Easter for Dummies

We are free, have a long weekend, we paint and tap eggs and brunch to our heart's content, but what we are really celebrating at Easter has somewhat faded away. Therefore, a little extra lesson so we know a bit about what we are talking about.

• Easter begins with Palm Sunday and lasts until the second Easter day.
  Palm Sunday, also known as Palm Passion Sunday, is the last Sunday of the fasting period, traditionally the second Sunday of Passiontide, but especially important as the first day of Holy Week. On Palm Sunday, Christians celebrate the joyful entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. After that, we have Maundy Thursday, on which Christians remember that Jesus' feet were washed by his disciples and they had the Last Supper. On Good Friday, Jesus was crucified. We call it Good Friday because Jesus sacrificed his life for humanity, and that is seen as something good. On Easter Sunday, we celebrate that Jesus rose from the dead, three days after his crucifixion. The second Easter day is always on a Monday and is, correct me if I’m wrong, a public holiday after Easter Sunday.

• Easter comes from the Jewish Passover, a tradition celebrating the exodus of slaves from Egypt. They did this by slaughtering a lamb, eating unleavened bread, and drinking wine (from this wine you actually get the worst hangover).

• The word Easter comes from the Latin ‘pasqua’, which means spring. Eastern and Ostern, as they call Easter in England and Germany, comes from ‘Eostre’, who is the goddess of fertility. Originally, Easter was a spring festival celebrating a new, fertile season and marking the end of the fasting period.

• Pentecost always falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter.

• The eggs symbolize fertility. It has nothing to do with the Christian faith, but is an old tradition. What is indeed linked to the Christian faith is that during the fasting period, no meat and dairy could be eaten, but the hens naturally continued to lay eggs. During Easter, that ‘egg surplus’ would then be deliciously used up. By the way, these are our four best egg hacks.

• Easter Island doesn't really have much to do with Easter, except that Jacob Roggeveen landed there in 1722 exactly during Easter with three ships and named the island that.