Easter Sunday and the Season of Lent
About Easter Sunday
When is Easter Sunday? April 20, 2025; April 5, 2026; March 28, 2027; April 16, 2028; April 1, 2029; April 21, 2030
When we think about Easter, the Easter bunny quickly comes to mind.. And, we get all excited about getting an Easter basket loaded with chocolate and jelly beans, too. But, the real meaning of Easter, also called Pascha”, is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. For Christians, Easter Sunday is the most special day of the year. Yes, the birth of Christ is quite important. But, his resurrection offers the hope of everlasting life to everyone! The season of Lent leading up to Easter Sunday is a time of fasting, sacrifice, and prayer. It is the Christian way of replicating in a small way what Christ sacrificed for us, both in his fasting and his final death on the cross.
The word “Easter” comes from the Saxon pagan festival, honoring the goddess “Easter” (also called Oestre). The goddess Easter’s symbol is the rabbit.
Did You Know? Approximately 1.5 billion “Peeps” are sold for Easter. The Greek word for Passover is “Pasch”. So, this holiday is sometimes called “Pascha” or “Paschal”.
Easter Christian Passover: The date for Easter changes every year. It is the first Sunday after the full moon following the spring equinox.
Easter Thought to Ponder: The nice thing about being senile is, you can hide your own Easter eggs.
When is Easter Sunday?
The date for Easter Sunday, or “Pascha”, changes every year. So, as it approaches, we always ask ourselves “When is Easter Sunday this year?”.
In the early days of the Catholic church, holidays and holy days were not standardized. A uniform date for celebrating Easter and other holy days was in dispute. Different churches celebrated it on varying dates. Some churches celebrated Easter on Sunday, while others held the Easter holiday on Jewish Passover, even if it was not on a Sunday. Christ rose from the dead on Sunday, the first day of the week. In 325 A.D., the first Council of Nicaea established the date for all Christians to celebrate Easter. They declared Easter was to be on the Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox. This formula means on any given year, Easter falls between March 22 and April 25.
Did You Know? There is seldom a full moon on March 21. So, Easter rarely falls on March 22. The last time it fell on March 22 was in 1818. The next time it falls on March 22 is in 2285. Also, the holiday seldom occurs on April 25. The next time Easter falls on April 25 is in 2038.
The Easter Bunny
We also celebrate Easter with the Easter Bunny, colored eggs, jelly beans, and lots of chocolate. He (or she, as we are never quite sure about this) comes on Saturday night leading to Easter Sunday morning. He brings lots of chocolates and other candies. That’s one meaning to Easter, especially if you are a kid or a “Chocolaholic”.
There is a famous Easter game called the Easter Egg Hunt. Early morning kids go outside to find the many-colored Easter eggs that the Easter bunny has hidden the night before. The Easter Egg Hunt was the first game ever invented. Allegedly, this tradition started was that the Easter Bunny dropped the eggs on the way to deliver them and the eggs hide themselves. That is how the Easter Egg Hunt was supposedly invented. For more information see the Easter Egg Hunt page.
Most of us will celebrate both parts of this spring holiday. Upon awakening on Easter Sunday morning, the children will hunt for the Easter basket left by the Easter Bunny. Then the family will dress in their finest new spring clothes and go off to church to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. From there, the holiday tradition varies. Some have a big breakfast or brunch feast. Other families have a big main meal with baked ham being the most common meat. Brightly colored hard-boiled eggs will also be popular. It is not a day for high-cholesterol diets. It is a day to feast as the long Lenten season is over and Christ has arisen.
Easter Lilies are a Symbol of the Pascha Season
Easter Lilies are a popular flower and a symbol of Easter and the season of Lent. White lilies are great gifts for mom or grandma, or to decorate your home or office. Garden stores and floral shops force the blooms to peak as Easter arrives, providing a splash of color to the early spring season. They are grown from bulbs. Transplant them into your home garden after the blooms have died off and the weather has warmed in your area. They will bloom again next year. Then, they will bloom in your flower garden every spring! More on growing and caring for Easter Lilies.
Related Articles
Enjoy all of our Easter Pages:
Dyngus Day – This fun holiday is on Monday after Easter Sunday (Pascha).
Easter Lily – How to grow and care for them.
Resurrection of Jesus Christ – This is what the holiday is all about.
The Polish Blessed Easter Breakfast – This is a joyful Pascha tradition that anyone may want to start.
More Information
What happened on this Day? This Day in History
Ecards We’ve got you covered with free daily Ecards for just about any February holiday, occasion, event, or no event at all!
Holiday Insights, where every dayis a holiday, a bizarre or wacky day, an observance, or a special event. Join us in the daily calendar fun each and every day of the year.
Did You Know? There are literally thousands of daily holidays, special events, and observances, more than one for every day of the year. and many of these holidays are new. People and organizations are creating new holidays regularly. Consequently, at Holiday Insights, we take great efforts to thoroughly research and document the details of each one, as completely and accurately as possible.