The Easter Holiday History

Although many Christian events and holidays have been turned into secular celebrations that have nothing to do with the life of Jesus and the original reasons the holidays were created in the first place, one holiday that has retained its historical perspective and religious meaning is the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ more commonly known as Easter.

On the third day after Good Friday, the day of his crucifixion, now called Easter Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead. Some of His mourners went to His tomb to collect His body. However, as they soon found out, He was not there and they were greeted by an angel who said, "He is Risen".

However, from the time it was conceived as a holy celebration in the second century, Easter has also had its non-religious side as well and was originally created as a pagan festival.

The ancient Saxons celebrated the return of spring with an huge festival commemorating their goddess of offspring and of springtime, Eastre. When the second-century Christian missionaries encountered the tribes of the north with their pagan celebrations, they attempted to convert them to Christianity. They did so, however, in a clandestine manner.

It would have been suicidal for early Christian converts to celebrate their holy days with observances that did not coincide with celebrations that already existed. To save lives, the missionaries wisely decided to spread their religious message slowly throughout by allowing them to continue to celebrate pagan feasts, but to do so in a Christian manner.

As it happened, the pagan festival of Eastre occurred at the same time of year as the Christian observance of the Resurrection of Christ. It made sense, therefore, to alter the festival itself, to make it a Christian celebration as converts were slowly won over. The early name, Eastre, was eventually changed to its modern spelling, Easter.

The Easter Bunny is also not a modern invention. The symbol originated with the same pagan festival of Eastre. The goddess was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit.

The Germans brought the symbol of the Easter rabbit to America. Where it was widely ignored by other Christians until shortly after the Civil War. In fact, Easter itself was not widely celebrated in America until after that time.

As with the Easter Bunny and the holiday itself, the Easter Egg predates the Christian holiday of Easter as well. The exchange of eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Easter was first celebrated by Christians.
From the earliest times, the egg was a symbol of rebirth in most cultures. Eggs were often wrapped in gold leaf or, if you were a peasant, colored brightly by boiling them with the leaves or petals of certain flowers.

Today, children hunt colored eggs and place them in Easter baskets along with the modern version of real Easter eggs - those made of plastic or chocolate candy. Lights, candles and bonfires also mark celebrations in many countries.

So, what was once a pagan celebration centuries ago, is now arguably, the most celebrated and revered Christian holiday of all. Along with Christmas, which has been so secularized that little mention of Jesus is made, even by many Christians, Easter, may be now be the holiest of holy days.