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Easter, also known as Resurrection Day celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, is the most important religious feast of the Christian liturgical year. In the Roman Catholic Church, Easter is an eight-day feast called the Octave of Easter.
The formula for Easter Sunday was set at the Council of Nicaea in 325. Since Passover falls on full moon (14 Nissan of the Jewish calendar) many Christians in the early church celebrated Christ's resurrection on that day – which could be any day of the week. At Nicaea there was agreement Easter Day needed to be always a Sunday. It was decided that Easter Day would be celebrated on the first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon (this is a calculated lunar cycle – sometimes not exactly equivalent to the astronomical reality) that occurs on or after March 21 (the day of the ecclesiastical vernal equinox). Easter Sunday can fall as early as March 22 or at the latest on April 25. In 2012, Easter Sunday falls on April 8.
Lost Paradise The classic crucifixion image of Jesus in agony on a cross, so ingrained in Christian consciousness as to be its dominant archetype, is a rather new expression (probably less than a millenia old) created for political reasons during the Dark Ages. It has largely supplanted images of Christ's victory over death and a paradise on earth that filled the earliest Christian churches. "It took Jesus a thousand years to die. Images of his corpse did not appear in churches until the tenth century," write Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker in their book Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire. During a five-year survey of early Christian art in the Mediterranean and throughout Europe, the authors looked for the earliest depictions of Jesus and found plenty of images suggesting rescue from danger, baptism, paradise, and victory over death. The earliest "dead" Jesus they found was in a side chapel of the Cologne Cathedral in northern Germany. The Gero Cross, a crucifix sculpted from oak, dates from around 960-970. "In Christianity's second millenium the Crucifixion expelled paradise from earth. And Jesus died again." In their book, the authors detail how life-affirming forms of Christianity succumbed to a focus on redemptive violence during the second millenium, infecting the faith like a virus. "We recover here a life-giving, life-affirming Christianity, rooted in an ancient Mesopotamian past, that has survived despite many attempts to repress or destroy it and despite theological shifts that have betrayed it. We offer our study of this world as paradise as a way to retrieve a faith that affirms the many ways that people love one another, themselves, and the earth." Easter Bunnies, Eggs and Ham What is it with Easter Bunnies, anyway? Eggs and ham suggest breakfast, not a religious holiday. And what's with the decorated egg shells? These symbols are everywhere this time of year, but what do they have to do with the Christian celebration of the Resurrection? Do white rabbits have some spiritual significance? Are colored eggs Christian? And why eat ham on a day celebrating Jesus, a lifelong Jew who never touched the meat? Truth is, the name Easter (or Eastre, actually) belongs to a Scandinavian goddess or forest nymph. Easter was celebrated in festivals at the vernal equinox for centuries before the Resurrection. Her earthly symbol, signifying springtime and regeneration, was a white rabbit. Early Christians observed the Resurrection at about the same time, and to win converts among the pagan tribes they merged their holiday with that of the natives. The stratagem worked. Easter became a Christian occasion, but the white bunny character prevailed. Eggs have an even deeper history. They have long been symbols of birth and resurrection. Early Persians believed the world was hatched from an egg and the Egyptians who built the pyramids exchanged colored eggs each spring in celebration of the World-Egg of their creation myths. The Jewish people, who spent many years in bondage to the Egyptians, included hard-boiled eggs in their ceremonial Passover meal celebrating their “rebirth” and exodus from Egypt. The Last Supper was a Passover meal and Jesus undoubtedly had eggs on his plate. Life of all kinds emerges from eggs, or egg-shaped seeds, and much of this breakout is occurring now, in springtime. What better time, then, to celebrate the Resurrection? What better symbol for new hope than the egg? According to legend, an egg merchant helped carry Christ’s cross to Calvary. When he returned to his farm he found his hens’ eggs were a miraculous rainbow of colors. This inspired pysanki, the practice of painting bright colors and intricate patterns on the shells of eggs as a celebration of Easter. As for eating ham at Eastertime, there is nothing spiritual about the habit. The origins are clearly racist. Old English Anglo-Saxons of about a thousand years ago were vehemently anti-Semitic. They sought to demonstrate their differences, especially at Easter, and so they would eat a gammon of bacon just to prove they weren’t Jewish, because Jews were forbidden to eat pork. William the Conqueror, who led the Norman Conquests, was equally anti-Semitic but he hated bacon. When he became King of England one of his first acts was to insist on hams instead of bacon. English-speaking Christians have been basting Easter hams instead of frying Easter bacon ever since. by Michael Hofferber Copyright © 2007. All rights reserved.
Heat over high heat just to boiling. Remove from burner. Cover pan. Let eggs stanbd in hot water about 15 minutes for large eggs (12 minutes for medium eggs; 18 minutes for extra large). Drain immediately. Color and decorate for Easter. Or, cool completely under cold running water or in bowl of ice water, then refrigerate. Caution: Never microwave eggs in shells. Steam builds up too quickly inside and eggs are likely to explode. Did you know? It's almost impossible to hard-cook eggs at high altitudes above 10,000 feet.
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