The Very Religious Holiday Celebrated On Easter Day

Added: 09/30/2007

Perhaps no holiday has more importance on the Christian calendar than Easter. In the Easter holiday Christians celebrate the crucifixion of Jesus as a fulfillment of a biblical prophecy and then his rising from the dead 3 days later in fulfillment in what is often considered the most important Christian biblical prophecy. Each year Christians from all over the world converge on Jerusalem to celebrate the Easter season.

Probably the single most important celebration on the Christian calendar is the celebration of Easter Day. The Easter Day celebrations usually begin on the previous Friday and run until the following Monday as Christians use Easter Day to remember the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday and then to celebrate his resurrection 3 days later on Easter Sunday. Easter Day falls anywhere from late March up to early April as it follows the cycle of the moon to determine exactly which Sunday it will be celebrated. The Easter Season actually covers 50 days from Easter Day up until Pentecost which is to celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit on to the apostles and was also used to mark the beginning of the harvest. Many Christians believe that Jesus was crucified and died somewhere around 27AD to 33 AD. The name Easter for Easter Day comes from the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of the Dawn whose name translates into Easter in English and since she was considered Goddess of the Spring time then her name was associated with the Spring celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.

Easter Day is maintained as a very religious holiday on the Christian calendar and there are many important masses held in Christian churches all over the world starting on Good Friday (the Friday before Easter Day) and extending up until the following Sunday (the week after Easter Sunday) to follow in the tradition of the 7 day Jewish festival of Passover. Easter Day is the one major holiday on the calendar that does have almost completely religious origins and while some parts of the celebration, for instance the date it is celebrated, can be traced to ancient customs the main focus of the holiday remains very religious for Christians all over the world. For the Easter celebration many Christians will make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem where it is believed that Jesus was crucified and they will take part in a re-enactment of the crucifixion from a re-enactment of the trial of Jesus, Jesus carrying his cross through the streets of Jerusalem, and then eventually remembering when Jesus was crucified. This is referred to as The Passion and it is re-enacted in other cities throughout the world where Christians will converge to re-enact The Passion and remember how Jesus suffered for man’s sins.

Easter Day, as with any popular holiday, also has its secular celebration that have gained a great deal of popularity over the years. The notion of an Easter Bunny bringing chocolate to children remains and is celebrated all over the world. There Easter Eggs that are either carried in an Easter Basket or hidden to be found in an Easter Egg Hunt. It is all in good fun but the secular celebrations of Easter, while very popular and very well known all over the world, seem to pale in comparison to the religious significance placed on the Easter holiday. This is in direct contrast to the Christmas holiday where the secular celebrations seem to overshadow the religious significance of the holiday and has caused many Christians to denounce the secular celebrations of Christmas as sacrilege.

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