|
|
|
|
History of EasterIn late March (19 - 21), the March Equinox occurs, on the day when the geometric centre of the Sun's disk crosses the equator, moving North, and is above the horizon for 12 hours, everywhere on the Earth. This signals the beginning of spring in the Northern hemisphere, and of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Jewish religion celebrates Passover soon after the March Equinox. Christian tradition holds that the crucifixion and later resurrection of Christ occurred at the time of Passover, and so most European names for Easter (Resurrection Sunday) are based on the Latin word for Passover: Pascha. Easter or Pascha is the most solemn time in the Christian calendar. Easter church services are joyous celebrations of the resurrection of Christ. Ironically, because of changes in the calendar, the Western and Eastern Christian churches celebrate Easter on different dates most years, which are different again from the date of the Jewish celebration of Passover. The English and German names, "Easter" and "Ostern", seem clearly unrelated to Pesach etymologically and likely derive from Eostremonat, an old Germanic month name. The 8th century English historian Bede suggested that Eostre, a pagan fertility goddess of spring, dawn and new life was honored with a festival during Eostremonat. Recent scholars haven’t been able to find any reference to the goddess Bede mentioned and consider the theory discredited. It has been suggested that many of modern Easter's symbols, such as colored eggs and the Easter Bunny, are cultural remnants of the Eostremonat springtime festival, and that Eostre merged with the Christian Pesach celebrations after the Germanic heathens were Christianized. Spring is a time of fertility and renewal of life, when nature is in resurrection after the long dark winter, hence the symbolism of rabbits, notable for their fecundity, and the eggs, colored like rays of the returning sun and the aurora borealis. Children hunt and roll the many-colored Easter eggs brought by the Easter Bunny. Hidden in the play are, it has been argued, the vestiges of a fertility rite, the eggs and the rabbit both symbolizing fertility. On the other hand, there is much evidence that Easter celebrations existed in parts of Christendom which were unlikely to have been influenced by Germanic heathenry. Some historians assume that Bede falsely concluded the existence of a goddess Eostre from the unquestionably real month name Eostremonat, as any references to such a goddess from other Germanic sources are missing. It is possible that, as the Germanic peoples were Christianized, the Christian Paschal celebrations which had developed in non-Germanic areas merged with and assimilated features from the heathen Eostre spring celebrations which took place at about the same time of the year in the Germanic countries, a merger that would have been eased by the resurrection / rebirth themes common to both.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia and from ShiningRise.com
Looking for Easter?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Click on a book for more information and reviews
page 2 of 42 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
|
