Embrace The Geekness: The Easter Blogging Bash: The History of Easter

Hello there!

A few of my friends and I are doing a blogging bash on several aspects of Easter. My topic is the history of Easter. At the bottom of this post there is a list of everyone else's topics. I hope you enjoy!

Often, Easter is celebrated with Easter eggs, an Easter bunny, and chocolate. But what is the history of Easter? How did it begin? Why is it celebrated the way it is today? Continue reading to find out!

Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ, son of God.

(To see more on this, see my friend Spencer’s Blog) I’ll start from the beginning of the story of Jesus in Jerusalem during the days leading up to his crucifixion.

After the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, (Which today is celebrated on Palm Sunday) Jesus spent the next few days in the temple, teaching and healing all who came to him. On the first day of Passover, Jesus and his twelve disciples met in a room above a house in Jerusalem. Little did eleven of them know, the twelfth disciple, Judas Iscariot, has betrayed Jesus to the authorities for thirty Denarius. (About $20 in US Currency) Jesus was handed over to the authorities, tried, whipped, and crucified, the most humiliating death of the time.

After he died, Roman soldiers removed his body from the cross. One of Jesus’ friends Joseph, had Jesus’ body placed in his tomb. Three days after he died, Jesus rose again. (To see more about this, visit my friend Becca’s blog) After 40 days on earth, he ascended into heaven. His eleven disciples and all of the other people who believed Jesus to be the son of God began the early Church.

By all accounts, the early Church did not celebrate Easter. In fact, it was not until 325 A.D. that Christians began to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. According to St.Bede, an English historian of the eighth century, Easter owes its origin to the old Teutonic mythology. The name Easter was originally derived from the word Eostre. Eostre was the ancient Greek goddess of spring and fertility. It was believed that every year, Eostre returned to Earth after a long, cold winter and brought along with her the light and warmth of Spring. Thus, ancient Greeks held pagan festivals to welcome Eostre and herald the onset of spring. The Pagan festivals always coincided with the vernal Equinox on the 21st of March every year. Though the Greek were not fully cognizant of why and when spring comes, they believed Eostre must be pleased to ensure that she returns year after year. The festivals were lavish feasts that celebrated the booming of new flowers, the chirping of birds, butterflies, rabbits and sunshine and in general the feeling of rejuvenation that is inherent of spring.

The Christian church, decided to use this day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. They decided that by celebrating a festival on the same day as the pagans, they would be able to convert pagans to Christianity. In 325 A.D. the church also changed the date of the festival. The festival was no longer held on the spring equinox. Instead, the Church Council of Nicaea declared that it was to be held on the very first Sunday following the full moon on or after the vernal equinox. Thus, today Easter is celebrated on different dates every year and can occur as early as March 22nd or as late as April 25th.

The celebration of Easter has varied since the first celebration in 325. Through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, massive feasts were held to celebrate. By the 19th century, Easter slowly became commercialized. Stores began making chocolate bunnies and ‘Easter eggs’. Today, Easter is so commercialized, many people forget what they are celebrating.

One last note: The rabbit and the egg were both symbols of Eostre, the Greek/Roman god of spring and fertility. These symbols were carried over when the church decided to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection on the same day as the festival of Eostre.

With or without the Easter Bunny, Easter today means victory over death for anyone who chooses to follow Jesus. For it was on this day in the history of Easter, that Jesus conquered death and rose again, bringing light, love, and eternal life to the world forever.