Easter Traditions

People celebrate Easter by partaking in the many Easter Traditions that surround the holiday. Not only are these traditions religious, but also secular and seasonal in nature.

The holiday name is an important one of these Easter Traditions. What many people don't realize is that most of the world names Easter based on a different root word than the English word, Easter. In English the word Easter derives from the Old English word Eostre, relating to the name of a month in the Germanic calendar. But in most other languages the holiday name comes from the Greek Pascha, itself related to the Hebrew word for the Passover. The Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre may also have something to do with the English Easter – she often carried baskets of eggs.

Passover is linked to Easter Traditions in many other ways. Christians mark the Last Supper as a key event in the Easter celebration, and it took place either just prior to or during Passover. Also, both Passover and Easter have to do with life springing from death, so they share symbolism. Christ rose from his grave on Easter, according to the celebration. Passover is about the angel of death passing over Jewish homes on his way to kill all the first born in the land. Therefore both have to do with various life symbols such as eggs and the baby chicks that come from them, and the new life returned during spring.

For a long time the date of Passover had a lot to do with Easter traditions. Easter, like Passover, isn't on a specific day but rather is set according to moon and solar phases, particularly the vernal equinox and the full moon. Up until the 4th century AD Christians depended on Jewish scholars to calculate the dates for Passover, and then would base the date for Easter on that – either on the Jewish date of preparing for Passover or on the first Sunday following that date. However in 325 AD the First Nicaean Council decreed that Christians should not rely on the date the Jewish religion set for Nisan 14 or Passover. One set of disputes ended, but there are still occasional discussions about the date for Easter. There are 35 possible dates for Easter in the Gregorian calendar used in America. This ongoing cycle repeats only once every 5,700,000 years. It won't be until 2160 that Easter falls on March 23 again like it did in 2008.

Many more Easter traditions exist, and are followed all over the world. For more information on the holiday try a Google search.

News About Easter

Easter Island statues have full bodies and contain ancient petroglyphs 15 May 2012 at 6:12pm
Click image to see more photos. (EISP/EISP) Explorers have long known there was more to the 887 statues on Easter Island?some 2,000 miles west of Chile?than just the statue heads made famous in photographs. When most people think of the renowned monolithic statues, they think of the heads only. But in October 2011, the Easter [...]

Inside Easter Island's Secrets 16 May 2012 at 9:09am
The first methodical investigation of the statues at Rapa Nui, which many think of as simple heads, reveals the complete figures buried over centuries by natural forces.

Academic All-Star: Eisenhower senior Jason Easter 16 May 2012 at 10:30pm
Eisenhower High School senior Jason Easter will major in aeronautical engineering. Next year he will go to the University of Washington.

Local communities host Easter activities 17 May 2012 at 11:47pm
Easter is just around the corner and local communities are preparing for a visit from the Easter Bunny.

Easter already carrying presidential load 11 May 2012 at 6:23am
URBANA ? When University of Illinois students walk across the stage Sunday to receive their diplomas, President Michael Hogan will not be there to shake their hands. Instead, Robert Easter, who is the president designate, will congratulate them. Easter also attended UI-Chicago commencement ceremonies and will be at the UI-Springfield commencement this Saturday. read more

Eastern Connecticut Easter Seals group honors civic leader 17 May 2012 at 8:01pm
Easter Seals Capital Region & Eastern Connecticut presented its Civic Leadership award to Jerry G. Olson, primary trustee of Olde Mistick Village, at the annual Walk With Me Kick-Off Celebration Wednesday at Go Fish in Mystic.

The Easter Bunny arrives at Town East Mall 17 May 2012 at 11:42pm
The Easter Bunny is hopping into the area to visit with children at Town East Mall. He arrives on Tuesday, March 13 and will be welcoming visitors until Saturday, April 7 when he leaves to deliver eggs around the world.

Religious leaders say on Easter that faith and politics are inseparable 17 May 2012 at 11:24pm
Influential pastor Rick Warren defended the place of religion in politics during a television interview that aired Sunday morning, arguing that ?faith is simply a world view.? Warren made his statements only a few weeks after a Pew Research Center survey showed 38 percent of Americans -- an all-time high -- believe political leaders spend too much time talking about religion. A majority, 54 ...

Stormont to mark Easter Rising 14 May 2012 at 8:14am
The NI Assembly Commission announces plans to commemorate the 1916 Easter Rising.

Retail Sales in U.S. Cool on Early Easter and Seasonable Weather 15 May 2012 at 5:37am
Retail sales in the U.S. rose in April at the slowest pace of the year, showing unseasonably mild weather and pre-Easter shopping may have pulled consumers to stores the prior month.