His resurrection marks the triumph of good over evil, sin and death. It is the singular event which proves that those who trust in God and accept Christ will be raised from the dead. Since Easter represents the fulfillment of God's promises to mankind, it is the most important holiday on the Christian calendar. In the Gospels, the precise details of the Easter narrative vary slightly, but none of these variances are critical to the main story.
In fact, it is argued that the variances are simply matters of style and not substance. Despite the variances, the key aspects of the Easter story all match. Above all, they agree that the tomb of Christ was indeed empty, which is the most essential fact. Based on direct evidence from the mid-second century, it is believed that Easter was regularly celebrated from the earliest days of the Church. The Easter date is movable and always falls on a Sunday between March 22 and April Easter in the Roman Catholic Church is always on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.
Most Catholics attend Easter Vigil at midnight, although the services can be lengthy because many sacraments are performed, such as baptisms and Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, during the Mass. Services during the daytime on Easter are shorter and well attended. Sunrise services are common, but are distinctly Protestant.
Sunrise services are gathered before dawn and reflect the arrival of the women at Jesus' tomb early in the morning. The services take place outdoors, often in church yards, cemeteries, or in parks, and are timed so the sun will rise during the course of worship. Traditional family activities vary by region.
In the United States, children often hunt for Easter eggs, which are often brightly-dyed hard boiled eggs, though they can be plastic eggs filled with candy or small denominations of money.
Candy is a traditional gift for Easter as children often break their Lenten fasts with sweets. Adults tend to share bouquets of flowers, greeting cards, and may gather for a family meal.
Such celebrations are often secularized and focused on children and family rather than the religious aspect of the holy day. Following Easter Sunday, the season of Easter begins and lasts for seven weeks, ending with Pentecost. On this greatest day of the year, all fasting and somber thoughts are banished. As St. John Chrysostom announces in this famous Easter sermon, all are invited to the feast: "Let all then enter the joy of Our Lord! Both the first and the last, and those who come after, enjoy your reward!
Rich and poor, dance with one another, sober and slothful, celebrate the day. Those who have kept the fast and those who have not, rejoice today, for the table is richly spread. Fare royally upon it-the calf is a fatted one. Let no one go away hungry. All of you, enjoy the banquet of faith! All enjoy the riches of His goodness. Let no one cry over his poverty, for the universal Kingdom has appeared!
Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again, for forgiveness has risen from the grave. Let none fear death, for the death of our Savior has set us free. He has destroyed it by enduring it. He spoiled the power of hell when he descended thereto. Isaiah foretold this when he cried, 'Death has been frustrated in meeting him below! It is frustrated, for it is annihilated. It is frustrated, for now it is made captive. For it grabbed a body and discovered God.
It took earth and behold! It encountered Heaven. It took what was visible, and was overcome by what was invisible. O Death, where is your sting? O Death, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and the demons are cast down. Christ is risen, and life is set free. Christ is risen, and the tomb is emptied of the dead. For Christ, having risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits for those who sleep.
Easter is the principal feast of the ecclesiastical year. Leo I Sermo xlvii in Exodum calls it the greatest feast festum festorum , and says that Christmas is celebrated only in preparation for Easter. It is the centre of the greater part of the ecclesiastical year. The order of Sundays from Septuagesima to the last Sunday after Pentecost, the feast of the Ascension, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, and all other movable feasts, from that of the Prayer of Jesus in the Garden Tuesday after Septuagesima to the feast of the Sacred Heart Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi , depend upon the Easter date.
Commemorating the slaying of the true Lamb of God and the Resurrection of Christ, the corner-stone upon which faith is built, it is also the oldest feast of the Christian Church, as old as Christianity, the connecting link between the Old and New Testaments. That the Apostolic Fathers do not mention it and that we first hear of it principally through the controversy of the Quartodecimans are purely accidental. The connection between the Jewish Passover and the Christian feast of Easter is real and ideal.
Real, since Christ died on the first Jewish Easter Day; ideal, like the relation between type and reality, because Christ's death and Resurrection had its figures and types in the Old Law, particularly in the paschal lamb, which was eaten towards evening of the 14th of Nisan. For more information on the confirmation process, please have a read of our Sacrament of Confirmation Process article. Others begin their Easter Sunday with a morning mass. Following the morning mass, the parish may hold an Easter breakfast for their members.
Or they may provide food to the less fortunate. The average Catholic family, will either attend local community events, or spend the remainder of the day with loved ones. They may take part in parades, feasts, festivals, or watch live performances. Most events however are not traditionally inspired by the Bible directly.
Whether its a secular tradition, uniquely cultural, or based on regional superstitions surrounding good luck; there are many non-biblical traditions that are enjoyed on Easter Sunday. As we mentioned earlier in the article the geographical, and cultural environment you live or grew up in, can have an affect on the way you celebrate Easter outside of Church events.
In the northern hemisphere Easter is associated with spring, but in the southern hemisphere it is autumn. This small difference is enough to determine where and how people gather to celebrate Easter together.
Easter eggs are given out to loved ones, or used in games all over the world. Depending on where you live, you may have a regional tradition where eggs are hidden and people namely children need to find them.
You could play egg roll in which an egg is either chased after as it rolls down a hill, or pushed along with a spoon. Or you may play egg toss games, where the winners are the last team to break their egg, or even take part in egg and spoon races where an egg is balanced on a spoon as you run around an obstacle course.
In America, Easter Eggs are more often then not, hard boiled eggs that have been dyed or painted bright colors. In countries like England and Australia , chocolate eggs tend to be the norm, followed by chocolate Easter Bunnies. As Easter Day is on a Sunday, most countries around the world that celebrate Easter allow Christians to take the day off from work and school.
But Good Friday and Easter Monday the day after Easter are not given public holiday status on a state or federal level. Then there are countries like England and Australia. Some even classify Easter Sunday as a Federal Holiday and require extra wages to be paid to anyone that is required to work on any or all of these days. It is common for lots of food and alcohol to be consumed during this time. Jesus was raised from the dead, and it goes to show that He conquered sin and death. He is the only Son of God, who through this amazing resurrection, brings us closer to God and our faith.
Jesus died so that we could be saved from sin, and that although we do sin as humans, if we see Him as that light that can bring us out of darkness, we can live in His light continually.
A major feature in this celebration of Jesus being raised from the dead are candles that are lit along with the Paschal candle — a [special] candle that is used during the season of Easter, and at baptisms and funerals.
As more and more candles are lit in the church or by way of natural light by sunrise — sometimes held on a beach — it goes to show that Jesus is the Lord, and the Light of our lives, and that he will bring us into the light when we are in darkness. But, we have also been preparing for Easter during this Lent season with a rosary walk starting at the Parker Building and walking along the path with the painted blocks while praying the rosary; or we do so if there is space at the one gazebo outside, in the botanical garden on campus.
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