Easter

Easter is the name given to the time of the year when the Christian Church gathers together as a community to remember and celebrated the cardinal events that gave birth to and shaped the meaning of the Christian faith, i.e., the passion, the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. On the calender it is usually marked off as running from Good Friday to Easter Sunday; in the thoughts of the community, though, it is almost always perceived as part of a broader period of spiritual reflection and preparation that begins usually with Lent.

The death and resurrection of our Lord is so central to the gospel that it was felt early in the church that it should be remembered in an act of corporate celebration. It may also have begun as a conscious effort by the church to provide a Christian parallel to the Jewish Passover. Certainly the theological significance of the events in the final week of Jesus' life would have provided more than enough symbolic arguments for such a celebration. By the beginning of the 2nd Cent., Easter, Pentecost, and Epiphany had become parts of the church calendar.

Disagreements and controversies, however, became part of the celebration. The crux of the debate was over whether the emphasis of the celebrartion should be on the crucifixion and death of Christ or on his resurrection, or, in other words, on the Jewish Passover or the Sunday (Christian Sabbath). Pushing for the former was a group of eastern Christians who came to be called Quartodecimani, i.e., "fourteen," because they insisted that it should be celebrated on the 14th of Nisan, the day of the Jewish Passover. The debate grew so bitter, the Roman Catholic denounced the Quartodecimanis as heretics. The decision was finally made at the Council of Nicea that Easter should fall on the "first Sunday after the vernal full moon" and never on 14th Nisan. Because of the different methods of calculation, however, the timing of the Eastern Orthodox Churches' celebration may differ by as much as five weeks from the Western Churches.

The origin of the name is now unknown. Bede "the Father of English history," thinks it came from Eostre, the goddess whose festival was held at the spring equinox in ancient times. Whatever the origin of the name, it would be entirely misguided to dismiss the celebration of this event in the church by investing it with such pagan associations. Or to trivialize it by the addition of Easter eggs and bunnies. For whatever was once associated with, it is now a fully Christian festival pregnant with spiritual significance for thosw who love the Lord.