The background to Easter easily explained:
Next to Christmas, Easter is the most famous Christian festival in Germany. But what are we celebrating and why?
- The most important festival for Christians, Easter, is based on the Jewish Passover festival and the phases of the moon. Therefore, the date changes every year. Easter Sunday is the Sunday following the first full moon after the beginning of spring. Accordingly, Easter falls on March 22nd at the earliest and April 25th at the latest.
- It is still not clear where the term Easter comes from. Some suggest that it derives from the Ostara festival of the pagans. Others think that the word comes from the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, Eostre.
Easter eggs and Easter bunnies – where do the Easter traditions come from?
Although Jesus has little to do with Easter eggs and Easter bunnies, many children enjoy these traditions every year. There are many different explanations for this.
- On the one hand, in earlier religions there were goddesses whose symbol was a rabbit. For example, the fertility goddess Aphrodite or the earth goddess Holda. Holda’s symbol was also an egg.
- Today it is believed that the hare is a misunderstood representation of the Easter lamb and so has become a tradition.
- There is a simple explanation for the painted Easter eggs: since Christians are forbidden to eat eggs during Holy Week, they were painted instead. Because: The hens naturally continued to lay eggs, which were very valuable at the time. That’s why they were repealed. In order to have the eggs consecrated and finally eaten, they were painted.
