Easter & Palm Sunday The colour purple is associated with this important religious festival.

Easter is the oldest and most important Christian festival, celebrating the death and coming to life again of Jesus Christ. Easter begins on Easter Day and lasts for 50 days, ending on Pentecost or Whitsunday. Easter marks the end of Lent, a 40 day period of fasting and prayer. The last week of Lent (which begins on Palm Sunday) is called Holy Week and it contains Good Friday which is when Christians remember the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday. The date of Easter is not fixed and thus varies between March 22 and April 25. This year it was on April 24th.

Jesus entering Jerusalem (This picture is from a stained glass window in a church)

What is the Easter story ? Easter is the story of Jesus' last days in Jerusalem before his death. The Easter story includes Palm Sunday (when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to celebrate the Jewish feast of Passover), Maundy Thursday, (the Last Supper leading to the Eucharist), Good Friday, (the day on which Jesus was crucified) and Easter Day, (the day on which Jesus came back to life). It is a sad story because Jesus was killed. But the story has a very happy ending, because Jesus came back to life and visited his friends and followers once more. He did not die at all, but went back up to Heaven to be with God, his father.

Where does the name 'Easter' come from? Pagan traditions give us the English word "Easter" which comes from the word "Eostre“ (the name of an Anglo-Saxon Goddess). . The Anglo-Saxon word for April was "Eostre-monath" (the month of openings). However, it should be remembered that 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 to the Jewish festival of Passover. Anglo-Saxon rituals related to the Goddess Eostre focus on new beginnings, symbolized by the Easter egg, and fertility, which is symbolized by the hare (or Easter bunny). (An Anglo-Saxon legend tells how Eostre found a wounded bird and transformed it into a hare, so that it could survive the Winter. The hare found it could lay eggs, so it decorated these each Spring and left them as an offering to the Goddess).

Palm Sunday The Sunday before Easter is known as Palm Sunday. It celebrates Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem for the Jewish festival of Passover. Great crowds of people lined the streets waving palm branches to welcome him. The people were very excited. They spread branches on the road – and even laid down their clothes. They shouted “Hosanna” which means “Save us Now”. On Palm Sunday here in England, children are given crosses made from single palm leaves. Traditionally many churches will have a procession in or around the church while people sing songs of praise and wave palm leaves. This is to help them to imagine what Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem might have been like.

How is Easter connected to Passover? Easter and Passover always fall close to each other but they are not always at exactly the same time. For many centuries before Jesus' birth, the Jewish people had their own special spring festival, called Passover (Pesach). Passover commemorates the time when God rescued the people of Israel from slavery and Moses led them out of Egypt. It is the Israelite's liberation from Egypt that led to the beginning of Judaism. Jesus, a Jew, was crucified during Passover time and it is said that the Last Supper was a Passover seder (a ritual meal that commemorates the Biblical accounting of the Jews escape from Egyptian slavery). It is Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection that led to the start of Christianity. Both Easter and Passover revolve around the idea of rebirth. Jesus is resurrected, or born again, and the slaves are reborn into freedom. Both festivals link the idea of birth or rebirth with Easter eggs and the hard-boiled eggs served on Passover.

Symbols and Games of Easter Why do we give eggs at Easter? Why do we have eggs at Easter? Eggs were traditionally a forbidden food during Lent, making them a welcome return to the menu on Easter Day. Why do we give eggs at Easter? Easter is a Christian festival. For Christians the custom of giving eggs at Easter celebrates new life. Christians remember that Jesus, after dying on the cross, rose from the dead. They believe that, through his resurrection, Jesus defeated death and sin and offers people the promise of eternal life if they follow his teachings.

What were the first Easter eggs like? The first eggs given at Easter were birds eggs. These eggs were painted in bright colours to give them further meaning as a gift. Some people still paint chicken eggs today. As chocolate became more wide spread in the 20th Century, a chocolate version of the traditional painted egg was developed and these days most people give chocolate eggs as presents. The size of the chocolate egg has grown over the years and is now more likely to be the size of an ostrich egg rather than a small birds egg. The eggs are either hollow or have a filling, and are usually covered with brightly coloured silver paper. Around 80 million chocolate eggs are eaten each year in Britain. Small chocolate eggs are hidden for the children to find on the traditional Easter Egg Hunt. In recent years this game has been linked to the Easter Bunny, which only arrived in England relatively recently. Origins of Colouring Eggs at Easter Decorating and colouring eggs for Easter was a common custom in England in the middle ages. Eggs were brightly coloured to mimic the new, fresh colours of spring. The practice of decorating eggs was made even more famous by King Edward I of England who ordered 450 eggs to be gold-leafed and coloured for Easter gifts in 1290.

Food at Easter Special Food at Easter After the lean months of winter and the fast weeks of Lent, food at Easter was always a special treat. Easter day, like Christmas day, is also associated with special food. Boiled eggs are traditionally served at breakfast, then Easter cards and gifts may be exchanged. The traditional Easter pudding is custard tarts sprinkled with currants and flat Easter biscuits. These days Hot Cross Buns are eaten warm with butter. The pastry cross on top of the buns symbolises and reminds Christians of the cross on which Jesus died. Simnel cake is baked for tea. The Simnel cake is a rich fruitcake covered with a thick layer of almond paste (marzipan). A layer of marzipan is also traditionally baked into the middle of the cake. Eleven balls of marzipan are placed around the top to represent the eleven true Disciples (excluding Judas). Originally the simnel cake was a gift to mothers on Mothering Sunday in Mid Lent. Easter Biscuits Easter Biscuits are sometimes called "Cakes", and are eaten on Easter Sunday. They contain spices, currants and sometimes grated lemon rind. Easter Holidays Many families go away on holiday for the Easter weekend.

Examples of Simnel cake Hot cross buns – a traditional sweet bread full of spices – best eaten warm with butter. The buns were traditionally eaten at breakfast time, hot from the oven. They were once sold by street vendors who sang a little song about them: “Hot cross buns, Hot cross buns, One a penny, two a penny, Hot cross buns”

As well as going to church to remember and pray to Jesus and God, special Easter activities include re-enacting the journey into Jerusalem on a donkey and waving palm leaves in front of the procession.