Hey everybody, welcome back to Explaining Com 5, the podcast where we take the questions you always wanted to ask and talk about them in a way that's easy to understand. We're your hosts, I'm Tim. Hey everyone, I'm Kevin. So Kevin, today we're talking about Easter, and the first question is, how is Easter's date determined?
It does seem to change a lot from year to year, sometimes it's in late March, sometimes it's in late April. Yeah, you're right. Easter is not held on the same date every year. It's actually a festival classed as a movable feast.
So for how the date for Easter is determined is that it is basically always on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the equinox in March. Now that sounds a lot, and this is to make sure that it is always after the Jewish holiday of Passover, because you can't have his death and resurrection celebrations occur before his last supper, which was on Passover. So this means that Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 20, so it can fall anywhere between March 22 and April 25. So in theory, then, Easter Sunday can fall on April Fool's Day.
Oh, that's an interesting one. Yes, but there was a big gap between 1956 and 2018 where it didn't happen. So in recent years, that has been pretty rare. I believe the next time Easter Sunday falls on April 1st will be the year 2029.
Now, if Easter is all about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then can you explain why we have an Easter bunny and chocolate eggs for Easter? Well, Easter is celebrated in several ways throughout Northern Europe and the United States, but not all of these celebrations have to do with the Christian meaning of the holiday. So for Christians, Easter eggs symbolize the empty tomb of Jesus, from which Jesus was resurrected. And the early Christians of Mesopotamia also used to stain Easter eggs with red coloring, which were also in memory of the blood of Christ, since he died on a cross.
That makes sense. But in parallel, Easter celebrations are also related to some pagan festivals from ancient Germany. So the word Easter here is actually derived from Iestra or Eoster, which is the name of the ancient German goddess of spring. And it was the Anglo-Saxon monk, Bede, who wrote about this in the 8th century.
So because of some of these origins, many people associate eggs and bunnies with a fertility story. And well, rabbits are kind of known for procreation, and so the Easter bunny is pretty much all these German things. You know, children are given baskets to fill with candy, and they go around looking for decorated eggs that the Easter bunny has supposedly laid. So does that mean that the word Easter itself isn't actually a Christian name?
Well, Easter has really several names depending on the language, but yeah, most are derived from the Greek and Latin word pasta, which is taken from the Hebrew word for Passover. And also in many parts of the world, people call them pasta eggs, not Easter eggs. So the French word for Easter is paquets, for example. But to answer your question, yes, the modern English term Easter developed from the old English word Easter or Eoster, which generally refers to the name that goddess Eoster that we talked about earlier.
So the word Easter doesn't really come from the Christian side of the story. Okay, but the traditional Christian meaning of Easter is still Jesus being resurrected. Yes, that's right. Easter commemorates the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
It's described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary around 30 AD. And these celebrations took place during the same time as the Jewish celebration of Passover, the festival commemorating the Jewish exodus from slavery in Egypt. So later on, Christians interpreted Passover as an allegory of the resurrection of Jesus and co-opted the holiday for Christianity. And again, this is why Easter is never set dates, but instead follows the Jewish moon encounter like we discussed earlier.
Now, if Easter is more significant than Christmas, at least from a theological standpoint, then why do Americans tend to make a bigger deal of Christmas? Yes, for example, Christmas is a federal holiday, but there aren't any days off for Easter weekend, which is a little different to European countries. Oh, well, taking a look back at the history, Christmas was not such a big deal either until the big farming stores in your city started popping up as a holiday. So until the late 1800s, Christmas was a minor holiday, I'll say.
Remember we did a whole episode on Christmas once? Ah, yes, I do remember that one. It was the one with the special guests. That's right, that's right.
So after they invented Santa Claus and made up stories like the night before Christmas, etc., the chini was out in the bottle, basically, and the rest of the history. Okay, but Easter itself does still get its fair share of commercial activity. You explained the Easter bunny and the decorated eggs, but I don't think you explained why we have chocolate Easter eggs. Ah, so this was thanks to the British chocolate manufacturer Cadbury.
They're manufacturing their first Easter egg in 1875, and Cadbury created the modern chocolate Easter egg after developing a pure cocoa butter that could be morphed into all these smooth shapes. So it was really their invention. I see. So finally, in Australia, rabbits are seen as pests, I believe.
So they have an alternative to the Easter bunny, I heard. Oh, yes, that's right. It's pretty cute. So the Easter bilby is an Australian alternative to the Easter bunny.
Now, bilby's are native Australian marsupials that are actually endangered. So to raise money and increase awareness of conservation efforts, bilby-shaped chocolates and related merchandise are sold in many stores throughout Australia as an alternative to Easter bunnies. Very interesting. Did you learn something new?
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