Written By: McKenzie Guertin 

The Easter holiday is spent with family, scavenging for eggs, and enjoying a visit from the Easter bunny, but many Christians celebrate the holiday to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The week leading up to Easter is called Holy Week, and during that week many different cultures and sections of Christianity celebrate the days leading up to Jesus’s death and his resurrection

Easter was first recorded in the second century, and Christians of the time called it the Resurrection. Easter, like many other holidays celebrated, was an ancient Pagan celebration of the Spring equinox before it was adopted by Christianity. During the Pagan holiday, there would be festivals held for the arrival of spring, and the festivities would go on for four days. 

The holiday was officially adopted into Christianity in 325 AD when the Church council decided that Easter should be celebrated on the Sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox. From there, the symbols and concepts of the rebirth of nature and renewal became associated with the resurrection or rebirth of Jesus. 

The week leading up to the crucifixion and rebirth of Jesus Christ is called Holy Week and it’s important to both the Easter holiday and Christianity. Holy Week includes Palm Sunday, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Each day plays an important role in Jesus' resurrection which happens the day after Holy Saturday. 

Palm Sunday is the start of Holy Week, and during Palm Sunday Christians commemorate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. On Palm Sunday Christians will receive palm branches or palm crosses. In some churches, it is known as the Sunday of Passion and the narratives from the Gospel are read. 

Halfway through the week Holy Wednesday occurs. During Holy Wednesday many attend a service called Service of Shadows, Tenebrae in Latin. During this service, psalms are read and candles are slowly extinguished, which creates a sense of growing darkness. This day is important because it symbolizes the abandonment of Jesus’s disciples and the crucifixion that happens later that week. It is also typically believed that Holy Wednesday was the day that Judas betrayed Jesus to the High Priests for money. To Christians, this symbolizes abandonment and betrayal. 

 Following Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday occurs. Maundy Thursday is when the Last Supper takes place, the betrayal of Judas, and Jesus’s arrest at the Garden of Gethsemane. The Garden of Gethsemane is the Garden where Jesus prayed for all of humanity’s sins before being crucified. Services on Thursday include foot washing, which correlates with Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, as it’s seen as an act of love from Jesus. 

Good Friday is the second to last day of the Holy Week. During Good Friday, Jesus’s crucifixion and burial happens. Christians will often be seen fasting and then attending a service where they meditate on the cross of Christ. 

Holy Week comes to an end with Holy Saturday. This day is spent by having a late-night service where they will celebrate the first Eucharist of Easter and those who enter the Church will be baptized. Holy Week is an emotional week for Christians, but all around the world, many different cultures have their own celebrations for Easter. 

In Germany, Easter is celebrated by a different name, Ostern, which is the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring in German. During Ostern, Germans will celebrate by boiling and painting eggs, they will also tell their children tales of the Easter Bunny. They do celebrate Good Friday, but their Easter is very reminiscent of American Easter, filled with Easter egg hunts and candy. In Italy, Easter is as important to them as Christmas is. Because Italy has a very religious culture with many people devoutly practicing their religious beliefs, they hold large parades related to Jesus and have many church services where many will pray to either Jesus or the Virgin Mary. On Good Friday, the Pope holds a church service about the stations of the cross.

Despite Easter originally being a Pagan festival about the Spring Equinox, it has grown through religion and traditions of the easter bunny and easter egg hunts to create a meaningful holiday that everyone around the world can enjoy.