Easter

What do Christians Celebrate on Easter?

On Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate the resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ. It is typically the most well-attended Sunday service of the year for Christian churches.

Christians believe according to Scripture, that Jesus came back to life, or was raised from the dead, three days after his death on the cross. As part of the Easter season, the death of Jesus Christ by crucifixion, is commemorated on Good Friday, always the Friday just before Easter. Through his death, burial and resurrection, Jesus paid the penalty for sin, thus purchasing for all who believe in him, eternal life in Christ Jesus.

(For a more detailed explanation about his death and resurrection, see Why Did Jesus Have to Die? and Timeline of Jesus' Final Hours)

In Western Christianity, Easter marks the ending of Lent, a 40-day period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline in preparation for Easter.

(For a more detailed explanation about his death and resurrection, see Why Did Jesus Have to Die? and Timeline of Jesus' Final Hours)

In Western Christianity, Easter marks the ending of Lent, a 40-day period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline in preparation for Easter.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday. Eastern Orthodox churches observe Lent or Great Lent, during the 6 weeks or 40 days preceding Palm Sunday with fasting continuing during the Holy Week of Easter. Lent for Eastern Orthodox churches begins on Monday and Ash Wednesday is not observed.

Because of Easter's pagan origins, and also because of the commercialization of Easter, many Christian churches have begun to refer to it as Resurrection Day.

The biblical account of Jesus' death on the cross, or crucifixion, his burial and his resurrection, or raising from the dead, can be found in the following passages of Scripture: Matthew 27:27-28:8; Mark 15:16-16:19; Luke 23:26-24:35; and John 19:16-20:30.

In Western Christianity, Easter is always celebrated on the Sunday immediately following the Paschal Full Moon. I had previously, and somewhat erroneously stated, "Easter is always celebrated on the Sunday immediately following the first full moon after the vernal (spring) equinox." This statement was true in 325 AD, when it was established by the Council of Nicea. However, the course of history has modified the meaning of this instruction, and therefore, a clearer, more accurate explanation is necessary today.

There are, in fact, as many misunderstanding about the calculation of Easter dates, as there are reasons for confusion about Easter dates. To clear up at least some of the confusion visit:
• Why Do the Dates for Easter Change Every Year?

(For an explanation of how the date of Easter is calculated and the date of Easter in future years, continue reading.) For a calculator that will help you find the date of Easter for any year, click here.

How the date of Easter was set.

In 1582, Gregory XIII (Pope of the Roman Catholic Church) revised the calendar for use by people all across Christendom, resulting in a new set of dates for Easter. Universal adoption of the Gregorian calendar occurred slowly. By the 1700's, though, most of western Europe had adopted what came to be known as the Gregorian Calendar.

The rules for determining the date of Easter are:

Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox; the vernal equinox is fixed as March 21. There are some highly technical rules for determining the actual date of the full moon, but when you take all this into account the result is that Easter can never occur before March 22 or later than April 25.

(Eastern Orthodox churches use a variant of these rules that result in those churches celebrating Easter on a different Sunday.)

The following are dates of Easter from 2007 to 2015:

2007 April 8; 2008 March 23; 2009 April 12; 2010 April 4; 2011 April 24; 2012 April 8; 2013 March 31; 2014 April 20; 2015 April 5

To calculate the date of Easter in ANY given year.

Easter, the most important holiday for Christians, commemorates Christ's resurrection on the third day following his crucifixion. So important is the resurrection to Christians that it has been said that every Christian worship service is a celebration of the resurrection.

For the original Easter story as told 2000 years ago by the gospel writers, Matthew and John. These accounts of the resurrection are read every Easter Sunday in Christian churches around the world, and this has happened every year for two millennium.

How Easter got its name.

For several hundred years, Easter was not called "Easter." Prior to the fourth century, Christians observed Pascha, Christian Passover, in the spring of the year. Adapted from Jewish Passover, Pascha was a festival of redemption. As Jews, these early followers of Jesus celebrated both their liberation from slavery in Egypt, and their new liberation from the power of death itself.

As Christianity spread throughout the Roman world, however, the celebration became more and more a distinctly Christian one. But there also developed some disagreement about when and how the holiday should be observed. One of the principal reasons for organizing the council of Nicea in 325 CE was to set a firm date for the celebration.

Though the record is not complete, the church fathers were intent on making the holiday into something that those acquainted with the gods and goddesses of the Greco-Roman world be comfortable with. Thus the festival came to be known as "Easter," a name derived, some think, from "Eostre," the Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe; others suggest it was derived from an ancient word for spring "eastre." Without doubt some elements of pre-Christian religious practice have been incorporated into the Easter traditions.