The origins of what most people recognize and base their traditions on come from the celebration of the Germanic goddess Eostre, and the celebration of her around the spring equinox. Easter has many symbols in it—the eggs we color and dye represent the bright colors of the spring months. The all-too-famous Easter Bunny is a celebration of fertility in spring.
Many family celebrations, like egg painting or the symbol of the rabbit, come from the German pagan traditions. The classic egg hunt stems from a Christian tradition and dates back to the Protestant Reformation with Martin Luther. Back then, men would hide eggs, and the women and kids would look for them. Many families nowadays have traditions of their own.
“When I was younger, we had easter egg hunts and all that, helping make food and stuff,” sophomore Kai Salin said. Some families have large gatherings that have lasted years. “Usually my family travels, and we do a big easter egg hunt, and my grandma cooks a big dinner. We all just kinda hang out and watch football or something,” junior Peyton Miller explained.
Pagan practices overshadow many of the Christian roots in the holiday, even though that is a big part of the celebration. The celebration of Easter in Christianity is based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The story of the crucifixion and resurrection is very important to Christians around the world. As scriptures tell it, Jesus was crucified, and churches recognize that with a somber service: Good Friday. Saturday, the day before Easter, goes along with how Good Friday is with mourning the death of Christ. The second day. Many scriptures foretell the resurrection as being on the third day. The gospels account follows this, stating that Christ rose from the dead on what we now call Easter.
Easter Sunday and the celebrations that go along with it are a culmination of the Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the pagan celebration of the Spring season. Commercialization now overtakes the true meaning of the celebration. Millions of plastic eggs are sold along with millions of pounds of chocolate, equating to 2 billion dollars in chocolate sales alone. Within the last few decades, capitalism has drowned out the true meaning of Easter