Introduction to Easter -
by Paul Race, from Family Christmas Online^TM

All the secular fuss over Christmas notwithstanding, it has always been the church's most important holy day. For example:

• It's the first holy day the fledgling church celebrated (during the second century AD, according to Eusebius).

• It's the only major holy day that is celebrated in the season when the original events it commemorates occurred. We don't really know when Jesus was born, but we know He was crucified during Passover week, which always happens in April or the last week of March. In fact, everyone outside of English and German-speaking countries, calls this season Pasch or some such, after the Jewish Passover.

  Yes, the Christian Pasch festival is out of synch these days with the Jewish Passover, but they both range over the same part of the calendar and occasionally meet up.

• It celebrates Jesus' ultimate victory over death and hell, as well as the promise of our own resurrection. Christmas celebrates "God with Us," which important. But Easter celebrates that and much, much more.

If you are interested in the history of the holiday, it's also worth noting that:

• Most cultures use the term Pasch (with various spellings) to refer to what English-speaking people call Easter (after the old Saxon name for April). In those cultures, Pasch may refer, not to a single day, but to the Passover week during which the original events of Holy Week and Jesus' resurrection occurred. That's one reason ancient writings about Easter or "Pasch" may be confusing - they may be talking about a season of celebration, not just one day.

• In England, colored eggs were called Pasch eggs or the corrupted "Peace eggs" for centuries before they were called "Easter eggs." (Here's an odd connection, English mummers used to perform a sort of play called the "Peace Egg" that had nothing to do with peace or eggs or even Easter, but was typically performed during the Pasch season.)

• The "Easter Bunny" has Christian origins - he traces directly to the "Osterhase" (Easter Hare) of 16th-century German Lutherans and no farther. No historical evidence for tracing the "Easter Bunny" to earlier practices by any religion has ever been found, although a great deal has been fabricated.

• Colored eggs given as Pasch gifts also have Christian origins - they started in Greece and Turkey among what we would now call "Greek Orthodox" communities there. Yes, other cultures have colored eggs for many reasons and seasons. But what we call "Easter eggs" trace back only to Eastern European and Western Asian Pasch traditions.

• Girls wearing white dresses on Easter date back to the ancient church custom of having "first communion" during the Easter service.

One reason this section grew so fast is that every time I tried researching the history of Pasch/Easter holiday celebrations on the internet, I nearly drowned in "Easter is Not a Christian Holiday" articles, saturated with fabricated "facts" and published even on supposed "news" sites every spring. The irony is that my research proved that even the apparently secular icons of the holiday have Christian origins, making Pasch/Easter the most "Christian" of major holidays.

The bigger picture, of course, is the holiday/holy day itself, our celebration of the ultimate triumph of good over evil and of life over death, as well as the promise of our own resurrection. "But to as many as received, He gave power to become the children of God."

Flowers, eggs, bunnies, crosses, masses, hymns, pageantry, spring dresses, and even "Easter bonnets" aside, the real story of Pasch/Easter is the story of Jesus proving that His death has paid the price for the sins of the world and that He is the "Resurrection and the Life." You don't have to believe, of course; you have free will. But you really should have access to something besides urban legends when you make that decision.

May God bless you and your loved ones with grace and protection this season.

- Paul Race

For more information about Easter, Easter traditions, and related subjects:

Easter: Frequently Asked Questions - Want to know why Holy Week wanders around the calendar? What the Stations of the Cross are? Why we call Easter "Easter" when almost every other culture calls it "Pasch"? And many more.
The Timeline of the Resurrection - If you read the gospel accounts one at a time, they can be confusing. This shows the timeline, as most people see it.
Why Easter is Sacred to Me
The Myth of the Myth of the Easter Bunny - Where did the Easter Bunny really come from and how did it get attached to so many urban legends?
Timeline of Easter Traditions - how far back in time do Easter Eggs, or the Easter Bunny go? Did the church really start celebrating the Resurrection as late as the fourth century AD, as certain writers would have you believe? Was the ancient Teutonic deity some folk claim as the original source of all of our doctrine and celebrations of the Resurrection really - for all intents and purposes - invented eighteen centuries after Jesus' crucifixion?
Eostre: Frequently Asked Questions - Why do we "know" so much about Jacob Grimm's hypothetical ancient Germanic goddess today when all we have is a single allusion in ancient writings, and research has turned up no new facts since 725AD?
Bede's Statement about the Saxon Name for Pasch (Easter) - A brief look at the only mention of anyone named anything like Eostre or Ostara in anywhere before 1835.
Jacob Grimm - A brief look at Grimm's research and why this fairy-tale collector and linguist invented a hypothetical "ancient" Germanic goddess in 1835, dubbed her Ostara (the German equivalent of the Saxon "Eostra"), and created a totally fictitious mythology for her, which has been repeated as fact ever since even in normally trustworthy reference works.
Pope Gregory's Letter to Mellitus - a look Pope Gregory's 601AD letter to a missionary trying to reach the Saxons in Britain. We list it here only because so many writers misrepresent its contents.
To my Pagan Friends at Easter - Everybody needs something or someone to believe in, but "playing at religion" won't do it for you when times get hard.
Jan Brett Color Pages - I don't have an Easter craft or activities section in this site yet, but if you have little kids, check out the Jan Brett Easter and spring coloring sheets: Happy Easter Eggs Happy Spring! Jan Brett's other coloring sheets are here: Jan Brett's Activities Page

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