Easter 2011
Finding its roots in Old English “Ēostre”, Easter is the most important day in the Christian liturgical year and is also known as Resurrection Day or Resurrection Sunday. On this day, Christians celebrate the rise of Jesus from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. Theologians disagree on Jesus’ exact dates of death and resurrection but commonly agree that both occurred between AD 26 and 36, with the majority marking the year 33 as the exact date.
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 fifty-day period called Eastertide or the Easter Season, ending with Pentecost Sunday.
Think you know Easter? Play the Easter Trivia Quiz to find out just how much you know (or don’t know)!
Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. It occurs during the spring, in March or April; the method for determining the date of Easter Sunday is complex, based on lunisolar calendar.
Easter Factoids:
- Apart from English and German, the name of ‘Easter’ has been derived from Pesach, the Hebrew name of Passover festival.
- The customary act of painting eggs is known as Pysanka.
- Easter always falls between March 22nd and April 25th.
- The custom of giving eggs at Easter dates back to the time of the Egyptians, Persians, Gauls, Greeks and Romans.
- For Americans, Easter is the second most important candy-eating occasion of the year, after Halloween.
- As per the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest Easter egg made till date, was just over 25-ft high and was made of chocolate and marshmallow. Weighing at 8,968 lbs., the egg was supported by an internal steel frame.
- Right from ancient times, egg has been regarded as a symbol of rebirth in most of the cultures.
