Celebrating Easter

A cultural festival

Easter is our appointed cultural commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus – celebrated in recognition of the significance of this event to many of our cultural values and benefits.

Our cultural ideas of human rights, our systems of love and justice, education and healthcare, our views on the equality of women and men – and much more – can all be directly traced to Jesus’ teachings and influence within our history.

As a cultural festival – like Christmas – Easter exists to help us remember the stories that shaped our deeply held values.

A culture that despises its own history has no future.
There is a story to know, value, and tell.

A Christian festival

Easter is also the appointed commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus – who Christians believe to be God’s most clear revealing of himself to humanity. The festival is widely accepted to have been celebrated by followers of Jesus since its first anniversary, one year after his death and resurrection. Their lives had been transformed, and they loved him with all their hearts.

The point is that God can be known, evil and suffering are not eternal, forgiveness for the wrongs we have each done is possible, and life can therefore be lived with meaning and hope.

In history

Celebrated since the time of Christ, the date shifted early on from that of the Jewish Passover due to differences in calendars. Around 600 years later, the name of the goddess Eostre – worshipped in Europe among the Celtic, Nordic, and Germanic peoples – was strangely attached to the festival. This name continues to this day for those of us in the English-speaking world.

Our A Minute in History videos and audios explore these details, as does our online booklet, Easter – What Is It Christians Believe?

In both the timing and naming of this season, Christians are generally unconcerned, as Easter is not a required religious festival. It has instead been celebrated because Christians wanted to celebrate – its meaning and significance unaffected by debates about dates and names.