By Mahima Khanum

At Easter time in the UK we have two bank holidays (publicbank holidays holidays): Good Friday and Easter Monday. This means that manyGood FridayEaster Monday families can enjoy a long weekend together. Easter is the time for holidays, festivals and a time for giving chocolate Easter eggs. But Easter means much more.... Easter is the oldest and the most important Christian Festival,theChristian Festival celebration of the death and coming to life again of Jesus Christ. For Christians, the dawn of Easter Sunday with its message of new life is the high point of the Christian year.

This holiday is a holy day for Christians. It celebrates the resurrection of Jesus the Christ, who was crucified on the previous Friday that we call Good Friday. It is important, because the Christ demonstrated that a life After death does await us, and is the conclusive proof that he is God. His death and subsequent rising from the grave is the whole reason why he was born - an event we celebrate as Christmas.

Most go to church. We also give children candy eggs and bunnies and ducklings. Those are symbols of new life and spring. We dye eggs and have Easter egg hunts. We often have a big family dinner. There are Easter parades where people gather to show off how well they are dressed. We decorate the house with symbols of new life such as the shapes of candy we give.

Lent lasts for 40 days (not including Sundays). It is the time when Christians prepare for Easter by thinking of the things they have done wrong. It is a solemn time which reminds them of the time in Jesus' life when, after giving up his work as a carpenter, he began to teach people about God. Jesus prepared for this by spending 40 days without food alone in the desert. Lent used to be a time for fasting or going without food as Jesus had done. Nowadays many people give up a favourite thing they enjoy like sweets and often give money to charity. The colour purple is linked to Lent. In some churches the altar is covered with a purple cloth, the pulpit has a purple 'fall' and the vicar's garments are purple. Purple is chosen for two reasons. Firstly, it is the colour associated with mourning and so it helps Christians think about the sadness of Jesus’ death. Secondly, the colour purple is linked to royalty and so it celebrates Christ’s coming as a King. The first day of Lent is Ash Wednesday.Ash Wednesday

Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, Black Friday and Great Friday, is a time of fasting and penance, marking the anniversary of Christ’s crucifixion and his death at Calvary. Christians do not celebrate this day as a historical event, but observe it as the sacrificial death of Christ. It falls on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday and hence, the date is different each year. The day was initially known as Holy or Great Friday by the Greek Church. It was only around the 6 th or 7 th century that the Roman Church named it Good Friday. The day is observed with a variety of ceremonies in different sects of Christianity. Most Christians spend the day in fasting, prayers, repentance and meditation on the agony and suffering of Christ on the cross.

On Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter Sunday) Jesus went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish festival of Passover. Many people gathered on the streets to catch a glimpse of Jesus, waving palm branches as he rode by. Because it was Passover, an important celebration, there would have been lots of excitement in the air. For those who believed that Jesus was the Son of God, it was an important moment - they shouted 'Hosanna' which means 'Save us now'. However, it's important to remember that Jesus was a controversial figure for many sectors of his immediate community and people further afield. Some people, in particular the authorities, were extremely suspicious of his teachings and claims - today they would have regarded him as a bit of a political agitator. So although many people welcomed Jesus as he rode into the city on the back of a donkey (a signal of peace to the assembled crowds) there would have been some in the crowd who were not so sure about him - these same people could certainly have been amongst those shouting for his execution just days later. Today people remember Palm Sunday by decorating churches with palm branches, and giving palms out to the congregation, in some cases fashioned into the shape of a cross (in remembrance of Jesus dying on a cross).

Jesus understands his time on Earth is nearly over. He gathers his friends and followers (his 12 Disciples, including figures such as the saints John, Matthew, Mark and Simon - the men who went on to describe their experiences with Jesus in the four gospels, which feature in the New Testament of the Bible) together to share a final meal with them - the 'Last Supper'. According to the gospels, Jesus passed round bread (which he told his disciples was 'his body') and wine (his 'blood'); his way of explaining to them that he would soon die. He also told his friends they should love one another - the 'mandate' or command from which the term Maundy is derived. It was on this night that Jesus was later betrayed by Judas. Judas identified Jesus to soldiers working for opposing religious authorities (the 'High Priests') in return for a bag of money - those authorities then passed Jesus over to the Roman soldiers who were to eventually execute him. The ceremony of eating bread and drinking wine in remembrance of Jesus' life is practised today in Christian churches in the form of the Eucharist or communion.

Jesus had told his disciples in advance that he would rise again on the third day after his death. He had been buried in a tomb guarded by an enormous stone so that no one could steal the body. When some women came to visit the grave a couple of days after his death they found that the huge stone had been moved and the tomb was empty. Jesus was seen that day and for several days later, and revisited old friends who realised what had been prophesied had come true - Jesus had indeed risen from the dead. Easter is, therefore, a time of great celebration for Christians. Churches are sometimes decorated with white lillies, traditional Easter flowers, and the mood is joyful and uplifting.