The History of Easter: Centuries of Controversy

Most people don't realize that there is more to Easter than the Easter bunny and hiding colored eggs in baskets for little children. Easter is one of the most controversial holidays in the world; to date, there are four phases of the "Easter controversy" based on choosing which day is the right date to celebrate. Even though these disputes have gone on for centuries, Easter in the year 2009 is still not yet reformed. The World Council of Churches proposed a way to define Easter as the first Sunday after the astronomical full moon (which follows the vernal equinox) starting in 2001 but the reform has yet to be put into operation.

To date, Easter is always celebrated two days after Good Friday (on a Sunday), falling anywhere in between March 22^nd and April 25^th. It is also the end of Lent, which is the forty-day long fasting Christians partake in to prepare and commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter is a moveable feast and has no permanent set date in the year.

What is Easter?

Easter is a Christian festival and is the most important feast in the Christian year (known as the liturgical year). In the Bible, Jesus was resurrected three days after he was crucified to death by the Romans. The date is very similar to the Jewish Passover (the holy day in remembrance for God sparing the Jewish people after he killed the first born of Egypt) and the feast highly symbolizes bread, which Christ proclaimed was his 'body' during the Last Supper.

The Controversial History of Easter From Then to the Year 2009

The history of Easter is an ongoing history, one can say, because different Church denominations were in disagreement with the celebration date. Even now for the upcoming Easter festival of 2009 (on April 12^th, 2009), many public schools, colleges, and the media in the United States will call the date "Spring Holiday" instead of "Easter." This more modern controversy stems from a case in 1999 where the US Seventh Court of Appeals ruled that naming the day "Spring Holiday" was secular and abided by the rule of separation of Church and State.

Many people regard this re-naming of a very traditional and important holiday as too bold in the name of political correctness. Supporters of the term acknowledge "Spring Holiday" to be less restrictive to people of other religions, especially for kids who don't understand the real significance behind the date. Arguers of the policy claim that having to call the most important religious festival in the Christian year "Spring Holiday" is damaging to the meaning of the holiday.

The Four Phases of the Easter Controversy

There is much detail in each phase because of the number of different people and denominations of Churches involved. It also spans a timeline with a magnitude of centuries, so be sure to click on the links for further information.

In the first phase of the controversial history of Easter, the problem was mainly about deciding if Christians were supposed to follow Old Testament practices to celebrate Easter. Quartodecimanism (the custom of having Easter on the 14^th day of Nisan) wasn't popular with the views of the bishop Victor of Rome, who attempted to excommunicate the practice. The word 'excommunicate' means to exclude someone out of the Church or the religious community. If you were excommunicated, it would mean the equivalent of losing your chance to go to Heaven. In those times, it was pretty serious. However, the act was 'rescinded' after much reconciliation of differences. No united method of calculating the date for Easter was created.

In the second phase of the controversy involved the First Council of Nicadea, and it was now accepted that Easter was always celebrated on a Sunday. But the problem - which Sunday? After much calculation and disagreements between the Syrian Christians and the Christians of Alexandria and Rome, the council finally ruled on a set of principles; Easter was to be on the same Sunday all throughout the world and that the Sunday must follow the fourteenth day of the paschal full moon.

The third phase revolved around Roman missionaries returning from England finding out that Christian representatives for Britain were following a very old system to compute for the date of Easter, the system Rome had created. The name of the council that followed this was the Synod of Whitby, which led to a great 'Romanization' of the Church in England, something most people in Europe at the time followed but the practice was not yet consolidated or mainstream.

In the fourth phase we are back to the modern age, when the state of the holiday is more pressing than ever now for Easter in 2009. The World Council of Churches met at the summit of Aleppo, Spain in 1997 (just over a decade ago) to suggest a final reform to determine the date of Easter; the first Sunday after the astronomical full moon following the vernal equinox, as established from the meridian of Jerusalem. This reform hasn't been put into play.

Confused yet?

What the Easter Bunny Represents and Why We Decorate Eggs

The history of Easter is as confusing as the kinds of things people do to celebrate the holiday. Exactly what do bunnies and eggs have to do with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? To know the answer, you have to look at the symbolism involved.

The Easter bunny is anthropomorphic (with human characteristics) and brings baskets of candy and designed eggs to children on the night just before Easter, similar to how Santa Claus brings presents for Christmas. Though both are mythical, the symbols they represent more than apply to the Christian beliefs of the resurrection. Rabbits (and hares) symbolize fertility, for they are able to reproduce quickly and reach sexual maturity fast. There's a reason why we use the phrase "breeding like rabbits." And for a similar reason, the icon for Playboy is a head-shot of a bunny. It's not being obscene - the rabbit is actually regarded as a symbol of antiquity.

The Easter bunny represents the growing fertility of the Vernal Equinox during springtime, where vegetation and flowers flourish. It is also the season when they perform their wild mating dances. This new exuberance of life on Earth parallels to the victory Christ had over sin when he was resurrected three days after his death.

Eggs also represent fertility but there is a much deeper significance. Eggs were not allowed to be eaten during Lent by Catholics, explaining why there were so many on Easter (when Lent ends). The practice of coloring eggs and placing them in baskets for children to find became very popular. Altogether, this tradition strengthened the power of this Christian holiday and continues to be a part of modern pop culture. The question remains despite the symbolism - what does an anthropomorphic bunny with a basket of decorated eggs have to do with the death and resurrection of the Son of God?

It's a question many of us seek to answer, including an episode in South Park (Fantastic Easter Special), where the hidden secrets of Easter are revealed in a humorous way.