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man helping put up a cross |
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Find
out; why Easter is never on the same date - it's down to some church
bureaucrats; why we give each other Easter eggs, and just how many
we munch each year; also how a pagan goddess became the Easter bunny. |
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| WHERE
DOES THE NAME COME FROM? |
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| The
early Christians took over a pagan festival in honour of the
goddesses "Ostra", "Ostern" or "Eastre" where they celebrated
the return of spring. Eastre became Easter. |
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WHY DOES THE DATE CHANGE EVERY YEAR? |
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| Easter
has always been a movable feast. Until A.D. 325 Easter was celebrated
on Friday, Saturday or Sunday in March. The Emperor Constantine
decided to try and fix a definitive date, but unfortunately
left it in the hands of the bureaucrats, and the Council of
Nicaea came up with a very complicated system. Their Easter
Rule said that the festival should be celebrated on the first
Sunday that occurs after the first full moon, on or after the
vernal equinox. To make the date even harder to work out the
ecclesiastical full moon often falls on a different day from
the astronomical full moon. But Easter will always be between
the dates of March 22 and April 25. |
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| WHY
DO WE GIVE EASTER EGGS? |
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Eggs
had a religious significance in many ancient civilisations;
Egyptians buried eggs in their tombs as did the Greeks; A Roman
proverb states, "All life comes from an egg". It’s probably
no surprise that Christianity should also adopt the egg to symbolise
the resurrection of Christ.
The first chocolate Easter egg appeared in this county in 1873.
We eat a lot of Easter eggs in the UK - 80 million last year
alone. Add to that almost 500 million cream eggs and you have
a lot of calories.
The Chocolate Easter egg is a very British thing. In the USA
they give Easter Bunnies and jellybeans. |
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WHERE DOES THE EASTER BUNNY COME FROM? |
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| Blame
that pagan festival again. The goddess, Eastre, was worshipped
by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the hare. |
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