the day of celebration of Easteris the main day of the Christian liturgical calendar, as it is on this day that the ResurrectioninChrist, it is from this that all other important dates of Christianity are calculated (Holy Week, Lent, Ash Wednesday, etc.). The Christian liturgy, however, derives from elements of Jewish tradition. To really understand what the Easter, it is necessary to know what was the Passover for the Jews.
the Hebrew term Passover means “the crossing” or “passage” and, traditionally, designates the moment when the Hebrew people, guided by Moses, came out of slavery in Egypt and crossed the Red Sea to Earth Promised. The basis of the Passover ritual can be found in chapter 12 of the book of Exodus. The event of the deliverance of the Hebrews from the Egyptian yoke took place in the springtime, so, since then, every spring a lamb was sacrificed as an offering to the God who had them. released.
Over time, at the beginning of the formation of Christendom, some groups in the Early Church continued the Jewish ritual (including the sacrifice of the lamb), while others rejected this practice, as they interpreted Christ as the symbol of the last lamb (the lamb and son of God), who was sent as a victim for the remission of sins and salvation of men. Catholic rituals related to Easter began to be organized, then, based on self-sacrifice, such as fasting and the penances of the
Lent. The ancient historian of the Early Church, Eusebius of Caesarea, testified to this adaptation:“By this time a rather serious question arose, of course, because churches all over Asia, leaning on a very ancient tradition, thought it was I must keep the fourteenth day of the moon for the feast of the Saviour's Passover, the day on which the Jews were to sacrifice the lamb and on which it was necessary to at any cost, falling on any day of the week, to put an end to fasting, and churches all over the world were not used to doing it in this way, but by apostolic tradition, they kept the custom that has prevailed until today: that it is not right to end the fasts on another day than the day of the resurrection of our Saviour..” (EUZEBIUS OF CAESAREA. ecclesiastical history. Book V, XXIII, §1.)
The fact is that, from the Council of Nicaea, held in the fourth century d. C., Easter began to be celebrated in the equinox of spring, which can then be celebrated between the 22nd of March and the 25th of April. This tradition remains today and the day of Easter varies depending on it. the days of Carnival and from the Lent period also exist in function of the Easter day. This process of instituting the celebration of Easter also assimilated several myths from northern Europe, such as the myth of the Germanic goddess Ostara, with which the eggs and rabbit symbols are related.
Today, all these elements intertwine with the industry of eggsinchocolate, forming the party we celebrate.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes