The Traditions of Easter
Since its started as a holy celebration in the second century, Easter has had its non-religious side. In fact, Easter was originally a pagan festival.
The ancient Saxons celebrated the return of spring with an very funny festival commemorating their goddess of offspring and of springtime, Eastre. When the second-century Christian missionaries encountered the tribes of the north with their pagan celebrations, they attempted to convert them to Christianity. They did so, however, in a secret manner.
It would have been suicide for the very early Christian converts to celebrate their holy days with ceremonies that did not match with celebrations that already existed. To save lives, the missionaries cleverly decided to spread their religious message slowly throughout the populations by allowing them to continue to celebrate pagan feasts, but to do so in a Christian manner.
As it happened, the pagan festival of Eastre occurred at the same time of year as the Christian observance of the Resurrection of Christ. It made sense, therefore, to alter the festival itself, to make it a Christian celebration as converts were slowly won over. The early name, Eastre, was eventually changed to its modern spelling, Easter.
The Date of Easter
Before A.D. 325, Easter was variously celebrated on different days of the week, including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In that year, the Council of Nicaea was convened by emperor Constantine. It issued the Easter Rule which states that Easter shall be celebrated on the first Sunday that occurs after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. However, a limitation must be introduced here. The „full moon“ in the rule is the church full moon, which is defined as the fourteenth day of a tabular lunation, where day 1 corresponds to the church New Moon. It does not always occur on the same date as the astronomical full moon. The church „spring equinox“ is always on March 21. Therefore, Easter must be celebrated on a Sunday between the dates of March 22 and April 25.
The Lenten Season
Connected with the observance of Easter are the 40-day penitential season of Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday and closing at midnight on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday. In many churches Easter is preceded by a season of prayer, abstinence, and fasting. This is observed in memory of the 40 days’ fast of Christ in the desert. In Eastern Orthodox churches Lent is 50 days. In Western Christendom Lent is observed for six weeks and four days.
Lent may be preceded by a carnival season. The origin of the word carnival is probably from the Latin carne vale, meaning flesh (meat), farewell. Carefully prepared feast often close this season on Tuesday, the day before the beginning of Lent. This day is also called by its French name, Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday). It was designed as a way to „get it all out“ before the sacrifices of Lent began