Easter

Easter is an important holiday in Christianity. People who practice Christianity are called Christians.

Easter eggs are symbols of Easter. A traditional Easter egg is a real egg colored with dye or paint. Today, many Easter eggs are made of chocolate or colored plastic. The plastic eggs are often filled with candy.

Easter is always celebrated on a Sunday in early spring. The exact date of Easter moves around each year. The date is based on this rule, which Christian leaders came up with hundreds of years ago:

Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring, which starts on March 21.

In practice, Easter always falls between March 22 and April 25.

Bunnies and rabbits are often connected with Easter. Many families tell their children about the Easter Bunny. According to tradition, the Easter Bunny leaves gifts for children on Easter. The gifts are usually Easter eggs or baskets of candy.

Traditions of Easter include:

• Many people eat a special Easter dinner with family members. Some traditional Easter foods are ham and lamb.

• Many Christians celebrate Easter by going to a religious service. Some churches hold services at night. Those night services are called vigils. Some churches hold services at sunrise.

• In some countries, people decorate Easter eggs and hide them around their homes. Then children go on an Easter egg hunt to find the eggs.

• Many people give each other baskets filled with candy or small gifts on Easter. Sometimes children receive empty baskets to fill during Easter egg hunts.

Easter celebrates Jesus Christ. He is the most important figure in Christianity.

Easter celebrates the story of Jesus Christ coming back from the dead.This is the most important story in Christianity. Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas, not Easter.

By coming back to life, Jesus showed his followers that he was no ordinary man. Only the power of God could help him come back from the dead. To his followers, his resurrection, or rising from the dead, was a sign that he was the Son of God.

Beginnings of Christianity

Jesus's followers worked for many years to turn Jesus's teachings into a religion. Four of them wrote versions of Jesus's life story. Others wrote many letters that built on Jesus's ideas. Later, other people wrote about the lives and works of Jesus's first followers. All of these writings eventually became the New Testament in the Bible. Today, Christians still read the New Testament and follow its teachings.

Easter Sunday marks the the end of a religious season that includes the following events:

• Lent is a religious season that many Christians observe in the weeks before Easter. Lent honors the Bible story about Jesus spending 40 days alone in a desert.

• Fat Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday. It is also known as Mardi Gras, which is French for Fat Tuesday.

• Good Friday is the Friday before Easter. Good Friday marks the day that Jesus Christ was killed on the cross.

• Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent.

Nobody knows for sure where the name "Easter" comes from. However, historians agree that it comes from a non-Christian source. Jesus Christ did not give Easter its name. The word "Easter" does not come from the Bible, either.