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Easter Season
Easter Sunday is the most important day in all of Christianity. It is the cornerstone of all Christ-based churches because it is the celebration of the day that Jesus concord death and rose from the death. It is also a season within the Catholic Church that goes from Easter Sunday to Pentecost. This is the day that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is often said to have passed over death. This is a reference that is Jewish in root. Passover is one of the high days within the Jewish faith. Passover is the story from Exodus that the Jews were told to with specificity how to paint their door frames with lambs blood. By doing this the Lord passed over those homes and did not kill the oldest son in that household. In the New Testament Jesus fled to Egypt to avoid Herod and his edict that said to kill all the first born males in the house holds so that kill the King of Kings, or Jesus.
Easter Sunday can fall anytime between Late March and Late April and was assigned this time frame in 325 at the Council of Nicaea, when it was said that Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday and there for Easter should be celebrated on a Sunday. It was further decided that this would take place on the first Sunday after a full moon after the Vernal Equinox or March the 22nd. Since 325 a.d, Easter has been celebrated in this way.
The Easter season follows the 40 days of Lent which is the period of penance that preceding Easter Sunday. Lent runs right though Palm Sunday which is the day of Jesus Triumphant return into Jerusalem .
The bridge between the end of Lent, Palm Sunday, and Easter Sunday is known as Holy Week. This includes the Easter Tritium, which is the Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. According to the Synopic Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke, They all tell the story of Jesus arriving in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and the Jews laying palms in the road for the Lord to walk on. They then move on to the preparation for the Passover meal which was actually Holy Thursday, and the meal which Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Communion or Eucharist. Good Friday also has references in the Gospels to Passover where Pilates asks if the Jews wanted Jesus released as part of the Passover custom. As we know the crowed picked the thief Barabbas. This lead to what is called the Passion of Our Lord, his torture, his crucifixion and ultimately his death. And because of Passover and the Sabbath, Jesus was laid in the tomb of Joseph of Aramathea and left until they could come back after the Sabbath and prepare the body for proper burial. This was Holy Saturday which lead into the Passover of the Lord, into Easter Sunday, which the Lord passed from Death into Life.
This is where the Easter season starts. The eight days immediately after Easter, or the Octave of Easter continues the Easter story in the gospels, which carries us though the Easter Season which will end at Pentecost. |
