Easter

Easter is a holiday that Christians celebrate. It is a holiday to celebrate when Christians believe that Jesus Christ is said to have returned from the dead. Christians believe that Easter is the holiest day in the year. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday, following the first full moon, following the first day of spring.

Easter is not held on the same date every year. Currently all Christian Churches agree on how the date is calculated. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday, following the first full moon, at least 14 days after the Spring Equinox. This means it is celebrated in March or April, most of the time.

Western churches, like the Roman Catholic Church, use the Gregorian calendar and Eastern churches, like the Eastern Orthodox Church, use the Julian calendar. Because of this the date of Easter celebrations is different for these two types of churches even though the way they calculate the date is the same.

Some people who are not Christians celebrate the beginning of Spring at Easter.

The word, "Easter" comes from the ancient German word, Eastre, Goddess of the Spring.

Today, people celebrate Easter in a number of different ways: they give each other or hide to have children find, colourful Easter eggs; they also give each others candy. Sometimes they even give each other baby ducks, chickens, or bunnies as presents, though this is not done as much as it used to be. These ways of celebrating having nothing to do with Christianity, they come from the Spring celebrations from old European nature religions. Christians and even people who are not Christians dress very nicely and go to church on Easter Sunday. Large dinners are usually held on Easter afternoon as well. A ham is often at the center of this dinner.

At a time of the year near to this, Jews celebrate the holiday of Passover.