Easter - Belief; Traditions; Legends

To most of us the word Christianity instantly brings to mind the festival of Christmas. However, what most of us do not know is that Easter is the oldest Christian holiday and the most important day of the Christian church year. The feast of Easter celebrates and commemorates the central event of the Christian faith: the belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ three days after his death by crucifixion. We can, therefore, say that without Easter there is no Christianity.

All the branches of Christianity observe the feast of Easter. It is a moveable feast; doesn't fall on a set date every year. The Western branch of Christian churches, which follow Gregorian calendar, celebrate Easter on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox on March 21. Therefore, in these Churches Easter is observed anywhere between March 22 and April 25 every year. Orthodox Christians (Eastern Churches) use the Julian calendar to calculate the date Easter will occur and typically celebrate the feast a week or two after the churches of the Western branch.

Easter is really an entire season of the Christian church year. Lent, the 40-day period (excluding Sundays) leading up to Easter Sunday, is a time of reflection and penance. The Bible nowhere mentions Lent. Tradionally it represents the 40 days that Jesus is believed to have spent alone in the wilderness before starting his mission, a time in which Christians believe he survived various temptations by the devil. Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter, and marks the beginning of Holy Week, the week of events leading up to Jesus' death. The Holy Week includes Maundy Thursday, which commemorates Jesus’ last supper with his disciples; Good Friday, which honours the day of his crucifixion; and Holy Saturday, which focuses on the transition between the crucifixion and resurrection. The Fortieth day after Easter Day is celebrated as the Ascension Day, on which, according to the Bible, Jesus was taken up into heaven in his resurrected body; the fiftieth day (seventh Sunday) after Easter is Pentecost, the day the Christians believe the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples of Jesus.

The Bible tells us about a number of leading persons who played important part in the days leading up the death and resurrection of Jesus. The names that come to the fore are Judas, Peter, John, Pilate, Herod and others. Neil O'Brien, in an interesting piece "Of leading actors in the last act of Christ's earthly life" published in The Asian Age of April 1, 1996 describes some of the characters who figured in the last act of the drama of Christ's earthly life:

Peter: On the night after finishing the Last Supper with His disciples, Jesus went to Gethsemane and waited. Soldiers came to arrest Him. Peter, the big fisherman was there. He leaped to his feet, sword in hand and struck off the right ear of Malchus, high priest's servant, an idler. Jesus, says Luke (Physician!) healed the severed ear and rebuked Peter - "Put up thy sword." Roman Catholics believe that the first Bishop of Rome (Pope) was Peter.

Mark: Soldiers were taking Jesus (bound) through the sleeping city. A door opened and out ran a man wrapped only in a bedsheet. Sodiers chased him. He ran, losing his sheet in the flight. An amused crowd moved on leaving the young John Mark shivering in his hiding place. Early churchmen called him, "Mark the stump-fingered" because it is said that his thumbs were slashed off by a Roman sword the night he lost his sheet. The Gospel written by this Mark is the oldest, most vivid and authentic life of Jesus Christ. Mathew, Luke and John copied from him liberally. Mark was also the interpretor-secretary to Peter. He wrote down Peter's reminiscenes being 'careful not to leave out or falsify anything'. Was a lukewarm missionary but remarkable historian, this Mark.

Claudia: The wife of Pilate. Tradition has it that she was moved by the sight of Jesus wearing His red badge of courage so tranquilly in the face of death. "Have you nothing to do with that just man," she begged of Pilate, "for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him." A cultured Roman entering the only plea for mercy for a lowly Jew. The Greek Church revers her as a saint.

Barabbas: A brigand, Barabbas had been caught red-handed at rebellion and he had to die. His cross was ready. His cell-door opened and came the command, "Come on out, Barabbas, you are free! Jesus of Nazareth will die in your place." He walked off, blinking, afraid to laugh, afraid to cry. History does not record what became of Barabbas.

Simon: The cross had been loaded on Jesus' back. It was heavy. Down to the city strreets He carried it, and there, exhausted, he fell. Out of the hooting crowd, the sodiers pulled a farmer from Cyrene, Simon by name, in town to keep the Passover. "Carry it", said the centurion. Simon swung the cross to his shoulders. He laid it down quickly at the top of Golgota and melted into the crowd again. Two of Simon's sons, Alexander and Rufus became leaders in the Roman Church.

Joseph of Arimathea: Jesus died on the Cross. Joseph of Arimathea, who had failed to aid Christ at the trial, now came up boldly to Pilate and "begged for the body". He got it. Then Joseph took a fine linen sheet and with the help of Nicodemus drew out the nails, lowered the body from the Cross, prepared it for burial.

They carried it down to Joseph's garden, laid it in a tomb prepared for Joseph's own body. Joseph became the stuff of legend. One story goes that he preserved some of Jesus's blood in the Holy Grail (the cup used by Jesus in the Last Supper) which he carried it to Britain along with the spear with which the Roman soldier had wounded the crucified Christ. The Grail disappeared and its quest became the source of the adventures of most of the knights of the Round Table! Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" set in the year 1938, is a fictional account of Indiana Jones' search for the Holy Grail.