What is Easter?
Easter is the most celebrated of Christian holidays around the world. It is a holiday to celebrate the resurrection (rising) of Jesus Christ.
According to Christian History, Jesus was crucified on a Friday and rose three days later, on a Sunday.
The Easter holiday and its celebration of Christianity has occurred for many of hundreds of years. It is believed that the first time it was celebrated was back in 325AD. That is a very, very long time ago.
Over the years the Easter holiday has changed to also celebrate Easter as the welcoming of Spring. Spring in the Northern hemisphere (top half of Earth) starts on the 1st of March each year.
For a lot of people Easter is simply a cultural holiday to enjoy time with friends and family, and to eat festive food and candy.
What Date is Easter?
Each year as the season starts to change and the weather begins to warm up, we know that Spring is on the way. The start of Spring is a sign that we can start decorating our Easter eggs ready to welcome the Easter Bunny and to go on egg hunts.
Easter varies from one year to another and is tied to a number of Christian traditions that come before Easter. Easter can fall anywhere from between the 22nd of March and the 25th of April.
Easter is celebrated in the first Sunday after the full moon during the spring ‘Equinox’. Now Equinox is a very big word and what it means is the time of year when the night and day are of equal length. This happens twice per year around the 22nd of September and the 20th March.
Who is the Easter Bunny?
The Easter Bunny is the magical Rabbit that comes at Easter and brings children of the world delicious Chocolate easter eggs and candy. Have you ever wondered the history of the Easter Bunny?
The origin of the Easter bunny is said to have come from Germany before the 1700’s. It is said that village children in Germany were delivered sweets and candies by a cute bunny carrying a basket.
This tradition was brought to the places that German people moved to all around the world. The Easter Bunny must have hidden in the luggage to get to new countries such as the United States.
The Easter Bunny is hard to spot as he is so very, very quick. It is hard to see him when he delivers Easter eggs to you and he is sneaky in that he hides them to make you hunt for them. The Easter bunny has a very important job in delivering Easter eggs to all the children of the world.
Why do we Hunt for Easter Eggs?
Easter celebrates two things as it is a mix of the Christian celebration of Jesus and the celebration of the start of Spring.
Easter eggs are given as gifts for Easter as it celebrates the new life that begins during the springtime such as baby lambs and birds.
Baby birds grow in eggs and hatch from them just as It is said that Jesus rose from his tomb and was born Anew.
Originally the eggs that children hunter for were real Chicken’s eggs that had been painted. Nowadays these eggs are normally chocolate and the decoration appears on the wrapped of the egg.
10 Facts about Easter
1) It is a Christian Holiday to celebrate Jesus who was crucified on a Cross on a Friday and rose three days later Sunday.
2) The word Easter came from the original name of a Goddess called ‘Eostre” who was the Goddess of Dawn and Light. She was celebrated at the beginning of spring
3) The Easter Bunny is originally Germany and was brought to the rest of the world by German emigrants.
4) The painting of eggs to celebrate Easter is called ‘Pysanka’. The bright decoration have been painted on eggs for hundreds of years. It helps them to be found easily by children hunting for them.
5) Over 1.5 million chocolate easter eggs are made per day by chocolate maker Cadbury in preparation for Easter. They make over 500 million chocolate eggs per year. Easter eggs use to be real eggs so you should be happy they are now chocolate J
6) Easter baskets are supposed to look like a bird’s nest when Easter eggs are left inside them.
7) 76% of people will eat the ears of a Chocolate bunny first.
8) The most common symbols for easter are Eggs, Lambs, Bunnies and Flowers. This is because most countries move into spring with bright flowers and new animals such as lambs and chickens being born.
9) 16 Million Jellybeans are made each year in anticipation for Easter.
10) Over 120 million Easter cards are sent to family and friends over Easter to celebrate this holiday season.
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