Romance languages
1.3 Slavic languages
2 Easter in the early Church
3 Easter controversy
4 Date of Easter
4.1 Computations
5 Reform of the date of Easter
6 Position in the church year
6.1 Western Christianity
6.2 Eastern Christianity
7 Religious observation of Easter
7.1 Western Christianity
7.2 Eastern Christianity
8 Non-religious Easter traditions
8.1 United States, Canada, UK, and Australia
8.2 Belgium & France
8.3 Scandinavia
8.4 Netherlands and Northern Germany
8.5 Central Europe
9 Easter controversies
9.1 Christian denominations and organizations that do not observe Easter
9.2 Modern avoidance controversy
10 References
11 External links
11.1 Liturgical
11.2 Traditions
11.3 Calculating
11.4 National traditions

[edit] Etymology

[edit] Germanic languages
The modern English term Easter developed from the Old English word Eastre, which itself developed prior to 899. The name refers to the goddess Eastre in Germanic paganism, who was celebrated at the Spring equinox, and has cognates in Old High German ?star?n, plural, Easter (modern German language Ostern). The Old English term Eastre ultimately derives from ?ast - meaning the direction of east. This indicates it originally referred to a goddess associated with dawn. Corresponding Indo-European traditions occur with the Roman goddess Aurora and the Greek goddess Eos.[4]

In England, the annual festive time in her honor was in the "Month of Easter" or ?ostur-monath, equivalent to April/Aprilis[5]. In his De temporum ratione the Bede, an 8th Century English Christian monk wrote in Latin:

"Eostur-monath, qui nunc paschalis mensis interpretatur, quondam a dea illorum quae Eostre vocabatur et cui in illo festa celebrabant nomen habuit."

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