Democratising Easter

This Sunday, April 12^th will see the worldwide celebration of Easter. Much more than an exclusively religious ceremony, Easter is one of the only such holidays that is observed by the faithful and seculars alike, and this, in almost every nation on earth. That being said, what are we celebrating every year at Easter? We know about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and about the chocolate-egg delivering bunnies but what has common-knowledge lost throughout the centuries to leave us with such of a logical gap.

Today, in the traditional sense, Easter is a Jewish and Christian observation of the end of Lent, a forty day fasting period leading to the death of the saviour/prophet Jesus and his resurrection and ascension to heaven three days later. Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Monday accompany the Easter Sunday celebration and host a variety of liturgical activities. Lighting of candles, chanting, readings from the Bible and a vigil for Christ mark the gist of the strictly religious aspect of Easter around the world as has been established over 17 centuries ago.

The early Hebrew Passover celebration commemorated certain events of the Bible long before Christ but following His crucifixion around 30-36 AD, the festival (called Pesach) would inextricably be associated with Jesus, the Last Supper, the Eucharist, the Crucifixion and Resurrection. It was finally at the first dogmatic meeting of the Christian church at the city of Nicaea in 325 AD that leaders of the Church decided Easter’s annual position. It had to be a Sunday, the holiest of days, and would continue to be established by the Hebrew lunar calendar. Consequentially, our calendar now establishes it every year as the first Sunday after the first full moon following the first day of Spring (anywhere between March 22 and April 25).

Syncretism

In the following centuries, as Christian missionaries and military campaigns diffused cultural traditions across old frontiers, the festival of Easter was not only adopted but modified and made particular to brand new cultures. They call “syncretism” the concept of merging aspects of two religions to create a brand new one and that is exactly what then happened to our Christian/Pagan Easter. Early in Anglo-Saxon Britain for example, a spring festival celebrating rebirth and fertility was held annually in honour of their goddess Eostre (equivalent of Greco-Roman Diana or Persephone). She symbolised spring and the dawn (rebirth of the rising sun every day in the East) that is why the English and Germanic-speaking worlds use the derived words “Easter” or “Ostern” whereas almost all other western languages derive from Hebrew (Pâques in French, Pascua in Italian, Paskar in Icelandic or Paskha in Russian). Further syncretism occurred when we incorporated the Scandinavian goddess Freya of flora and fauna to the festival and thus we retain Freya’s symbol, the bunny (specifically the hare) associated with Easter, as well as the Easter feast observed by all. Eventually, Eastern Europe augmented this now rich celebration with their traditional Slavic egg decoration. These pieces of art and symbols of spring fertility remain today as the intricately-ornate painted eggs of Bulgaria or the Czech republic and even the luxurious Faberge eggs of Russia but the entire world has adopted this cultural art once a year by decorating eggs or simply buying the deliciously colourful and chocolate ones.

Finally, the process of syncretism continues to this day as we discover new regional Easter traditions that may one day travel to every corner of the world. In Bermuda, symbolising the ascension of Jesus, young children build intricate kites and fly them only once a year on Easter Sunday. Mexican and German schoolchildren and businessmen have 2-3 weeks of vacation to reflect on the final times of Jesus. North Americans have invented the Easter-egg hunt and are the global champions of the “chocolate” facet of it all. In Africa, certain communities weave colourful clothing and celebrate through traditional dancing and a communal feast of fresh produce. In Scandinavia, children dress as witches (ancient symbol of Freya) and collect candy door-to-door. To finish the demonstration and to illustrate the wide variety of Easter regionalisms, Slovakia and the Czech Republic observe the holy day by having their men publicly whip or spank the women. This symbolic and painless tradition is supposed to guarantee health and beauty for the women during the coming year.

In conclusion, some purists claim that Easter has been corrupted over the centuries but I believe that through a long process of syncretism in religious doctrine, cultural tradition and regional practices, Easter has become a democratic and universal celebration with a specific and powerful meaning for all walks of life, none being excluded.

(Pictured: Ukranian Easter eggs - The lesser-known creepy Easter bunny)

End.