Origins of Easter

Traditionally, the holiday begins on a Friday or Easter Friday when Christ was crucified and laid in a tomb before his resurrection on Sunday, which became known as Easter Sunday.

Hence to many, Easter is an important time of the year that allows Christians to reflect on Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection.
The holiday itself is understood to symbolise God’s love, sinners’ victory over death and their assurance of eternal life through Christ.

During the Easter holiday many Christians take time going to their various churches to attend church services dedicated to Easter and other all-night prayer services.
Others take it as an opportunity for family time and attend several gospel concerts dotted around the country.
For those who are not Christian, the holiday is simply a time to visit friends and relatives or a time to visit places of amusement such as movie houses, nightclubs and others.

Despite its popularity among Christians and non-Christians alike, many critics have questioned the historical background and origins of the Easter holiday since the name itself and most of the customs associated with it are rooted in ancient paganism.

A simple search on the Internet, for example, reveals plenty of information about the holiday, some of which includes how the name Easter was derived from Estre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring (www.religionfacts.com ). Other facts around Easter include sharing or exchanging gifts such as decorated Easter eggs, Easter bunnies and baking of Easter hot cross buns which symbolically represent fertility and renewal of life.

How the Easter holiday came to be celebrated among Christians the world over has a lot to do with its harmonisation with the biblical Jewish Passover festival by the modern church. We first learn about Passover in the Old Testament book of Exodus where we read about the story of the mass exodus of Israelites from Egyptian bondage.

According to the Bible, God delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage through 10 miraculous plagues one of which included the killing of Egyptian first-borns by an angel of God. According to the story, the Israelites were instructed to apply a lamb’s blood on their doorposts to ensure that only first-borns of Egypt would die from the plague.
Hence, according to this story, the Israelites’ first-borns were spared from death by the blood of the lamb which symbolised Christ’s own blood that was to be shed in order save the human race from sin (Exodus 12:3-13).

In Exodus 12:14, 15, 17 and Leviticus 23:5, God commanded Israel to observe the Passover ceremony which would be an annual memorial of their salvation from decades of bondage in Egypt.

The Bible in the New Testament also teaches that even Jesus himself, during his childhood together with his parents, observed the Passover annually as part of their Jewish custom.

Just before his crucifixion, in Luke 22:7-20, Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples during which he also taught them a new custom of foot washing.
In John 13:12-15 and 17 Jesus commanded his disciples to continue observing the foot washing ritual which together with breaking of bread and drinking of wine during the Passover represented his sacrifice and the spirit of love, servitude, and humility.

In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus commanded his disciples to spread his gospel to the entire world, meaning the church today has an obligation to continue observing Christ’s teachings which include the observance of the biblical Passover.