Easter is the time for holidays, festivals and a time for giving chocolate Easter eggs. But Easter means much more....

Easter is the oldest and the most important Christian Festival, the celebration of the death and coming to life again of Jesus Christ. For Christians, the dawn of Easter Sunday with its message of new life is the high point of the Christian year.

What is the Easter story ?

For Christians, Easter is not just about one day but at least a whole week called Holy Week. It is the last week of Lent and the week before Easter. It begins with the Sunday before Easter, or Palm Sunday which celebrates the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in the days before his Passion. Then, there are Maundy Thursday, Good Thursday and Holy Saturday: that stands for the Easter Triduum (Latin for three days and particularly used by the Roman Catholic Church).
 

Maundy Thursday  is the day of the Last Supper, when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and established the Eucharist, giving them bread saying, "This is my body", and wine saying, "This is my blood." It was just before his arrest; Jesus knew it and forgave the ones who were about to betray him.

Then comes a day of profound mourning, Good Friday, which commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This is the opportunity for Christians to meditate on Jesus’s sufferings and his death on the cross. The meaning of what is called the Passion of Christ and the impact of such a sacrifice are the pillars of the Christian faith. It sounds bizarre that such a day is called “Good Friday” but it is likely to be a deformation of God’s Friday.
 

Easter Sunday  is the day of the resurrection of Christ, the most important event for a Christian. To be more precise, this is so important that Christian people prepare themselves for 40 days with Lent. This period implies prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial to be ready for the annual commemoration of Christ’s resurrection. Easter Sunday is always on the first Sunday of the full moon following the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

Note however that religion is not all this is all about. In fact, Easter has its beginnings before Christianity. Pagan ceremonies took place around the same date celebrating the upcoming Spring and the reviving of nature. English denomination “Easter” comes from the name of a goddess associated with Spring, Eostre.

Christian Easter simply re-packaged the spring celebrations into a Christian celebration which explains why the ceremony is always strongly connected with revival, rebirth and the end of a tough period.

Even if it’s impossible to imagine Easter without a big chocolate egg, everybody knows that it is first and foremost a religious ceremony which marks Jesus's resurrection. Actually it is the most important religious event in the Christian calendar. Did you think it was Christmas?