EASTER SUNDAY CELEBRATION 2015

 
My first Easter Sunday celebration here in California.  It coincides with auntie Thelmas birthday so the family decided to celebrate it in her residence in Yorbalinda. As always, it was a potluck party so the family came over bringing their specialties. Barbecues were being grilled in the backyard.  The kids enjoyed their egg hunting  more so the prices they got for found eggs. They look more adorable because of their bunny ears made by Anna. It was a fun Easter celebration after all.

Background of Easter Sunday

Many Christians celebrate Easter Sunday as the day of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, which is written in the New Testament of the Christian bible. According to the Gospel of John in the New Testament, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb where Jesus was buried and found it empty. An angel told her that Jesus had risen. Christians worldwide have celebrated Easter for centuries.
However, the roots of the Easter holiday’s traditions and activities can be traced back to pagan celebrations. The name Easter is believed to come from Eostara, the goddess of rebirth. In early times the Feast of Eostara celebrated earth’s resurrection and rebirth. Strict Puritans would have nothing to do with Easter – it was merely a human institution – in the past. Charles I, king of England, declared the day as scriptural as Sunday in 1647 but Parliament contradicted him in print and abolished it with other church festivals.
The Easter date depends on the ecclesiastical approximation of the March equinox. In 325CE the Council of Nicaea decided that the Easter date would be the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the March equinox. Easter is therefore delayed one week if the full moon is on Sunday, which lessens the likelihood of it falling on the same day as the Jewish Passover. Eastern Orthodox churches in many countries such as Greece still figure the Easter Date base on Julian calendar.

 

Symbols of Easter Sunday

Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny are both fertility symbols, holdovers from the feast of Eostara. Other symbolic parallels include the pagan joy in the rising sun of spring, which coincides with Christians’ joy in the rising Son of God, and the lighting of candles in churches, which corresponds to the pagan bonfires. The symbol of the cross and images of Jesus Christ, through paintings or statues, are remembered on Easter Day.