All Christians will celebrate Easter Sunday
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ennahar
Until Sunday, all Christians will celebrate Easter that commemorates the resurrection of Christ, one of the key events of the faith of Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox and to all, a joyous time after the meditation of fast.
- There are generally two dates of Easter for Christians, one for Catholics and Protestants, the other for the Orthodox because the former follow the Gregorian calendar (that of Pope Gregory XIII - 1502-1586) and the Orthodox follow the Julian calendar (that of Julius Caesar), closer to the lunar calendar.
- In either case, Easter is celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after the beginning of spring.
- This year, the two calendars coincide, as in 2007.
- Easter is the principal feast of the Christian liturgy, culminating a week which began with the coming of Christ into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), his arrest, his trial and his (purported) death on the Cross (Friday) and Resurrection (Sunday).
- Easter is a "feast of obligation" that is to say, Christians have a "duty" to attend mass. It is during Saturday evening - Easter Vigil – that take place baptisms of adults (2,903 among Catholics this year).
- Celebrations (masses and prayer) are nearly the same for all three religions, except for the Stations of the Cross on Friday which is not for Protestants. There is also a revival of cross roads, which recall the rise of Christ on Golgotha.
- Easter also marks the end of Lent, which is not more severe: Catholics do not fast only on Ash Wednesday (day of the beginning of Lent) and Good Friday, where before it was for 40 days.
- The tradition remains ingrained: it continues to provide food and eggs because the Church prohibited them (like meat) in Lent. And the children go into the gardens in search of eggs that the bells brought from Rome (from Thursday evening to Easter Sunday, the bells fall silent in mourning).
- The Christian festival of Easter derives from the Jewish Passover (Pesach), which commemorates when the Jews out of Egypt, where Moses received the Torah on Mount Sinai.
- It's mostly a private party, notably marked by a meal (Seder) in which one eats matzo (unleavened bread) and "bitter herbs". The unleavened bread means that Jews left Egypt so quickly that they did not have time to make bread rise and the "bitter herbs" refer to the rigors of slavery in the land of pharaohs.
- This is to celebrate Passover - which means "way" - that Jesus came to Jerusalem. Passover lasts one week. This year it is celebrated from Monday night.
- Ennaharonline/ M. O.
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