The History Of Easter - A Fascinating Look At How We Developed As A Culture

Easter the history includes not only the history of the Easter holiday and Easter season, but also the words and traditions that we use today in celebration of Easter.

Easter the history includes the etymology of the word Easter which goes back to the Greek Pascha, meaning Passover, the Hebrew holiday. Easter and Passover both stand for life. For Christians Easter is a celebration of Christ's resurrection, while for Jews Passover relates the story of the angel of death killing every first born but passing over homes marked with blood, the Jewish homes. It's also significant that Jesus and his apostles took the last supper as a Passover meal. Old English, the word Eostre, provided a root for the modern English word Easter, although in Spain the day is called La Pascua, linked directly to that Greek Pascha.

For Christians who celebrate Easter the history, there is an entire Easter season once called Eastertide. The season used to last only the forty days from Easter until Ascension Day, when Christ rose into heaven, but now is marked for 50 days ending in Pentecost when it's said the Holy Ghost visited the apostles. Pentecost is linked to the Jewish Shavout, which celebrates the giving of the Ten Commandments 50 days after the beginning of the Exodus.

Over time in the Christian church there were many disputes over the date that Easter should be celebrated. The last of these was known as the Quartodeciman. It was a dispute based on a difference of one week, whether to celebrate Easter on the Hebrew Nisan 14 or one week later. Passover Proper, held on Nisan 14, is the day people get ready for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In Phyrgia (also called the Roman Province of Asia) Easter was celebrated on this day, while everywhere else it was the following Sunday. That was because Nisan 14 could fall any day of the week, while most Christians wanted to celebrate Easter on a Sunday. The initial dispute didn't create a schism. But one generation later all the Asia minor Bishops were excommunicated because they would not celebrate Easter the Sunday following Nisan 14.

It was further complicated by having to rely on Jewish scholars to determine the date each year for Nisan 14, and thus when Easter happened. Sometimes there were two Nisan 14's in the same year, because Jewish scholars set the date one year before the spring equinox after the last year it was after the spring equinox. The First Council of Nicaea separated Easter from the Hebrew calendar.

For more on Easter the History and the ways the date was calculated through time, visit Wikipedia.