How Easter was celebrated in ancient days.
WHAT IS EASTER?
Easter is the celebration of Jesus Christ's rising from the dead (His Resurrection) after His crucifixion which took place on what we now term Good Friday.
Easter is usually celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon following the Vernal or Spring Equinox on March 21st. This can be any Sunday between March 22nd and April 25th. It is the most sacred of all the Christian holidays or celebrations.
Christ's return (or rising) from death is called the Resurrection. According to the scriptures, Christ's tomb was empty three days after His death, which is commemorated on Good Friday. His followers saw Him and talked to Him after this. Christians therefore believe that they have the hope of a new life (an everlasting life in Heaven) after their earthly death.
HOW EASTER WAS CELEBRATED IN ANCIENT DAYS?
Although of course Easter is a Christian festival, it has many pre-Christian, Pagan traditions. While the origin of its name is uncertain, some scholars accept the derivation proposed by the 8th-century English scholar St. Bede, also know as The Venerable Bede, whose tomb is in the magnificent Durham Cathedral in North-East England. Bede believed the name probably comes from Eastre, the Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility. A month was dedicated to her, corresponding to our month of April. Her festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox and traditions associated with the festival live on in the modern day Easter rabbit, a symbol of fertility, and in coloured Easter eggs. These were originally painted with brilliant colours to represent the warmth and sunlight of spring, and used in Easter-egg rolling contests or given as gifts.
Easter festival celebrations probably embody a number of other traditions occurring at around the same time. Most scholars speak of the relationship of Easter to the Jewish festival of Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew. The Passover celebrates the safe flight of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, lead of course by Moses, and as described in the Book of Exodus.
PASSOVER
At this time Jews remember how the children of Israel left slavery behind them when they left Egypt. The Israelites had been under the rule of Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, until Moses led them out over 3,000 years ago.
Despite pleas from Moses, every time Pharaoh refused to release the Israelites. He warned that unless his people were released from slavery and allowed to leave Egypt, God would send terrible plagues into Pharaoh's land. The ten plagues were blood, frogs, gnats, flies, blight of the livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the death of the first born.
God told Moses to tell the Israelites to daub the doors of their houses with lamb's blood so God could 'pass over' their houses and ensure they were spared this last plague. Thus was born the Passover Festival and because many of the early Christians were Jews brought up in Hebrew traditions, a link was created between Passover and Easter. The link is strongest during the Seder, the very special family meal held on the eve of Passover, when during the drinking of four small glass of wine, an extra glass is poured for the Prophet Elijah. It was Elijah who foretold of the coming of the Jewish Messiah.
Our Lord Jesus Himself was of course from Jewish parents, and many of the early Christians too were Jewish and raised in the Hebrew tradition. They regarded Easter as an addition to the Passover festival, which of course is a partly a commemoration Elijah's prophecy