Hello Readers,
The Easter celebrations are upon us once again. Shops have been filled with Easter Eggs, chocolates and Easter Bonnet kits for weeks and its a time for families to get together or a grand opportunity for keen gardeners and painters and decorators to get stuck into making your home and garden a more beautiful place. But have you ever wondered about the origins of Easter?
Pagan traditions give us the word ‘Easter’, which originates from the word ‘Eostre’. The Anglo Saxon word for April was ‘Eostre-monath’, which means ‘the month of openings. However it is important to note that the Christians celebrated the resurrection of Christ long before the word ‘Easter’ was used, and the word they used for the celebration was ‘Pascha’, which is derived from and linked the the Jewish festival of Passover. April was also named after the anglo saxon goddess Esostre and rituals related to the Goddess focus on new beginings, symbolised by the Easter egg and fertility, which is symbolised by the hare or Easter Bunny.
Easter is called a moveable feast because the date of Easter changes every year. Easter Sunday can fall on any date from March 22nd to April 25th. The reason for this variation in the date is based on the lunar calendar moon. Easter always falls on the first sunday following the full moon, the Paschal Full Moon after March 21st. If the full moon falls on a Sunday than then Easter is the next Sunday.
The first eggs given at Easter were birds eggs. These eggs were painted in bright colours to give them a further meaning as a gift. An Anglo Saxon legend tells how the Goddess Eostre, found a wounded bird and turned it into a hare so that it could survive during winter. The hare found it could lay eggs so it decorated them each Spring and left them as an offering to the Goddess.
Maundy Thursday is also called Holy Thursday and is the beginning of the three day celebration of Easter because it represents the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles. It was also the night that Jesus was betrayed by Judas in the Garden of Gethsamane. During the Last Supper, Jesus washed his disciples feet. This act has sometimes been followed in history as a way of reminding Rulers that they are here to serve their subjects. In Britain the Queen follows a very traditional role of giving Maundy Thursday money to a group of pensioners. This tradition dates back to the 13th Century, from the reign of King Edward 1st, and every year the Queen attends a Maundy Thursday service in one of the many Cathedrals throughout the country.
My family, The Lulas and I would like to wish you all a very happy Easter.
Until Next Week,
Love and Light,
Linda and The Lulas xxx
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