The History of Easter: Centuries of Controversy

How Far Have We Come to Celebrate Easter in 2009?

Most people don't realize that there is more to Easter than the Easter bunny and hiding colored eggs in baskets for little children. Easter is one of the most controversial holidays in the world; to date, there are four phases of the "Easter controversy" based on choosing which day is the right date to celebrate. Even though these disputes have gone on for centuries, Easter in the year 2009 is still not yet reformed. The World Council of Churches proposed a way to define Easter as the first Sunday after the astronomical full moon (which follows the vernal equinox) starting in 2001 but the reform has yet to be put into operation.

To date, Easter is always celebrated two days after Good Friday (on a Sunday), falling anywhere in between March 22^nd and April 25^th. It is also the end of Lent, which is the forty-day long fasting Christians partake in to prepare and commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter is a moveable feast and has no permanent set date in the year.

What is Easter?

Easter is a Christian festival and is the most important feast in the Christian year (known as the liturgical year). In the Bible, Jesus was resurrected three days after he was crucified to death by the Romans. The date is very similar to the Jewish Passover (the holy day in remembrance for God sparing the Jewish people after he killed the first born of Egypt) and the feast highly symbolizes bread, which Christ proclaimed was his 'body' during the Last Supper.

The Controversial History of Easter From Then to the Year 2009

The history of Easter is an ongoing history, one can say, because different Church denominations were in disagreement with the celebration date. Even now for the upcoming Easter festival of 2009 (on April 12^th, 2009), many public schools, colleges, and the media in the United States will call the date "Spring Holiday" instead of "Easter." This more modern controversy stems from a case in 1999 where the US Seventh Court of Appeals ruled that naming the day "Spring Holiday" was secular and abided by the rule of separation of Church and State.