by Amanda Demers

Created on: March 31, 2009

Easter should be celebrated by all means if we know what it is we're really supposed to be celebrating. For over a billion people, the festival known as Easter celebrates the event that brought us life and salvation: the resurrection of Jesus. Many Christians would place this holiday above Christmas in importance. Like Christmas, we've largely lost sight of why we celebrate it and get caught up in commercialism. It doesn't help matters much that some pagans, atheists, and even some Christians want to overthrow celebration of the holiday because of some traditions unrelated to Christ's resurrection.

In the English-speaking world, the celebration of Christ's resurrection has a most unfortunate name. Why? Because it comes from a pagan, Germanic festival and it's logical to assume that "our" Easter is simply a replacement for this festival. Thankfully, the celebration that the Feast of the Resurrection shares its name with is not related to what Christians celebrate. Worth noting is that different names are used for this holiday in different countries. In many languages, some variation of the Greek Pascha (Passover) is used. Since Jesus' death occurred around time for the Passover, this is fitting. (Since the Bible describes Him as being a true Pascal lamb, this is where all the imagery of lambs comes from). Some Slavic countries refer to it as "Great Day" or "Great Night". To distinguish the Christian celebration, I'll refer to it from here on as "Resurrection Day".

Annual Christian celebration of Jesus' resurrection may have been around as early as the second century. A sermon from this time references the celebration of the resurrection. At its earliest observance, Resurrection Day's date would have most likely been determined by the Jewish calendar. Even during the apostolic era, Christians gathered weekly to commemorate the resurrection with the celebration of communion. The proper observance date has been a cause of division between Eastern and Western churches, as well as between early Celtic Christians and later missionaries following Roman Catholicism. Some Christians chose to avoid the controversy altogether and simply celebrate a Passover similar to what the Jewish faith observes.

Despite the controversy over some possible paganism in traditions associated with Easter, no one can deny that the Feast of the Resurrection is of huge importance. A beautiful tradition in Anglican and Roman Catholic churches is baptism of adult converts at the Easter Vigil. The Vigil goes back to a very early time in Christian history, and is the basis for the "sunrise" services that many non-liturgical churches celebrate. Baptisms very commonly take place on Resurrection Day, and many churches that don't celebrate communion on a weekly basis are sure to celebrate it on this day.

Resurrection Day truly is the "Queen of Feasts". It's truly sad that the symbols most commonly associated with this day have no Biblical significance. However, if we're well-equipped with knowledge of how Jesus' early followers celebrated this day, and the true origin of popular symbolism, we can take it back for our own.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter

http: //catholicism.about.com/od/holydaysandholidays/p/Wha t_Is_Easter.htm

http://www.crivoice.org/cyeaster.html

http://christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t020.html

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