What is Easter? Without a doubt one of the most important celebrations in the Christian calendar, Easter is a holiday that celebrates the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. After his crucifixion, death, and burial, three days later, He rose from the grave. By this, He conquered death and redeemed us from sin.
As we’ll explore in this article, the Easter holy day did
coincide with some pagan holidays. Because the church didn’t celebrate Easter
until a certain point, owing to the persecution the church experienced for the
first few centuries, the Christian creation of the holiday did happen around
the same time as another pagan celebration was in full swing. Nevertheless, on
this holiday, we strive to celebrate God’s victory over the grave. In this
article, we’ll explore the meaning of the word Easter, pagan associations of
the holiday, and what the holiday means for Christians today.
Definition of “Easter”
According to dictionary.com, Easter is “an annual Christian
festival in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, observed on the
first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox, as calculated
according to tables based in Western churches on the Gregorian calendar and in
Orthodox churches on the Julian calendar. Also called Easter Sunday. the day on
which this festival is celebrated.”
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia gives the biblical
references of “Easter” stating, “The word does not properly occur in Scripture,
although the King James Version has it in Acts 12:4 where it stands for
Passover, as it is rightly rendered in the Revised Version (British and
American). There is no trace of Easter celebration in the New Testament, though
some would see an intimation of it in 1 Corinthians 5:7. The Jewish Christians
in the early church continued to celebrate the Passover, regarding Christ as
the true paschal lamb, and this naturally passed over into a commemoration of
the death and resurrection of our Lord or an Easter feast.”
The Origin of Easter
According to our Bible
dictionary, the name “Easter” was derived from “Eostre,” “originally a Saxon
word (Eostre), denoting a goddess of the Saxons, in honour of whom sacrifices
were offered about the time of the Passover.”
Another probability
is the Norse eostur, eastur, or ostara, which meant “the season
of the growing sun” or “the season of new birth.” The word east comes from the
same roots. In this case, easter would be linked to the changing of the season.
A more recent and
complex explanation comes from the Christian background of Easter rather than
the pagan. The early Latin name for the week of Easter was hebdomada alba or
“white week,” while the Sunday after Easter day was called Dominica in albis
from the white robes of those who had been newly baptized. The word alba is
Latin both for white and dawn. People speaking Old High German made a mistake
in their translation and used a plural word for dawn, ostarun, instead of a
plural for white. From ostarun we get the German Ostern and the English Easter.
Christian Meaning of Easter
The significance of
Easter is Jesus Christ’s triumph over death. His resurrection means the eternal
life that is granted to all who believe in Him. The purpose of Easter also
means the full confirmation of all that Jesus taught and preached during His
three-year ministry. If He had not risen from the dead, if He had simply died
and not been resurrected, He would have been thought just another teacher or
prophet. However, His resurrection rebuked all that and provided final and
undeniable proof that He was really the Son of God and that He had overcome
death once and for all.
The resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead is the core of the Christian gospel. Saint Paul says
that if Christ is not raised from the dead, then our preaching and hope are in
vain (1 Cor. 15:14). Certainly, without the resurrection, there would be no
Christian preaching or faith. The apostles of Christ would have continued as
the disheartened group which the Gospel of John depicts being in hiding for
fear of the Jews. They were in total despair until they met the risen Christ
(John 20:19). Then they touched Christ’s wounds of the nails and the spear;
they ate and drank with Him. The resurrection became the foundation of
everything they said and did (Acts 2-4): “...for a spirit has not flesh and
bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39).
The resurrection
affirms Jesus of Nazareth as not only the prophesied Messiah of Israel but as
the King and Lord of a new Jerusalem: a new heaven and a new earth.
The Colour Purple at Easter
The following is an
excerpt from Why is the Colour Purple Associated With Easter?:
To understand why the
colour purple became the colour of Lent and Easter, we must first look at the
colour’s significance in ancient society. In antiquity, purple dye was a prized
commodity because of how difficult it was to obtain. In particular, purple dye
was obtained from the harvesting of certain marine snails.
In light of how
labour-intensive it was to produce purple dye, purple apparel was very
expensive and often only worn by kings, other royal members, or those with
high-ranking authority. As such, the colour purple became known as a mark of
royalty and sovereignty.
The Roman soldiers
who tortured Jesus during His Passion would’ve been well-aware of the imperial
symbolism behind the colour purple. This is why, in mocking Jesus before His
crucifixion, the soldiers dressed Jesus in a purple robe and put a crown of
thorns on His head, proceeding to then beat Him and yell, “Hail, king of the
Jews!” (John 19:2-3).
In a further attempt
to humiliate Jesus after the soldiers had removed the purple robe from Him,
Pilate had a sign affixed to Jesus’ cross inscribed with the words, “Jesus of
Nazareth, King of the Jews” (John 19:19). This inscription is memorialized on
today’s crucifixes by the letters INRI, which are the initials for
“Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” in Latin — Iesus Nazarenus, Rex
Iudaeorum.
In remembrance of the
purple robe the Roman soldiers put on Jesus in mockery, churches display the
colour purple during Lent to mourn the emotional and physical anguish that
Jesus underwent during His Passion, and also to proclaim Him as the true King
of Kings. In some churches, the clergy wear purple vestments, drape lecterns
with purple cloths, and cover the front of altars with purple frontals.
Easter Meaning Today
For Christians
worldwide, the importance of Easter is praising and acknowledging Jesus
Christ’s resurrection from the dead, and His glorious assurances of eternal
life for all who believe in Him. While there are plenty of non-religious
traditions such as the easter bunny, baskets of candy, and Easter egg hunts,
there are also meaningful traditions for Christians today. Some include
• Sunrise services -
many churches meet at a special sunrise service time to celebrate the risen
saviour
• Resurrection rolls
- these are a cute way to teach children about the empty tomb of Jesus.
Resurrection rolls are baked with a large marshmallow inside that disappears
while baking, symbolizing the empty tomb of Jesus!
• Easter Lilies can
be found decorating churches and homes as a reminder of the purity of Jesus’
sacrifice and the new life we have through his resurrection
Bible Verses about Easter & Resurrection of Jesus
• Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has
caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead - 1 Peter 1:3 ESV
We
celebrate Easter because this holiday recognizes that we can die to our old way
of living and resurrect into our new life with Christ. Christianity does
require a death to self. But the resurrection we experience in a spiritual
sense and the resurrection of the body we have yet to experience give us ample
cause for celebration.