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March Hares, Painted Eggs, and Hot Cross Buns: The Symbols and Traditions of Easter
| Article
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12779 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1987 |
2,309 Words |
| Author
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Sarah Ban Breathnach
Sarah Ban Breathnach, arts and living editor with Radio
America, is the originator of Mrs. Sharp's Traditions, a
creative family-living radio program and a series of
Victorian family workshops, both of which revive
old-fashioned pastimes and traditions for modern family
life. |
Perhaps no season is so anticipated and yearned for as spring, when the days of darkness, cold, and hibernation pass away, and all things are made new.
For more than 1,500 years, the feast of Easter, marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ, has been the focal point of springtime for Christians around the world. Yet, the Easter season is not only a Christian story but also a promise of renewal for all mankind.
Easter, even its very name, originates from an ancient pagan festival that the Saxons observed (long before the birth of Christ) every year at the time of the vernal equinox. The festival, in honor of Eostre, their Teutonic goddess of light and spring, was a celebration that marked the death of winter and the rebirth of spring.
In the eighth century, the poetic name 'Easter' (meaning "new beginning") was incorporated into Christianity's observance of Christ's resurrection, thereby blending nature's renewal with man's spiritual rebirth.
For more than three centuries, the Eastern and Western Christians squabbled over the date and content of Easter observances. The Western churches were concerned that there be enough time in the liturgical calendar to observe Lent, a forty-day period of spiritual preparation before Easter. Another contention was whether Easter should coincide with the Jewish observance of Passover (which might fall on a weekday) or whether Easter should always be on a Sunday, regardless of the date. This was finally determined by Constantine the Great at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. He decreed that Easter should fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon of the vernal equinox of March 21. If the full moon rises on a Sunday, Easter day falls on the following Sunday, never to occur before March 22 or after April 25.
The Eastern Christians, on the other hand, held that a true observance of Easter could only follow the Jewish Passover each year. Christ had celebrated Passover (the Last Supper) with his disciples the night before his crucifixion. Therefore, people of the Eastern and Russian Orthodox faiths observe Easter later than the West, so that it occurs after Passover.
However, Constantine's decree that the cross be recognized as the symbol of the Christian faith and of the resurrection of Jesus Christ was accepted universally. First the cross is a symbol of suffering, because Jesus died on a
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