Most of the popular associations with Easter come from pagan traditions rather than Christian. However, traditionally the church has taken these pagan elements and "converted" them to convey Christian principles. For example, the egg is a common pagan sign of fertility and good luck. In Christian tradition, the egg is often used as an analogy to the trinity, and to signify the resurrection life promised us by Christ's resurrection (1 Cor. 15:37-38). Butterflies are indicators of spring, and therefore new life, but Christians often used the butterfly as a symbol of the resurrection. Just as the caterpillar "dies," is "buried" in his cocoon, and then emerges in a "new body" somehow made from the old body and with "new life," so Jesus died, was buried, and was resurrected and we who belong to Him will be also (Rom. 8:11). Hiding Easter eggs once symbolized the mysteries of the world of the gods and goddesses, who had to be coaxed into returning life to the earth in spring. Christians used hiding-and-finding as a teaching tool to children that we have been "hidden" from God's loving presence by our sin, but we are "found" by Christ, who forgives us, loves us, and treasures us (Luke 15:4-7). It can also signify the diligence with which we are to seek the kingdom of God and our joy in finding it (Matt. 13:44-46). Lambs are fertility symbols and indicators of spring in paganism, but in Christianity we remember that we are His sheep (Ps. 23:1-2; John 10:1-16; Matt. 26:31-34; Acts 20:28) and He is our Shepherd. Additionally, Christ is the Passover Lamb (Ex. 12:5), the One sacrifice Who cleanses all from sin by His blood.Historically, the celebration of Our Lord's Resurrection is a time of joy, hymns, celebration, and light. Many churches use bright colors to decorate the sanctuary and the altar, traditionally white and gold. White represents purity and the resurrection, gold symbolizes triumph. Many churches add trumpets to their instrumental music on this day to signify the trumpet of victory after battle and the trumpet "calling" people out of death. Many people use flowers to signify resurrection life, the lily being the most popular because of its long association with spring and the white of salvation. (Confidence in the resurrection is also the historical significance of flowers, especially lilies, at funerals.) Some churches conclude their Easter services with a congregational feast, commemorating the marriage feast of God with His people made possible through Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.
HOLY WEEK
The final week of Lent is called HOLY WEEK.
Palm Sunday (Passion Sunday): Holy Week begins with Sunday of the Passion of the Our Lord. Before 1955 this Sunday was known in the Roman Rite simply as Palm Sunday and the preceding Sunday as Passion Sunday. From 1955 to 1971 it was called Second Sunday in Passiontide or Palm Sunday.
To commemorate the entrance of the messiah into Jerusalem, to accomplish his paschal mystery, it is customary to have before Mass a blessing of palm leaves (or other branches, for example olive branches). The blessing ceremony, preferably held outside the church includes the reading of a Gospel account of how Jesus rode into Jerusalem humbly on a donkey, reminiscent of a Davidic victory procession, and how people placed palms on the ground in front of him. Immediately following this great time of celebration in the entering of Jesus into Jerusalem, he begins his journey to the cross. This is followed by a procession or solemn entrance into the church, with the participants holding the blessed branches in their hands.
The Mass itself includes a reading of the Passion, the narrative of Jesus' capture, sufferings and death, as recounted in one of the Synoptic Gospels.
Before the reform of the rite by Pope Pius XII, the blessing of the palms occurred inside the church within a service that followed the general outline of a Mass, with Collect, Epistle and Gospel, as far as the Sanctus. The palms were then blessed with five prayers, and a procession went out of the church and on its return included a ceremony for the reopening of the doors, which had meantime been shut. After this the normal Mass was celebrated.
Maundy Thursday honors the memory of the final Passover Jesus celebrated as His Last Supper with His disciples. Maundy Thursday gets its name from a Latin church anthem, the first line of which reads, "Mandatum novum do vobis," or "a new commandment I give to you" (John 13:34). The Latin "Mandatum" is corrupted to the English "Maundy." Holy Thursday is called "Green Thursday" in Germany, after the green branch given by pastors to penitents on this day to signify that God has heard their prayers and will give them new life. It is called "Sheer Thursday" in some countries to signify that it is by the body and blood of Christ that we are made "clean" or "sheer" from our sins. Most churches celebrate communion on Maundy Thursday. Some re-enact Jesus' washing the feet of the disciples.
Good Friday Good Friday (from the now obsolete senses pious, holy of the word "good"), also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of Passover.
Based on the details of the Canonical gospels, the Crucifixion of Jesus was most probably on a Friday (John 19:42). The estimated year of Good Friday is AD 33, by two different groups, and originally as AD 34 by Isaac Newton via the differences between the Biblical and Julian calendars and the crescent of the moon. A third method, using a completely different astronomical approach based on a lunar Crucifixion darkness and eclipse model (consistent with Apostle Peter's reference to a "moon of blood" in Acts 2:20) points to Friday, 3 April AD 33.
Many churches conduct quiet services from noon until three (called Tre Ore, or "Three Hours"), focusing on the events of the crucifixion and the words of Christ from the cross. In some churches (most notably the Eastern Orthodox), the altar itself and the encased representation of Christ's burial, called the epitaphion, are covered in black cloth. Many Good Friday services conclude with draping the altar cross with black cloth, extinguishing all sanctuary lights (except the eternal flame signifying the Holy Spirit), ceasing all music, and having the congregation exit without speaking to symbolize the imminent (commemoration of the) death of Christ. Christians commonly celebrated each Friday in commemoration of the crucifixion, with fasting or other penance as its most notable feature.
Easter is an English corruption from the proto-Germanic root word meaning "to rise." (We see this in the contemporary German cognate "öst-" and the English cognate "east," the direction from which the sun rises in the morning.) It refers not only to Christ rising from the dead, but also to his ascension to heaven and to our future rising with him at his Second Coming for final judgment. It is not true that it derives from the pagan Germanic goddess Oestar or from the Babylonian goddess Ishtar -- both fertility symbols signifying the coming of spring images of fertility, new life, and renewal. A corruption of Ishtar is found in the Bible as the name of the heroic Jewish woman, Esther, who risked her own life to save the lives of her people. Many Christians prefer to use the designation "the Resurrection of our Lord," "Sunday of the Resurrection," or even Pasch or Paschal Sunday ("the Sunday of our Passover Lamb Sacrifice").
The first Easter occurred on the first day of the week after the Passover Sabbath. The first day of the week became the Christian's "sabbath rest" (Heb. 4:1-11), the time of weekly Christian celebration of the resurrection. Annually, the Lord's Day immediately subsequent to the Jewish Passover was a day of special resurrection celebration. Today Easter is celebrated at
different times depending on whether one is a Western Christian (Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican) or an Eastern Christian (Eastern Orthodoxy) because the West uses the revised Gregorian calendar and the East uses the older Julian calendar.
Early Christians consulted local rabbis to determine the date of Passover each year, which would correspond to Holy Week. Passover was determined by the lunar configurations of the latitude in which the Jewish community resided. There was no Jewish authority at Jerusalem to determine a uniform date after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70. In communities with no Jewish presence, Christians found it even more difficult to determine the date. Once the churches became unified in the fourth century, the date was more consistent until the West's adoption of the revised Gregorian calendar in the sixteenth century.