By Jacqueline Kelly –
The meaning of Easter is sacrifice- the payment in full of the final price-demanded by Love as the ransom cost of – saving the sinful and the lost.
The spirit of Easter means victory- bestowing on all humanity the charter of resurrection tide. Love enthroned and self-denied. Life becomes a glorious thing – bought with the blood of the Risen King.
Easter is one of the most joyously celebrated religious days of the year. Beyond the deep religious observations, the spring festival observance has taken on many forms in different lands, as other people have developed their own customs over the ages.
The name Easter is derived from Eostre, an ancient Teutonic goddess of spring. In other countries, France for example, Easter is called “Paques”, derived from ‘pasch’ meaning literally “he passes over”, and alludes to the Jewish Passover.
As Christmas has been identified with the winter solstice [either of the times of the year when the sun is furthest from the equator] during the early developing years of the early church, so Easter was celebrated in the spring in recognition of rebirth of nature.
Easter conjures up to the mind’s eye the Easter egg, a symbol of creation, renewed life, resurrection and the mystery of existence. Easter commemorates the resurrection of Christ and is the greatest annual festival of the Christian year. Easter was also the greatest baptismal festival of the early Church. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates Easter a week later and regards it as the most solemn festival of the year. Saint Paul refers to Christ as the Paschal sacrifice. Easter corresponded to the Hebrew sacrifice of the Paschal lamb which was offered on the altar.
Easter is a spring festival. It is a time of renewal, throwing out the old and spring cleaning. In some Christian countries, houses and stables are cleaned and whitewashed. It is also time to clean and whitewash our hearts with the resurrected Lord.
The Date of Easter
The Easter commemoration was a bone of contention in early times. Some observed Easter as a fast, others as a feast. It is now kept as a feast after the Lenten fast. Gregory XIII endeavored to fix Easter on a set Sunday so that it fell on the same date every year, but this was discarded. The Council of Nicea in 325 dissociated it from the festival of the Passover which commemorated the Exodus from Egypt and the “passing over” of the first-born of the Jews when those of Egypt were slain.
The dating of Easter has been that it be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox. In the West, only the Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland refused to accept the date until 664 because of their own Celtic calendar. It was on the first Sunday following the Paschal full moon as the pilgrims making their way to the yearly Easter festival needed the light of the full moon to aid in their travels, which was the principal reason for so establishing the date of Easter.
Easter Customs
Easter Sunday Mass did not exist in the early Church. What is celebrated today as Easter occurred during the night hours preceding dawn on Sunday, the Easter Vigil. This emphasis has returned today. In fact, Easter Sunday is the first Sunday of Easter implying that Easter itself has already occurred.
In the early Church, those who were baptized at the Easter Vigil were dressed in a white robe. They would wear that robe throughout the whole Easter week as a symbol of their new life. Those who had already been baptized in prior years, did not wear white robes, but would wear new clothes to indicate their share in the new life of Christ.
So, the wearing of new clothes at Easter was an external profession and symbol of the Easter grace. During the Middle Ages in Europe, people in their new Easter clothes would take a long walk after Easter Mass. This was a kind of procession preceded by a Crucifix of the Easter Candle. The tradition evolved into EASTER PARADES.
In ancient Egypt and Persia friends exchanged decorated eggs at the spring equinox [they have always been symbols of creation, fertility and new life] the beginning of the New Year. These eggs were a symbol of fertility for them because the coming forth of a live creature from an egg was so surprising to people of ancient times. Christians of the Near East adopted this tradition, and the EASTER EGG became a religious symbol. It represented the tomb from which Jesus came forth. They were often coloured red to represent the blood of Christ by which all believers were given a share in this new life of Christ.
In medieval times, eggs were traditionally given at Easter to all servants, and to the children [it was one of the foods forbidden during Lent, along with other gifts. It seems that the custom of hiding the eggs is a universal one.
RABBITS were also a pre-Christian fertility symbol. Often, they were used as images of Christ’s post-resurrection appearances. These appearances were likened to the rabbits being seen and then disappearing and then being seen again somewhere else. The first mention of the Easter Bunny and her eggs seems to have come from Germany in the late 1500’s. In many parts of Germany the belief was that the Easter bunny laid red eggs on Maundy Thursday and multi-coloured eggs the night before Easter Sunday.
In early Christian art the lily is a symbol of purity because of its delicacy of form and its whiteness. They did not exist in North America until about 100 years ago.
The white trumpet lily, which blooms naturally in springtime, was brought here from Bermuda. They are popularly called “EASTER LILIES,” because they bloom around Easter time. The American public quickly made it a symbolic feature of the Easter celebrations.
Prayers for the blessing of LAMBS, a significant symbol of Christ, dates back to the 7th century. From the 9th century, the main feature of the Pope’s Easter dinner was roast lamb. The ancient tradition of the Paschal lamb inspired the use of lamb as a popular Easter food among all the faithful. In Europe, small figures of a lamb made from butter, pastry and sugar are popular.
The BUTTERFLY is an ancient Easter symbol. Just as the butterfly which emerges from the cocoon is the same caterpillar in new form, so Jesus, emerging from the tomb is the same person- glorified.
The Paschal Candle
The blessing of fire and the lighting of the Paschal Candle is perhaps the most ancient illustration used to explain the work of Christ who has passed through darkness into light. The lighting of the candles by the congregation at the Vigil Service from the one Paschal Candle which represents Jesus is significant: Christ has brought us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
The Paschal Candle symbolizes Christ in many ways and must be treated with honour as it burns through Paschal tide. It is fittingly called the Christ Candle for the following reasons:
Christ’s divine nature is represented by the flame.
His human nature is symbolized by the body of the candle made of bees wax that is produced by virgin bees [just as Christ’s body was born of the Virgin].
On the body of the Candle we have:
1. A Cross – the instrument of Christ’s Passover and ours.
2. Five grains of incense symbolizing the five wounds.
3. The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and omega to remind us that Jesus is the first and last.
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4. The current year to tell us that his death-resurrection fills our time.
EASTER WATER is blessed solemnly at the Easter Vigil. Families are encouraged to bring home a container of this holy water to be used at home for family blessings on persons, house, etc.,
Some families clean out their fireplaces on Good Friday and do without a fire until they bring home coals from the New Fire blessed at the Easter Vigil.
In many parts of the world people serve traditional BREADS and PASTRIES at Easter like the Russian Easter bread [Paska – because it is made in the round and rises up], the German Easter loaves [Osterstollen], the Polish Easter Cake [Baba Wielancona], etc., Very often these breads and patries, together with meat and eggs, are blessed on Holy Saturday.
An Italian custom is to make a simple sweet bread dough shaped in the form of a chick, bunny or doll. These breads are baked with a whole egg placed in the “tummy” of the form and frosted with egg yolk. The whole family is involved in the making of these Easter breads. They are brought to the Easter Vigil to be blessed and are given as gifts on Easter Sunday to young friends and relatives.
Early Christians customarily celebrated Easter Week as days of joy and laughter. They would tell jokes, play pranks, feast on lamb, dance, sing and express humour and joy over this “final joke” on the devil, death and evil. They would add fragrant oil or perfume to the Easter water they had brought home with them from Church, as a reminder of the Sacred Chrism.
This water was used to sprinkle and bless food, pets, gardens, homes and more. In some countries, you could get soaked this week. Baptism was recalled with the custom of “dousing”. On Easter Monday men wake women with a spritz of the perfumed Easter water while they whisper “May you never wither”. On Easter Tuesday, women wake men with a bucketful of the scented water.
There are many customs in many lands, but whatever the custom, and whatever the date, the one-time meaning of Easter is the Risen Christ. The deep religious significance of this event transcends eggs, rabbits, flowers, fashions and customs, even as the sun transcends the little incidentals of our man-made ways.