Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs! Most kids in US associate this day with a ritual of Easter Eggs Hunt and eating chocolate rabbits. Supposedly, Easter Bunny would place colored eggs around the house, in the yard, or in the park. Kids are to find as many as they could. Few use real eggs anymore. They are now plastic ones filled with candies, or simply egg-shaped chocolates. Color eggs are a common decoration. A pot of boiled eggs, few containers of dyes, newspapers covering the surfaces, adults and kids gather around and make a mess of themselves — healthy, family fun.
I think Easter Bunny is the first kids grow out of, much earlier than Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy.
Originally, it is a fertility holiday. Easter is near the Vernal Equinox when lives and growth are conspicuous. Rabbits and eggs are symbols for proliferation. “Hunting” for eggs are good exercises and eggs are supposed to be treats in the old days when cholesterol was associated with tasty foods.
The exact day for Easter is just about the most complicated calendrical computation. Commonly understood, it is the 1st Sunday after the full moon that is on or after the Vernal Equinox. For 2007, it is April 8th.
Folk festival quickly became religious. First came Passover —
the tenth plague inflicted on Egyptians who enslaved Jews. On that day, Angel of Death took the lives of the 1st born sons of every household, unless the house was marked with lamb’s blood. He then passed over that door and proceeded to the next. After this plague, Egyptian Pharaoh admitted defeat and freed Jews. Officially, Passover starts on the 15th day of the 7th month (called Nisan) in Jewish calendar and lasts for 7 or 8 days. Usually, Passover is a week before Easter and coincides with Palm Sunday where the Easter celebration begins. The movies, Ten Commandments, has the most authentic description of this event. 🙂
Few thousands years after the 1st Passover, we have the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It evolved into a complex holiday season no less important than Christmas. The holiday begins with Good Friday — the day Jesus died. By Biblical scriptures, Jesus came back to life few days later: on Easter.
46 days before Easter is Ash Wednesday when 40 days of Lent begins. During these 40 days, Christians prepare for the celebration of Jesus’s resurrection and refrain from eating meats. Lent excludes Sundays and therefore ends on Easter.
Around this week started both the Jewish Nation and Christianity. For thousands of years, people celebrate this week for spring, lives, and births. Whatever faith, or none, you have, these are certainly things you appreciate.
Happy Passover/Easter.