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The chief festival of the Christian Church, commemorating the resurrection of Christ after his crucifixion. It is observed in the Western Churches on a Sunday between 22 March and 25 April inclusive, depending on the date of the first full moon after the vernal equinox; the Orthodox Church has a different method of calculating the date. The name Easter perhaps derives from Eostre, the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess. Easter customs such as egg-rolling are probably of pagan origin.

This article is about the Christian festival. otheruses

Easter, also known as Pascha (Greek ?????: Passover), the Feast of the Resurrection, the Sunday of the Resurrection, or Resurrection Day, is the most important religious feast of the Christian liturgical year, observed between late March and late April (early April to early May in Eastern Christianity). It celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, which his followers believe occurred after his death by crucifixion in AD 27-33 (see Good Friday). In the Catholic Church Easter is actually an eight-day feast called the Octave of Easter.

Easter also refers to the season of the church year, lasting for fifty days, from Easter Sunday through Pentecost. (see Easter Season)

Nature and development

In most languages of Christian societies, other than English, German and some Slavic languages, the holiday's name is derived from Pesach, the Hebrew name of Passover, a Jewish holiday to which the Christian Easter is intimately linked. the Last Supper shared by Jesus and his disciples before his crucifixion is generally thought of as a Passover seder, based on the chronology in the Synoptic Gospels. This would put the Last Supper slightly before Passover, on 14 Nisan of the Bible's Hebrew calendar . According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "In fact, the Jewish feast was taken over into the Christian Easter celebration."

The English and German names, "Easter" and "Ostern", are not etymologically derived from Pesach and are instead related to ancient names for the month of April, Eostremonat and Ostaramanoth respectively. According to the 8th century Christian monk and historian Bede, this month was dedicated to the pagan fertility goddess Eostre. 380) attributes the observance of Easter by the church to the perpetuation of local custom, "just as many other customs have been established", stating that neither Jesus nor his Apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival. Indeed, although he describes the details of the Easter celebration as deriving from local custom, he insists the feast itself is universally observed.

Perhaps the earliest extant primary source referencing Easter is a 2nd century Paschal homily by Melito of Sardis, which characterizes the celebration as a well-established one.

A number of ecclesiastical historians, primarily Eusebius, bishop Polycarp of Smyrna, by tradition a disciple of John the Evangelist, disputed the computation of the date with bishop Anicetus of Rome in what is now known as the Quartodecimanism controversy. The term Quartodeciman is derived from Latin, meaning fourteen, and refers to the practice of fixing the celebration of Passover for Christians on the fourteenth day of Nisan in the Old Testament's Hebrew Calendar (for example , in Latin "quarta decima"). According to the Gospel of John (for example ), this was the Friday that Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem. Those in Asia held strictly to the computation from the Old Testament's Hebrew calendar and ended the fast on the 14th day of Nisan, while the Roman custom was to continue the fast until the Sunday following. Neither Polycarp nor Anicetus was able to convert the other to his position—according to a rather confused account by Sozomen, both could claim Apostolic authority for their traditionswww.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.iii.xii.xix.html—but neither did they consider the matter of sufficient importance to justify a schism, so they parted in peace leaving the question unsettled. However, a generation later bishop Victor of Rome excommunicated bishop Polycrates of Ephesus and the rest of the Asian bishops for their adherence to 14 Nisan. In the end, a uniform method of computing the date of Easter was not formally settled until the First Council of Nicaea in 325 (see below), although by that time the Roman timing for the observance had spread to most churches.

A number of early bishops rejected the practice of celebrating Easter, or more accurately Passover, on the first Sunday after Nisan 14. This conflict between Easter and Passover is often referred to as the "Paschal Controversy", (see also Quartodecimianism. These all kept Easter on the fourteenth day, in accordance with the Gospel.... Seven of my relatives were bishops, and I am the eighth, and my relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven" (8.773, 8.744 "Ante-Nicene Church Fathers").

Early within the Church it was admitted by both sides of the debate that the Lord's Supper was the practice of the disciples and the tradition passed down. margin: 0 0 1em 1em">

Dates for Easter Sunday, 2000-2020

Year	Western	Eastern
2000	April 23	April 30
2001	April 15
2002	March 31	May 5
2003	April 20	April 27
2004	April 11
2005	March 27	May 1
2006	April 16	April 23
2007	April 8
2008	March 23	April 27
2009	April 12	April 19
2010	April 4
2011	April 24
2012	April 8	April 15
2013	March 31	May 5
2014	April 20
2015	April 5	April 12
2016	March 27	May 1
2017	April 16
2018	April 1	April 8
2019	April 21	April 28
2020	April 12	April 19

In Western Christianity, Easter always falls on a Sunday from March 22 to April 25 inclusive. The following day, Easter Monday, is a legal holiday in many countries with predominantly Christian traditions. In Eastern Christianity, Easter falls between April 4 and May 8 between 1900 and 2100 based on the Gregorian date.

Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts, in that they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars (which follow the motion of the sun and the seasons). Instead, they are based on a lunar calendar similar—but not identical—to the Hebrew Calendar. The precise date of Easter has often been a matter for contention.

At the First Council of Nicaea in 325 it was decided that Easter would be celebrated on the same Sunday throughout the Church, but it is probable that no method was specified by the Council. EJ Brill, New York, 1994, pp.471?472).

The practice of those following Alexandria was to celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after the earliest fourteenth day of a lunar month that occurred on or after March 21. While since the Middle Ages this practice has sometimes been more succinctly phrased as Easter is observed on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox, this does not reflect the actual ecclesiastical rules precisely. The ecclesiastical rules are:

• Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after the day of the ecclesiastical vernal equinox
  
• this particular ecclesiastical full moon is the 14th day of a tabular lunation (new moon)
  
• the ecclesiastical vernal equinox is always March 21
  

The Church of Rome used its own methods to determine Easter until the 6th century, when it may have adopted the Alexandrian method as converted into the Julian calendar by Dionysius Exiguus (certain proof of this does not exist until the ninth century). Most churches in the British Isles used a late third century Roman method to determine Easter until they adopted the Alexandrian method at the Synod of Whitby in 664. Since western churches now use the Gregorian calendar to calculate the date and Eastern Orthodox churches use the original Julian calendar, their dates are not usually aligned in the present day.

At a summit in Aleppo, Syria, in 1997, the World Council of Churches proposed a reform in the calculation of Easter which would have replaced an equation-based method of calculating Easter with direct astronomical observation; proposals include always observing the feast on the second Sunday in April, or always having seven Sundays between the Epiphany and Ash Wednesday, producing the same result except that in leap years Easter could fall on April 7. See computus for a discussion covering both the traditional tabular methods and more exclusively mathematical algorithms such as the one developed by mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss.

In the Western Church, Easter has not fallen on the earliest of the 35 possible dates, March 22, since 1818, and will not do so again until 2285. Easter last fell on the latest possible date, April 25 in 1943, and will next fall on that date in 2038. For example, Quartodecimanism was the practice of setting the holiday on the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan, which is the day of preparation for Passover.

Position in the church year

Western Christianity

In Western Christianity, Easter marks the end of the forty days of Lent, a period of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter which begins on Ash Wednesday.

The week before Easter is very special in the Christian tradition: the Sunday before is Palm Sunday, and the last three days before Easter are Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday (sometimes referred to as Silent Saturday). Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday respectively commemorate Jesus' entry in Jerusalem, the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are sometimes referred to as the Easter Triduum (Latin for "Three Days"). In some countries, Easter lasts two days, with the second called "Easter Monday". Many churches start celebrating Easter late in the evening of Holy Saturday at a service called the Easter Vigil.

Eastertide, the season of Easter, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts until the day of Pentecost, seven weeks later. After Lazarus Saturday comes Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and finally Easter itself, or Pascha (?????), and the fast is broken immediately after the Divine Liturgy. Easter is immediately followed by Bright Week, during which there is no fasting, even on Wednesday and Friday.

The Paschal Service consists of Paschal Matins, Hours, and Liturgy, which traditionally begins at midnight of Pascha morning.

Religious observation of Easter

Western Christianity

The Easter festival is kept in many different ways among Western Christians. The traditional, liturgical observation of Easter, as practised among Roman Catholics and some Lutherans and Anglicans begins on the night of Holy Saturday with the Easter Vigil. This, the most important liturgy of the year, begins in total darkness with the blessing of the Easter fire, the lighting of the large Paschal candle (symbolic of the Risen Christ) and the chanting of the Exsultet or Easter Proclamation attributed to Saint Ambrose of Milan. these tell the stories of creation, the sacrifice of Isaac, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the foretold coming of the Messiah. This part of the service climaxes with the singing of the Alleluia and the proclamation of the gospel of the resurrection. Then the focus moves from the lectern to the font. Anciently, Easter was considered the most perfect time to receive baptism, and this practice is alive in Roman Catholicism, as it is the time when new members are initiated into the Church, and it is being revived in some other circles. The Catholic sacrament of Confirmation is also celebrated at the Vigil. The Easter Vigil concludes with the celebration of the Eucharist (or 'Holy Communion'). Some churches prefer to keep this vigil very early on the Sunday morning instead of the Saturday night, particularly Protestant churches, to reflect the gospel account of the women coming to the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week. These services are known as the Sunrise service and often occur in outdoor setting such as the church's yard or a nearby park.

Additional celebrations are usually offered on Easter Sunday itself. In predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines, the morning of Easter (known in the national language as "Pasko ng Muling Pagkabuhay" or the Pasch of the Resurrection) is marked with joyous celebration, the first being the dawn "Salubong", wherein large statues of Jesus and Mary are brought together to meet, imagining the first reunion of Jesus and his mother Mary after Jesus' Resurrection.

Eastern Christianity

Easter is the fundamental and most important festival of the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox. Christmas customs, on the other hand, are usually foreign imports, either from Germany or the USA. Eastern Rite Catholics in communion with the Pope of Rome have similar emphasis in their calendars, and many of their liturgical customs are very similar.

This is not to say that Christmas and other elements of the Christian liturgical calendar are ignored. This is succinctly summarized by the Paschal troparion, sung repeatedly during Pascha until the Apodosis of Pascha (which is the day before Ascension):

Christ is risen from the dead,

Trampling down death by death,

And upon those in the tombs

Bestowing life!

Celebration of the holiday begins with the "anti-celebration" of Great Lent. Entirely lit by candle, the priest and congregation process around the church building, re-entering ideally at the stroke of midnight, whereupon Matins begins immediately followed by the Paschal Hours and then the Divine Liturgy. Immediately after the Liturgy it is customary for the congregation to share a meal, essentially an agape dinner (albeit at 2.00 am or later!) The day after, Easter Sunday proper, there is no liturgy, since the liturgy for that day has already been celebrated. (See also Pascha greeting)

Non-religious Easter traditions

As with many other Christian dates, the celebration of Easter extends beyond the church. Today it is commercially important, seeing wide sales of greeting cards and confectionery such as chocolate Easter eggs, marshmallow bunnies, Peeps, and jelly beans.

Despite the religious preeminence of Easter, in many traditionally Christian countries Christmas is now a more prominent event in the calendar year, being unrivaled as a festive season, commercial opportunity, and time of family gathering —

America

Throughout North America, the Easter holiday has been partially secularized, so that some families participate only in the attendant revelry, central to which is decorating Easter eggs on Saturday evening and hunting for them Sunday morning, by which time they have been mysteriously hidden all over the house and garden. According to the children's stories, the eggs were hidden overnight and other treats delivered by the Easter Bunny in an Easter basket which children find waiting for them when they wake up.

Scandinavia

In Norway, in addition to skiing in the mountains and painting eggs for decorating, it is tradition to solve murders at Easter. Another tradition is Yahtzee games.
Sweden's traditions include egg painting/gathering and door-to-door collection of candy by small children dressed as witches. For lunch/dinner on Holy Saturday, families traditionally feast on a smörgåsbord of herring, salmon, potatoes, eggs and other kinds of food.

Central Europe

In the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, a tradition of whipping is carried out on Easter Monday. A similar tradition existed in Poland (where it is called Dyngus Day), but it is now little more than an all-day waterfight.

In Hungary (where it is called Ducking Monday), perfume or perfumed water is often sprinkled in exchange for an Easter egg. Some Christians (usually, but not always fundamentalists), however, continue to reject the celebration of Easter (and, often, of Christmas), because they believe them to be irrevocably tainted with paganism and idolatry. (King James Version)

That is also the view of Jehovah's Witnesses, who instead observe a yearly commemorative service of the Last Supper and subsequent death of Christ on the evening of 14 Nisan, as they calculate it derived from the lunar Hebrew Calendar. Jehovah's Witnesses claim that such verses as Luke 22:19, 20 constitute a commandment to remember the death of Christ, and they do so on a yearly basis just as the Passover was celebrated yearly by the Jews.

Some fundamentalist groups, including many independent and Baptist churches, maintain that Easter and Christmas are of pagan origins. In this spirit, these Christians teach that each day and all Sabbaths should be kept holy, in Christ's teachings.

Other groups, such as the Sabbatarian Church of God, claim to keep the feasts and commandments of God given in the Bible, which includes a Christian Passover that lacks most of the practices or symbols associated with Western Easter and retains more features of the Passover observed by Jesus Christ at The Last Supper.

Etymology and the origins of Easter traditions

In his 'De Temporum Ratione' the Venerable Bede wrote that the month Eostremonat (April) was so named because of a goddess, Eostre, who had formerly been worshipped in that month. Some authors have conluded that Easter has never been a pagan holiday but is shortened form of the German word for resurrection, auferstehen/auferstehung.Aticle disproving a pagan Easter

Jakob Grimm took up the question of Eostre in his Deutsche Mythologie of 1835, noting that Ostaramanoth was etymologically related to Eostremonat and writing of various landmarks and customs related to the goddess Ostara in Germany. Amongst other traditions, Grimm connected the 'Osterhase' (Easter Bunny) and Easter Eggs to the goddess Ostara/Eostre. He also cites various place names in Germany as being evidence of Ostara, but critics contend that the close etymological relationship between Ostara and the words for 'east' and 'dawn' could mean that these place names referred to either of those two things rather than a goddess.

Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ("Ecclesiastic History of the English People") contains a letter from Pope Gregory I to Saint Mellitus, who was then on his way to England to conduct missionary work among the heathen Anglo-Saxons. The Pope suggests that converting heathens is easier if they are allowed to retain the outward forms of their traditional pagan practices and traditions, while recasting those traditions spiritually towards Christianity instead of to their indigenous gods (whom the Pope refers to as "devils"), "to the end that, whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God". The Pope sanctioned such conversion tactics as biblically acceptable, pointing out that God did much the same thing with the ancient Israelites and their pagan sacrifices.

However, the giving of eggs at spring festivals was not restricted to Germanic peoples and could be found among the Persians, Romans, Jews and the Armenians.

Easter as a Sumerian festival

Some suggest an etymological relationship between Eostre and the Sumerian goddess Ishtar (www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t020.html www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract1.html www.pathlights.com/theselastdays/tracts/tract_22n.htm www.tiral.com/2004/04/the_origins_of_.html) and the possibility that aspects of an ancient festival accompanied the name, claiming that the worship of Bel and Astarte was anciently introduced into Britain, and that the hot cross buns of Good Friday and dyed eggs of Easter Sunday figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now.

At best, any connection between Ishtar and Easter is geographically and linguistically distant, and tangential.

Claiming a connection between Ishtar and Easter also ignores the fact that Easter is called "Passover" in almost every other language in the world.

Miscellaneous

Word for "Easter" in various languages

Names related to Eostremonat (Eostre Month)

• English Easter
  
• German Ostern
  
• Samoan Eseta (derived from English)
  

Names derived from the Hebrew Pesach (???) Passover

• Latin Pascha or Festa Paschalia
  
• Greek ????? (Paskha)
  
• Afrikaans Paasfees
  
• Albanian Pashkët
  
• Arabic ??? (?A?d ul-Fi??)
  
• Azeri Pasxa, Fish (pron: fis`h)
  
• Berber tafaska (nowadays it is the name of the muslim "Festival of sacrifice")
  
• Bulgarian ????? (Pasha; rarely used)
  
• Catalan Pasqua
  
• Croatian Vazam
  
• Danish Påske
  
• Dutch Pasen or paasfeest
  
• Esperanto Pasko
  
• Finnish Pääsiäinen
  
• French Pâques
  
• Hebrew ???? (Pascha)
  
• Icelandic Páskar
  
• Indonesian Paskah
  
• Irish Cáisc
  
• Italian Pasqua
  
• Lower Rhine German Paisken
  
• Norwegian Påske
  
• Tagalog (Philippines) Pasko ng Muling Pagkabuhay (literally "the Pasch of the Resurrection")
  
• Persian Pas`h
  
• Polish Pascha
  
• Portuguese Páscoa
  
• Romanian Pa?te
  
• Russian ????? (Paskha)
  
• Scottish Gaelic Casca
  
• Spanish Pascua
  
• Swedish Påsk
  
• Turkish Paskalya
  
• Welsh Pasg
  

Names used in other languages

• Armenian ????? (Zatik or Zadik, literally "resurrection")
  
• Belarusian ?????????? or Vialikdzen? (literally "the Great Day")
  
• Bosnian Uskrs or Vaskrs (literally "resurrection")
  
• Bulgarian ???????? (Velikden, literally "the Great Day") or ??????????? ???????? (Vazkresenie Hristovo, literally "Resurrection of Christ")
  
• (zh-stp|s=???|t=???|p=Fùhuó Jié) (literally "Resurrection Festival")
  
• Croatian Uskrs (literally "resurrection")
  
• Czech Velikonoce (literally "Great Nights" plural, no singular exists)
  
• Estonian Lihavõtted (literally "meat taking") or ülestõusmispühad.
  
• Georgian ??????? (A?dgoma, literally "rising")
  
• Hungarian Húsvét (literally "taking, or buying meat")
  
• Japanese ??? (Puhwalchol, literally "Resurrection season")
  
• Latvian Lieldienas (literally "the Great Days", no singular exists)
  
• Lithuanian Velykos (derived from Slavic languages, no singular exists)
  
• Macedonian ???????? (Veligden, literally "the Great Day")
  
• Persian ??? ??? (literally "Chaste Feast")
  
• Polish Wielkanoc (literally "the Great Night")
  
• Romanian Înviere (literally "resurrection")
  
• Serbian ????? (Uskrs) or ?????? (Vaskrs, literally "resurrection")
  
• Slovak Ve?ká Noc (literally "the Great Night")
  
• Slovenian Velika no? (literally "the Great Night")
  
• Tongan (South-pacific) Pekia (literally "death (of a lord)")
  
• Ukrainian ????????? (Velykden?, literally "the Great Day") or ????? (Paska)
  

References