Easter around the English-Speaking world!
Autor: Ricardo Silva | Publicado: 2011-04-15T17:48:00-03:00



Easter is the central feast in the&nbsp;Christian&nbsp;liturgical year.&nbsp;According to the&nbsp;Canonical gospels,&nbsp;Jesus&nbsp;rose&nbsp;from the dead&nbsp;on the third day after his&nbsp;crucifixion. Some&nbsp;Christians celebrate this resurrection on&nbsp;Easter Day&nbsp;or&nbsp;Easter Sunday&nbsp;(also&nbsp;Resurrection Day&nbsp;or&nbsp;Resurrection Sunday), two days after&nbsp;Good Friday&nbsp;and three days after&nbsp;Maundy Thursday. The&nbsp;chronology&nbsp;of his&nbsp;death and resurrection&nbsp;is variously interpreted to be between&nbsp;AD&nbsp;26 and 36, traditionally 33.&nbsp;Traditionally the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until&nbsp;Ascension&nbsp;Day. The first week of the Easter Season is known as Easter Week or the&nbsp;Octave of Easter. The week from&nbsp;Palm Sunday&nbsp;to Easter is known as Holy Week. Easter also marks the end of&nbsp;Lent, a season of fasting, prayer, and&nbsp;penance.&nbsp;Easter is a&nbsp;moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the&nbsp;civil calendar. It occurs during the spring, in and around the month of April.&nbsp;Secular customs, such as the&nbsp;Easter Bunny&nbsp;and&nbsp;Easter egg&nbsp;hunts, have become part of the holiday's modern celebrations and are often observed by Christians and non-Christians alike. There are also some Christian denominations who do not celebrate Easter. (See section below.)&nbsp;Throughout the English-speaking world, many Easter traditions are similar with only minor differences. For example, Saturday is traditionally spent decorating&nbsp;Easter eggs&nbsp;and hunting for them with children on Sunday morning, by which time they have been mysteriously hidden all over the house and garden. Other traditions involve parents telling their children that eggs and other treats such as chocolate eggs or rabbits, and marshmallow chicks (Peeps), have been delivered by the&nbsp;Easter Bunny&nbsp;in an Easter basket, which children find waiting for them when they wake up. Many families observe the religious aspects of Easter by attending&nbsp;Sunday Mass&nbsp;or services in the morning and then participating in a feast or party in the afternoon. Some families have a traditional&nbsp;Sunday roast, often of either&nbsp;roast lamb&nbsp;or ham. Easter breads such as&nbsp;Simnel cake, a fruit cake with eleven marzipan balls representing the eleven faithful apostles, or nut breads such as&nbsp;potica&nbsp;are traditionally served.&nbsp;Hot cross buns, spiced buns with a cross on top, are traditionally associated with&nbsp;Good Friday, but today are often eaten well before and after.&nbsp;In Scotland, the north of England, and Northern Ireland, the traditions of&nbsp;rolling decorated eggs down steep hills&nbsp;and pace egging are still adhered to.&nbsp;In Louisiana, USA, egg tapping is known as egg knocking. Marksville, Louisiana claims to host the oldest egg-knocking competition in the US, dating back to the 1950s. Competitors pair up on the steps of the courthouse on Easter Sunday and knock the tips of two eggs together. If the shell of your egg cracks you have to forfeit it, a process that continues until just one egg remains.&nbsp;