Easter
Mario Moslavac
Easter is a Christian holiday. According to
Christian scripture (a book called
the Bible), it is the day when Jesus
Christ is said to have returned from the
dead. Christians believe that Easter is the
holiest day in the year. Easter is a
Christian Holy Day celebrated on the first
Sunday, following the first full moon,
following the first day of spring.
Western churches, like the Roman Catholic
Church, use the Gregorian
calendar and Eastern churches, like
the Eastern Orthodox Church, use
the Julian calendar. Because of this the
date of Easter celebrations is different for
these two types of churches even though
the way they calculate the date is the
same.
Some people who are not Christians
celebrate the beginning of Spring at
Easter.
The word Easter comes from the ancient
German word for April.
Today, Christians celebrate Easter in a number of
different ways. They go to church, they give each others
colourful Easter eggs, or they give each others candy.
Sometimes they even give each other
baby ducks, chickens or bunnies as presents, though
this is not done as much as it used to be.
Christians believe that two days after
Jesus was killed (on Easter Sunday), his
followers searched in his tomb and found
that his body was gone. Later, Jesus is
said to have appeared to them and
preached to them. It was because of this
that his followers knew that Jesus was
God, just as he said.
Christians believe that Jesus was killed on
the cross about 2000 years ago by
the Romans in a city called Jerusalem (most of
which is in the modern country of Israel). The
people who killed him did so because they
believed that he was causing trouble for the
government and because he was claiming to
be God. When they crucified him (meaning they
nailed him to a cross), they even hung a sign
over his head to make fun of him for this
reason. The day he was crucified is known by
Christians as Good Friday.