History of Easter(20Marks)

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History of Easter
Easter is a spring festival that celebrates the central event of the Christian faith: the resurrection of Christ three days after his death by crucifixion. Easter is the oldest Christian holiday and the most important day of the church year. All the Christian movable feasts and the entire liturgical year of worship are arranged around Easter.
Easter Sunday is preceded by the season of Lent, a 40-day period of fasting and repentence culminating in Holy Week, and followed by a 50-day Easter Season that stretches from Easter to Pentecost.
Name of Easter
The origins of the word "Easter" are not certain, but probably derive from Estre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. The German word Ostern has the same derivation, but most other languages follow the Greek term used by the early Christians: pascha, from the Hebrew pesach (Passover).
In Latin, Easter is Festa Paschalia (plural because it is a seven-day feast), which became the basis for the French Pâques, the Italian Pasqua, and the Spanish Pascua. Also related are the Scottish Pask, the Dutch Paschen, the Danish Paaske, and the Swedish Pask.

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Date of Easter
The method for determining the date of Easter is complex and has been a matter of controversy. Put as simply as possible, the Western churches (Catholic and Protestant) celebrate Easter on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox.

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But it is actually a bit more complicated than this. The spring equinox is fixed for this purpose as March 21 (in 2004, it actually falls on March 20) and the "full moon" is actually the paschal moon, which is based on 84-year "paschal cycles" established in the sixth century, and rarely corresponds to the astronomical full moon. These complex calculations yield an Easter date of anywhere between March 22 and April 25.
The Eastern churches (Greek, Russian, and other forms of Orthodoxy) use the same calculation, (........To be cont. in supp./comm.fields)
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but based on the Julian calendar (on which March 21 is April 3) and a 19-year paschal cycle.

Thus the Orthodox Easter sometimes falls on the same day as the western Easter (it does in 2010 and 2011), but the two celebrations can occur as much as five weeks apart.

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In the 20th century, discussions began as to a possible worldwide agreement on a consistent date for the celebration of the central event of Christianity. No resolution has yet been reached.

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The Easter Controversy

There is evidence that Christians originally celebrated the resurrection of Christ every Sunday, with observances such as Scripture readings, psalms, the Eucharist, and a prohibition against kneeling in prayer.

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At some point in the first two centuries, however, it became customary to celebrate the resurrection specially on one day each year. Many of the religious observances of this celebration were taken from the Jewish Passover.

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The specific day on which the resurrection should be celebrated became a major point of contention within the church. First, should it be on Jewish Passover no matter on what day that falls, or should it always fall on a Sunday? It seems Christians in Asia took the former position,

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while those everywhere else insisted on the latter. Eminent church fathers Irenaeus & Polycarp were among Asiatic Christians, & they claimed authority of St. John the Apostle for their position. Nevertheless, church majority officially decided that Easter should be celebrated on a Sunday.

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This issue was decided at the Council of Nicea in 325, which decreed that Easter should be celebrated by all on the same Sunday, which Sunday shall be the first following the paschal moon (and the paschal moon must not precede the spring equinox),

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and that a particular church should determine the date of Easter and communicate it throughout the empire (probably Alexandria, with their skill in astronomical calculations).

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The policy was adopted throughout the empire, but Rome adopted an 84-year lunar cycle for determining the date, whereas Alexandria used a 19-year cycle.

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Use of these different "paschal cycles" persists to this day and contributes to the disparity between the eastern and western dates of Easter.

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Religious Observances on Easter
Common elements found in most Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant religious Easter celebrations include baptisms, the Eucharist, feasting, and greetings of "Christ is risen!" and "He is risen indeed!"

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In Roman Catholicism, and some Lutheran and Anglican churches, Easter is celebrated with a vigil that consists of "the blessing of the new fire (a practice introduced during the early Middle Ages); the lighting of the paschal candle;

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a service of lessons, called the prophecies; followed by the blessing of the font and baptisms and then the mass of Easter." The traditional customs of the Catholic church are described in detail in the online Catholic Encyclopedia.

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In Orthodox churches, the vigil service is preceded by a procession outside the church. When the procession leaves the church, there are no lights on. The procession conducts a symbolic fruitless search for Christ's body,

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then joyfully announces, "Christ is risen!" When the procession returns to the church, hundreds of candles and lamps are lit to symbolize the splendor of Christ's resurrection, and the Easter Eucharist is taken.

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Protestant observances also include baptism and the Eucharist (or Lord's Supper), and often a sunrise service (to commemorate Mary Magdalene's arrival at the empty tomb "early, while it was still dark") and special hymns and songs.

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Easter eggs

Popular Easter Customs
Over the centuries, these religious observances have been supplemented by popular customs, many of were incorporated from springtime fertility celebrations of European and Middle Eastern pagan religion.

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Rabbits and eggs, for example, are widely-used pagan symbols for fertility. Christians view the Easter eggs as symbols of joy and celebration (as they were forbidden during the fast of Lent) and of new life and resurrection. A common custom is to hide brightly colored eggs for children to find.

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復活節(主復活日)是一個西方的重要節日．他象徵著重生與希望，為紀念耶穌基督於公元30到33年之間被釘死在十字架之後第三天復活的日子。通常與耶穌受難日一起放假。今天，許多與復活節相關的民間風俗都不是起源於基督教的。耶穌基督只吩咐門徒要記念自己的死亡。（路加福音22：19，20）

復活節的來源:

復活節原本是古代異教的「春節」，是慶祝春回大地一切恢復生機的節日。復活節可追溯到古巴比倫的愛情、生育和戰爭女神『伊什塔爾』（Ishtar）。後來，此女神變成了西歐的黎明和春天女神 Eastre（證據之一是兩個名字相似的讀音）。另一證據是 Eastre 此字有東方（即 East）的含義，因太陽是從東方升起的 。

亞歷山大·希斯洛普著的《兩個巴比倫》說「Easter」『音譯『伊斯特爾』，即復活節』這個詞是什麼意思呢？Easter是個名字。源自迦勒底，跟基督教沒有關係。Easter其實就是『阿斯塔特』，即天后『貝爾斯特』的頭銜之一。考古學家萊亞德在亞述的碑銘上發現，『貝爾特斯』這個名字就是指古巴比倫的生育和戰爭女神『伊什塔爾』。這就是『復活節』（Easter）的來歷。

復活節的計算方法:

復活節會在每年春分月圓（即中國農曆十五日）之後第一個星期日舉行，因為春分之後便開始日長夜短——光明大過黑暗，月圓的時候，不但在日間充滿光明，就連漆黑的夜晚也被光輝（月光）照耀。由此，這正好是耶穌復活——光明戰勝黑暗的寫照。

羅馬帝國君士坦丁大帝在公元325年召開第一次尼西亞公會議，訂明了復活節是星期日，因星期日被教會視作為安息日，即耶穌死而復活的日子，所以復活節就在每年春分月圓後第一個星期日舉行。

此後每年3月21日以後，出現月圓後的第一個星期日，就是復活節，惟計算復活節的方法，自古以來均十分複雜，拉丁文Computus（計算）一字更專指計算復活節的方法，而羅馬教會及東正教會的計算亦略有差異，令東西方復活節可在不同日子出現。

1997年，國際普世教會協會在敘利亞召開會議時，曾建議改革計算復活節的方式，並建議統一東、西教會的復活節，但至今絕大部分國家仍沒有跟隨。

復活節前日:

復活節前日即復活節前的星期六。在基督徒心中，是等待耶穌基督自死中復活的日子。當日羅馬天主教會不舉行彌撒，直到晚上才慶祝基督戰勝罪惡和死亡，為人類帶來救恩和希望。

民間風俗

復活節兔子在西方，與復活節相關的物品有復活節兔和復活節彩蛋。傳說復活節彩蛋都是兔子的蛋（但事實上，兔子其實是不下蛋的，所以復活節彩蛋其實都是雞蛋），有些人喜歡在蛋上畫各種各樣的鬼臉或花紋。而這些民間風俗都是起源於非基督教的。

《天主教百科全書》指出「復活節吸納了許多慶祝春回大地的異教習俗。」蛋象徵初春一切恢復生機。兔子是個異教象徵，代表多產。如今依然流行的復活節慶祝活動，充分證明了歷史所反映的事實，那就是復活節含有濃厚的巴比倫色彩。今天人們在耶穌受難日吃十字包和在復活節吃彩蛋，這些宗教習俗可見於迦勒底的宗教儀式中。

這兩樣東西都是從別的宗教裡面借來的。

相關條目:

1722年的復活節星期日荷蘭人傑科布·羅格文於南太平洋，智利以西外海約3600到3700公里處發現一個島嶼，因此命名為復活節島。

1774年，英國著名探險家詹姆斯·庫克船長再次找到該島。1914年開始對復活節島進行相關的考察和研究活動。當地人稱此島為 Rapa Nui，據說是1860年代，來自大溪地的航海者所命名的。目前復活節島由智利統治。

雜項:



「復活節」一詞在不同語言中:



與尼散月相關的名字 (Eostre Month) (Ven.Bede states: Eostur-monath)

英語：Easter

德語：Ostern

日語：復活祭（Fukkatsu-sai，意思為「復活的節日」）或 イースター Īsutā，來自英語

薩摩亞語：Eseta（來自英語）



[編輯] 與希伯來語逾越節Pesach（פסח‎）相關詞語

拉丁語：Pascha或Festa Paschalia

希臘語：Πάσχα（Paskha）

南非語：Paasfees

阿爾巴尼亞語：Pashkët

阿拉伯語：عيد الفصح‎（ʿAīd ul-Fiṣḥ）

亞塞拜然語：Pasxa，Fish

柏柏爾諸語言：tafaska（現在是穆斯林古爾邦節的名稱）

保加利亞語：Пасха（Paskha，較少使用）

加泰羅尼亞語：Pasqua

丹麥語：Påske

荷蘭語：Pasen或paasfeest

世界語：Pasko

法羅語：Páskir

芬蘭語：Pää