Easter
Easter
The most important annual religious feast in the Chistian liturgical year. According to Christian scripture, Jesus was resurrected from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. Christians celebrate this ressurection on Easter Day or Easter Sunday (also known as Ressurrection Day or Resurrection Sunday), two days after Good Friday and three days after Maundy Thursday. The chronology of his death and resurrection is variously interpreted to be between AD 26 and AD 36. Easter also refers to the season of the church year called Eastertide or the Easter Season. Traditionally, the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until Ascension Day but now officially lasts for the fifty days until Pentecost. The first week of the Easter Season is known as Easter Week or the Octave of Easter. Easter also marks the end of Lent, a season of fasting, prayer, and penance.
Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. The First Council of Nicaea established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the vernal equinox. Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned to be on March 21 (regardless of the stronomically correct date) and the "Full Moon" is not necessarily the astronomically correct date. The date of Easter therefore vaires between March 22 and April 25. Eastern Christianity bases its calculations onthe Julian Calendar whose March 21 corresponds, during the twenty-first centrury, to April 3 in the Gregorian Calendar, in which calendear their celebration of Easter therefore varies between April 4 and May 8.
Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover not only for much of its symbolism but also for its position in the calendar. In most European languages the feast called Easter in English is termed by the words for passover in thoses languages and in the older English versions of the Bible the term Easter was the term used to translate passover.
Relatively newer elements such as the Easter Bunny and Easter egg hunts have become part of the holiday's modern celebrations, and those aspects are often celebrated by many Christians and non-Christians alike. There are also some Christian Denominations who do not celelbrate Easter.
** Information and excerts taken from Wilipedia