EASTER: the real story

Posted on 18 April, 2014

As a kid growing up in Sydney, Easter was all about chocolate eggs and chocolate bunnies, showbags at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, and oh yeah (being the good Catholic girl that I was) that whole Jesus rising from the dead thing.

Now, as an adult in Canberra, Easter for me is still about the chocolate, but I also eat a lot more hot cross buns (the chocolate-flavoured ones are my favourite), and I’m not so desperate for showbags anymore.  I do still go to church to celebrate that whole Jesus rising from the dead thing, but I have to confess, I’m not that good Catholic girl any longer, and so Easter time is the only time (apart from Christmas) when I actually turn up to church.

Easter is upon us once again-Alleluia! For billions of Christians around the world, Easter is a very important time of the church year when they commemorate the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of their saviour, Jesus Christ.  But Easter is also the time of hot cross buns, spring blossoms, cute lambs and baby chickens and baby rabbits, hunting for Easter eggs, and most importantly of all, it’s the time when a magical creature called the Easter Bunny rocks up to town with his basket filled with Easter eggs.

I love Easter-and not just because of the chocolate overload.  Today on Her Canberra, we explore some Easter traditions and customs, and we look at some simple ways you can celebrate this beautiful and special time of the year with your loved ones.

Alleluia! Jesus is Risen! (But hang on a minute-is that the Easter Bunny next to him?)

For Christians, Easter is the ULTIMATE event in the church year. Why? Because it is the time when, almost 2000 years ago, the most important person in the Christian faith, Jesus Christ, was sentenced to death by crucifixion (that is, being nailed to a cross) by the ruling Romans in present day Jerusalem. To put it simply, Jesus was crucified on a Friday (Good Friday), was then buried in a tomb, but on the following Sunday, when his women followers visited his tomb, they found that it was empty. Jesus had risen from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection is celebrated every year by Christians on Easter Sunday.

But what has Jesus Christ and his resurrection have to do with the Easter Bunny? Absolutely nothing, really. However, bunnies and cute baby animals and eggs and all the other non-religious symbols of Easter have been around since pre-Christian times.

In fact, the very word EASTER comes from an ancient fertility and spring goddess called Eostre or Ostara who was worshipped by the Germanic peoples of northern Europe long before Christianity arrived on the scene. Feasts were held in her honour during the spring, with hares and eggs said to be her sacred symbols. In Europe, Easter falls during the spring, a time of nature returning to life after the death of winter, a time when new flowers bloom, birds lay eggs, and baby animals are born.

Many of the Easter symbols we have today originated in Europe and with customs tied with the spiritual beliefs of northern Europeans in pre-Christian times. And that is why eggs and bunnies and other cute baby animals and spring flowers dominate Easter’s popular images. However, here in Australia, Easter falls during the cooler autumn months. But just as we celebrate the winter feast of Christmas and its associations with snow and frost while our land bakes and burns under the sizzling summer sun, we don’t seem to bother too much with Easter’s spring symbols and colours.

Over time, the non-religious customs and symbols of Easter were eventually incorporated into the celebration of Easter separately from the Christian tradition of Jesus rising from the dead-though these non-religious symbols of eggs and baby animals and spring and new blossoms actually fit in well with the Christian Easter theme of new life.

The Easter Bunny Is Coming To Town!

According to one old story, the goddess Eostre or Ostara once came upon an injured bird in the woods. She decided to save the bird by turning it into a hare, an animal sacred to her and known to be a prolific breeder. The bird survived in its hare form, but it also kept its ability to build nests and lay eggs. And so the legend of the Easter Bunny with his basket of eggs was born!

Hot Cross Buns, hot cross buns, one a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns…

Like chocolate eggs and chocolate bunnies, hot cross buns are everywhere during Easter. But we shouldn’t take this humble bun for granted. The humble hot cross bun actually has a long, superstitious and quite infamous history.

With the arrival of Christianity in Europe, it wasn’t uncommon for bakers to mark all kinds of baked goods such as cakes, buns and breads with the sign of the cross. The cross was said to scare off evil spirits or prevent the bread from going mouldy or stale. However, in England in the late 1500s and 1600s during the time of Queen Elizabeth 1 and her successors, the practice of marking baked goods with a cross was condemned as too Catholic. A decree was actually issued in 1592 forbidding the sale of hot cross buns and other spiced breads except at burials, Good Friday and at Christmas. The suppression of hot cross buns continued relentlessly under the reign of Elizabeth’s successor, King James 1 of England. Who would have thought that the humble hot cross bun could be so controversial?

Today in England, hot cross buns are still traditionally eaten on Good Friday. And there are many superstitions from English folklore surrounding the hot cross bun. For example, if you hang a hot cross bun in your house on Good Friday, then you are said to be protected from bad luck throughout the rest of the year. Sharing a hot cross bun with another person is also said to ensure your friendship with them for the year, and if you take a hot cross bun with you on a sea voyage, then it will protect you and your ship from shipwreck.

Why Easter isn’t celebrated at the same time every year

The following facts can be a bit daunting and confusing, so please bear with me.

Easter doesn’t have a set date like Christmas Day or New Year’s Day. It’s a moveable feast which means that it can fall anywhere from March 22 to April 25. That’s because the dates are based on when the Paschal Full Moon actually occurs. The Paschal or Passover Full Moon is determined by the Jewish holiday calendar. Passover is a major Jewish spring festival which commemorates the liberation of the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery which happened hundreds of years before Jesus’ time. But the Jewish feast of Passover is also significant in Christianity because it was after Passover when Jesus was crucified, buried and rose from the dead.

Now here’s where it gets even more confusing! Eastern Orthodox Christians (for example, Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Macedonian, Serbian, and other Slavonic-speakers and Eastern Europeans) celebrate Easter at different dates to Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Lutherans and other Western Christian denominations. That’s because the Orthodox Christian churches and the Western Christian churches follow two completely different calendars when calculating their dates. Orthodox Christians follow the Julian calendar whereas Western Christians follow the Gregorian calendar. By the way, the Gregorian calendar is the name of the Western, civil calendar we use today. It replaced the former Julian calendar in many European countries in the 1500s.

But Orthodox Christians still follow the Julian calendar. And because of this, the celebration of Orthodox Easter is usually held on a different date from the Easter celebrated by Catholics and other Western Christians. Orthodox Easter varies between April 4 and May 8.  This year, however, Western Christians and Orthodox Christians will celebrate Easter on the same day, April 20. But last year, Western Christians celebrated Easter Sunday on March 31 whereas Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter on May 5. Next year, the dates will be different again!

Some Easter traditions and customs

During Orthodox Easter, a popular Easter game is to take a dyed red egg and try to crack it against another person’s dyed egg. The person whose egg lasts the longest will have good luck for the rest of the year. Some Orthodox Christians also take their dyed eggs to church during the Easter service to be blessed.

Every year on Easter Monday, the President of the United States of America holds the traditional Easter egg roll on the White House lawns for young children.

In parts of Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland, decorated eggs are also rolled down steep hills during Easter.

In Germany, decorated eggs are hung on the branches of bushes and trees to make them Easter egg trees.

In many parts of the Philippines, Good Friday is marked by solemn street processions re-enacting Jesus carrying his cross to his crucifixion. In some communities, devotees actually whip themselves or even have themselves physically nailed to crosses as expressions of penance.  Ouch!

And speaking of whipping…in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, there’s the unusual custom of men going around on Easter Monday whipping or spanking women with a special handmade whip decorated with colourful ribbons at the end. But the spanking is not meant to be hurtful-it’s said that the spanking is to ensure a woman’s health and beauty for the rest of the year. It’s also said to be a great way for a man to reveal his attraction to a woman!

Have a Happy Easter, everyone! And make sure you go easy on the chocolate!