Easter is one of the most important Christian holidays. The Resurrection brings some of the most exciting customs regardless of the region. Easter is also when we cleanse our homes and souls and become better people. Egg dyeing, Easter, lambing, and bunny rabbits are just some of the Easter Traditions you can learn by reading.

Easter traditions and customs represent, along with the awakening of nature to life, a resurrection of people after the brutal winter and the coming of spring. Below you can find out some of the most popular Easter traditions spread all over the world:

• Taking the Holy Light
• Painting red eggs
• Eating chocolate Eggs
• The Egg Haunting
• The Easter Bunny
• Sacrificing the holy lamb

A charming tradition is also found on the morning of the first day of Easter when children under nine years old go to neighbors and friends to proclaim the Resurrection of the Lord. Yet, the hosts give each greeter a red egg. Also, in this area, it is forbidden to renew the wardrobe during the fast. The new clothes will be worn only on Easter day. Also, no colored clothes are worn during Easter Week.

What do we do on Easter Sunday at midnight?

Often, a candle is offered in church on the night of the Resurrection. And the candle lit on Resurrection Night will be brought light on the way home. If it is not extinguished, then the wish of the bearer will be fulfilled.

On Easter Sunday, at midnight, we go to Church to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus and to symbolically receive the Light of the Resurrection. The light of Resurrection Night signifies for believers the victory of good over evil, the defeat of darkness, and the victory of life. At the Holy Sepulchre, it appears by divine power without any explanation or source of ignition. The shattering miracle keeps faith alive, and the capabilities of the holy light range from protection and healing to bringing abundance, good fortune, and harmony to homes.

Easter is a joyous, illuminated feast full of meaning, symbols, and traditions. The holy light gives people hope, showing that miracles are still possible.

How do we celebrate Jesus on Easter?

Many people nowadays say: I celebrate Easter. For some people, Easter means meeting relatives; for others, a bunny and red eggs. For others, parties and drinking, or the day of the year when they remember they still have to go to church. If we look at today’s world, we see that Satan has distorted the true meaning of Easter. Easter, for many, means parties and bunnies.

As Christians, we celebrate Jesus on Easter by going to church, keeping Fasting and Prayer, and being better. It is the resurrection of the Lord after the passion He went through. The only begotten Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, also became the son of the human race and made the supreme sacrifice. Jesus sacrificed himself to redeem the ancestral sin of mankind. By His resurrection from the dead, Jesus proved that he is the Son of God and conquered death, showing people that He is the true Son of God.

For the Hebrews, Easter also meant the miraculous intervention of the Lord to bring them out of Egypt. For this intervention, indeed, one lamb had to be slaughtered in each family, or if there were too few, two families would be associated with one lamb. So, this lamb’s blood turned away God’s wrath from the homes of the Jews.

Biography of Jesus

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Biblical places from the times of Jesus

1. Gethsemane-Where is this garden located?
2. Kinneret- Is Kinneret located in Jerusalem? Is it the sea?

Read more about the Resurrection of Jesus Scripture. The theological Significance of the Resurrection

3 Unknown Easter traditions:

The celebration of the miracle of the Resurrection is an essential feast of Christians everywhere and is accompanied by many Easter traditions and customs. From red eggs and cake to uplifting religious services, the colorful bunny with his basket full of goodies, or numerous superstitions and customs, Easter is celebrated in the most joyful way possible, as well as being a mark of spring, a new beginning, a hope for the better, a renewal.

1. The custom of sprinkling

Perhaps the most famous Easter custom in European countries is sprinkling. The custom, taken over from the Hungarians, says that on the second day of Easter, boys, dressed in traditional clothes, go to families where there are girls and sprinkle them with perfume, so they don’t wither. This sprinkling is still done today and is a reason to get together with friends. Yet, it is said that the sprinkled girls will have good luck all year round. In the Middle Ages, girls would water themselves from the fountain when this custom was introduced.

2. Adorning the tree

At Easter, a tree or shrub, similar to the Christmas tree, is also decorated. Instead of orbs, painted eggs are hung but without contents. Depending on its size, the tree is placed in a pot or vase, giving a unique charm to the celebration. Young people also decorate the tree with colored ribbons and sneak them into the girls’ yards to be married. In the past, the decorated boughs represented an apparent courtship ritual.

3. Adorning the fir branch as a symbol of the link between the two worlds

Some families from the non-Europeanised areas decorate a fir branch for the last deceased member. This branch is decorated with sweets and pretzels and then taken to the church to be consecrated. The consecrated gifts are given to needy children and villagers, and the branch is placed on the grave, symbolizing the link between the two worlds.

Easter beliefs and superstitions

At Easter, there are several beliefs and superstitions, including:

• At the Resurrection, you must wear a new coat;
• On Easter Day, you must not sleep because the rest of the year, you will be sleepy and have bad luck;
• The Candle of the Invocation is kept in the house to be lit in case of natural calamity, illness or sorrow;
• At dawn on Easter Day, you must indeed wash your face with untainted water and place it in a new cup, in which you put a red egg, a silver coin, and a blade of grass, symbols of health, prosperity, and luck;
• At the Easter table, eat an egg for the first time. It is also believed to bring health throughout the year;
• Also, at lunch, fish and fowl are eaten to be as spry as fish and as light as chicken;
• On Easter morning, first look into a bowl of raw water. They say you’ll have good eyesight all year;

What are traditional Easter foods?

Easter food traditions in America

Why do we eat chocolate eggs or bunnies on Easter?

Easter is one of the most significant holidays in the Christian calendar. It has always been associated with symbolic foods, such as lamb or kulaks, in the middle of which red eggs are placed. The rabbit, however, another animal associated with Easter, is not mentioned in the Bible. Chocolate originated in the New World and wasn’t accessible to the masses until the mid-1800s. In that case, why do we eat bunnies or chocolate eggs?

At Easter, we eat eggs or chocolate bunnies because it’s based on the pagan traditions of the festival celebrating the goddess, where people eat eggs and bury their shells in the ground to encourage fertility. This process would also be found in other cultures, such as the Egyptian and Babylonian.

Easter traditions also include elements from ancient pagan rituals adapted to the new Christian religions. The rabbit is also one of the animals known for its fertility, and spring is the ideal season of fertility and rebirth. Indeed, no wonder the two have been associated.

Chocolate Eggs

Since ancient times the red-dyed egg has been the symbol of Jesus’ sacrifice. The custom was quickly taken up by all countries where Christianity spread. However, decorating eggshells has much older roots.

The chocolate egg seems to be the star of Easter, but the egg itself is the universal symbol for the holidays. In almost all cultures, it is used in various forms. It is often decorated and given as a gift to loved ones. Traditionally hen’s eggs are dyed, but modern times have made the chocolate egg the real culinary star of Easter.

The chocolate egg became part of the Easter tradition later on. The first chocolate egg was recorded in England in 1873 by the Fry’s company in Bristol. In 1875, Cadbury’s version was hand-decorated in Victorian fashion. It was made of dark chocolate, perhaps a little too bitter.

Lamb and Paska

Ancestral traditions are a source of national pride and unite us. They are closely linked to religious holidays, Easter being one of the most important. In the Book of Exodus, we learn that the Jews had to leave Egypt without having time to prepare leavened bread. Even today, millennia later, Jews commemorate this event, eating only Passover instead of regular bread for eight days.

For some people, the custom of eating lamb and Paska is closely related to the Jewish Passover ritual. Among them, lamb is eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Even at the Last Supper, some who ate lamb claim that Jesus and his apostles ate lamb. For Christians, the lamb, the pasture, and the wine have taken on new meanings; the lamb is Jesus Christ, signifying sacrifice, while the broken pasture and the poured wine are symbols of sacrifice.

If you want to bake, your paska can do so according to tradition on the eve of the Resurrection. It is cut into small pieces, placed in little parcels, and taken to church to be consecrated. The pieces are taken home and kept, attributed with the power to ward off sickness and trouble.

The story of the Lord’s Resurrection

From the Gospels, we learn that on the first day of the week, Sunday, the women of the Myrrh came with spices to the tomb of Christ, with which they were going to anoint the body of Jesus according to custom. Mary Magdalene, who had come with the other women, was the first to arrive at the tomb and astonished at the sight of the raised stone and the empty tomb, she stopped waiting for the other women and ran to tell the apostles what had happened. She no longer sees the angel who greets the other women, nor does she listen to his message that Christ is risen.

As the women of the myrrh go to the apostles to tell them what has happened, they are greeted by Christ with the following words: “Rejoice” and “Do not be afraid.” Also, he repeats the angel’s exhortation to them: “Go and proclaim to my brothers that they should go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

John and Peter arrive at the tomb. Although John comes first, he enters the tomb after Peter. So apart from the presence of the shroud and the mahram, indicating that Christ had risen, the apostles saw something extraordinary in the grave. It was also an experience shrouded in mystery, a true illumination. From that moment on, John believed without wavering in the Resurrection of Christ. The two apostles would also proclaim Christ’s Resurrection to others. After Christ is also recognized, He is told to go and tell the disciples: “Go to my brothers and tell them: I will come up to my Father and your Father.”

 Primary Takeaways

• The Holy Light, or the Holy Fire, is considered by Orthodox Christians to be a miracle that happens every year at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Holy Saturday, the day before Orthodox Easter. Many consider it the oldest attested annual miracle of the Christian world.
• The candle that has received the holy light must enter our homes lit to bless it, and after making the sign of the cross, we extinguish it by the upper threshold of the front door.
• It is said that we should by no means sleep from Holy Saturday to Sunday morning once church services are over. On this night, religious tradition testifies that the heavens open, and God can see only into the soul of the awake, whose most ardent desires he will seek to fulfill without fail.

Conclusion