ABOUT EASTER SUNDAY

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday is a Christian Festival celebrating the resurrection to life of Jesus Christ, on the third day after death by crucification at Golgotha. The date of Easter varies between March 22 and April 25. Previously the first Christians celebrated the Passover feast on the 14th Nissan of the Hebrew Calendar like the Jews. There was a difference of opinion regarding the celebration on the 14th Nissan. In the Council of Nicaea convened in the year 325 A.D. by Emperor Constantine-I the Great, it was decided that the resurrection of Jesus only. It was also decided that the resurrection of Jesus should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the full-moon following the northern hemisphere’s vernal equinox. (Equinox occurs twice a year around March 20 and September 22 and around equinox the night and daytime are about equal length. In the equinox the earth’s axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the sun, the center of the sun being in the same plane as the earth’s equator).

The word Easter is having connection with a pagan Anglo Saxon spring Goddess 'Eostre'. The festival of Goddess Eostre was celebrated in the spring. Spring is the period when the nature is resurrected to life after the dead of the winter and therefore this festival was a feast of regeneration. As Jesus also resurrected to life in spring, the name of the festival Eostre might have been adopted to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Whatever may be the reason for the adoption of the name of this feast, it is celebrated by every Christian to commemorate the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ to life after death on the cross.