Easter
Easter is the central feast in the
Christian liturgical year. It is the most important
Christian festival. It celebrates
Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead, three days after he was executed.
Easter is the principal feast of the ecclesiastical year.
Leo I (Sermo xlvii in Exodum) calls it the greatest feast (festum festorum), and says that
Christmas is only the preparation of
Easter Celebrations.
Easter, which celebrates
Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead, is
Christianity's most important holiday. It has been called a
moveable feast because it doesn't fall on a set date every year, as most holidays do. Instead,
Christian churches in the West celebrate Easter on the first
Sunday following the full moon after the
vernal equinox on
March 21. Therefore,
Easter is observed anywhere between
March 22 and
April 25 every year.
Orthodox Christians use the
Julian calendar to calculate when
Easter will occur and typically celebrate the holiday a week or two after the
Western churches, which follow the Gregorian calendar.
Easter marks the end of
Lent, a
forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance. The last week of the
Lent is called
Holy Week, and it contains
Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion and
death of Jesus.
Easter is followed by a
fifty-day period called
Eastertide or the
Easter Season, ending with
Pentecost Sunday.
Easter Sunday is the
Sunday immediately following the first full moon after the vernal (spring) equinox, unless that coincides with the
Jewish Feast of Passover. In
Christianity Easter is a time to have fun together, do family activities and travel away on holidays.
