We’ve only just celebrated the birth of Jesus at Christmas. We are still in the month of January, and now local shops are full of Easter eggs. It’s as if the stores are willing The Messiah’s death to occur earlier so that they can profit from his suffering. I was gobsmacked at seeing the chocolate delights.
- Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are decorated eggs that are usually used as gifts on the occasion of Easter. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide.
- The oldest tradition is to use dyed and painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs wrapped in colored foil, hand-carved wooden eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as chocolate.
- However, real eggs continue to be used in Central and Eastern European tradition. Although eggs, in general, were a traditional symbol of fertility and rebirth, in Christianity, for the celebration of Eastertide, Easter eggs symbolize the empty tomb of Jesus, from which Jesus resurrected.
- In addition, one ancient tradition was the staining of Easter eggs with the colour red “in memory of the blood of Christ, shed as at that time of his crucifixion.”
- This custom of the Easter egg can be traced to early Christians of Mesopotamia, and from there it spread into Russia and Siberia through the Orthodox Churches, and later into Europe through the Catholic and Protestant Churches.
Easter, also called Pascha (Greek, Latin) or Resurrection Sunday, is a festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial after his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD. It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance. Easter is the most important and oldest festival of the Christian Church.
My photo of The Crucifixion was captured at The Grotto, St Mary’s Church in Cleator. Work on building The Grotto began in 1926, just as the Great Depression began to create economic hardship around the world. The idea behind the Grotto was to build a replica of Lourdes. The Grotto was completed and opened on Sunday 30th October 1927 by the then Abbot of Douai, the right Reverend Edmund Kelly OSB. The Grotto is a place of Annual Pilgrimage, and a centre of devotion, not just for Catholics, but for all faiths. The Grotto is appointed one of the Marian Shrines in the Lancaster Diocese.
- This year, Easter Sunday is on 21 April.
- Is it too early for shops to be selling Easter eggs?