Understanding Easter
Though it's all about eggs and bunnies in popular culture, for Christians, Easter signifies the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Learn about the holy days leading up to Easter and the meaning and timing of the holiday itself.
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Article / Updated 11-08-2022
Listen to the article:Download audioWhat is Easter?Easter is the single most important holy day of the Christian Church. It celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the central event in Christianity. To Christians, the resurrection backs up Jesus’ c...
View ArticleArticle / Updated 03-29-2022
Passover is both the most-celebrated Jewish holiday of the year and the holiday voted most likely to elicit a groan. People groan when they consider Passover's dietary requirements. They groan when they think of all the preparations. They even groan when ...
View ArticleArticle / Updated 03-29-2022
The Christian season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday and lasts for 40 days. Catholics and members of some Protestant denominations are asked to do modest mortifications and acts of penance during Lent for the purification of the body and soul. Lent is a...
View ArticleArticle / Updated 03-29-2022
Christians observe Palm Sunday on the Sunday before Easter, celebrating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The reason they call it Palm Sunday stems from the fact that when Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem, a large crowd of people in the city spre...
View ArticleArticle / Updated 03-29-2022
Within the midst of the Easter season, Maundy Thursday — the Thursday before Easter — is one Christian holy day that many Christians and even many churches often overlook, yet it symbolizes a critically important truth of the Christian faith: Jesus as...
View ArticleArticle / Updated 03-29-2022
Good Friday — the Friday before Easter — marks the day on which Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross for the sins of the world. The term Good Friday might be a bit confusing if you associate good with happy. Good Friday isn’t a happy day, but its...
View ArticleArticle / Updated 03-29-2022
On the Christian calendar, Lent is the 40-day period from Ash Wednesday to Easter. When it was first observed in the fourth century, its focus was on self-examination and self-denial in preparation for Easter, and Christians used fasting (abstaining from ...
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