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Level 3 – Intermediate
Easter
For Christians, Easter is one of the most important times of year. It commemorates the death of Jesus on the cross on Good Friday, and the resurrection on Easter Sunday. The forty-day period leading up to Easter is called Lent. During this period, Christians are supposed to eat very simple food. They mustn’t eat meat or eggs, for example. But Easter was originally a pagan festival. The ancient Saxons celebrated the return of spring with a joyful festival in honour of Eostre, the goddess of fertility and spring.
In the second century, Christian missionaries started their work of converting the European populations to Christianity. They cleverly decided that the new Christian festivals should coincide with the old pagan ones. This explains why most of the Christian feasts have kept many of the ancient traditions.
The Easter egg and the Easter rabbit or ‘bunny’ are good examples of ancient customs which have been kept and adopted by the Christian faith. In most countries today it is the tradition to give chocolate eggs or bunnies at Easter. And in many places it is the custom to hide eggs for children to find.
For many ancient civilisations the egg was a symbol of fertility and new life. The ancient Egyptians and Persians gave eggs as gifts to their friends because they were the symbol of fertility. In Greece and Rome the egg was sacred because it was the source of life and it symbolised the universe because of its perfect shape.
The tradition of decorating and painting eggs goes back to the middle ages in Britain. At this time it was customary for masters to give servants and children gifts of eggs at Easter.
In many European countries today, people make and eat special bread or pastries at Easter. In Russia, paska bread is traditional, in Germany they make osterstollen and the Italians make special sweet bread in the shape of a chick or a bunny.
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C2 Mastery
