I've never ever joined and known about Easter Day just because personally, I am not a Christian. So it is very interesting when I know the story, the mean of the name Easter Day and so on. Let me give you some traditional things, habit in that Day.

What is Easter?

Easter is the time for holidays, festivals and a time for giving chocolate Easter eggs. But Easter means much more....

Easter is the oldest and the most important Christian Festival, the celebration of the death and coming to life again of Jesus Christ. For Christians, the dawn of Easter Sunday with its message of new life is the high point of the Christian year.

What is the Easter story ?

Easter is the story of Jesus' last days in Jerusalem before his death.The Easter story includes Maundy Thursday (the Last supper leading to the Eucharist), Good Friday (the day on which Jesus was crucified) and Easter Day (the day on which Jesus came back to life).

It is a sad story because Jesus was killed. But the story has a very happy ending, because Jesus came back to life and visited his friends and followers once more. He did not die at all, but went back up to Heaven to be with God, his father.

Where does the name 'Easter' come from?

Pagan traditions give us the English word "Easter" which comes from the word "Eostre". The Anglo-Saxon word for April was "Eostre-monath" (the month of openings). However, it should be remembered that Christians celebrated the resurrection of Christ long before the word "Easter" was used, and the word they used for the celebration was "Pascha", which is derived from and linked to the Jewish festival of Passover.

According to Bede, the English monastic historian, the English word Easter comes from the Anglo- Saxon name for the month of April, which was known as "Eostremonath" in the AngloSaxon tongue and since Pascha was most often celebrated in Eostremonath, the English Christians began calling it "Easter". Bede also notes that the month was named after the Anglo-Saxon goddess Esostre.

Rituals related to the goddess Eostre focus on new beginnings, symbolized by the Easter egg, and fertility, which is symbolized by the hare (or Easter bunny).

What happens on Easter Sunday today?

Christians gather together on Easter Sunday for a Sunrise Service. This service takes place on a hill side so everyone can see the sun rise.

Some Christians take part in an Easter vigil, lighting a new fire outside the church early on Sunday morning. The Paschal candle, decorated with studs to celebrate Christ's wounds, may be lit from the fire and carried into the church where it is used to light the candles of the worshipers. The Easter Eucharist is a particularly joyful service. It is a popular time for baptisms and renewal of baptism vows.

( Mr and Mrs Easter Bunny- Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World )

Some churches have an Easter Garden. A stone is placed across the mouth of a tomb before Easter, then rolled away on Easter morning.

The traditional Easter gift is a chocolate egg. 

The Traditional Egg Griff

 (I have never seen many dressed pretty girls like this )

The first eggs given at Easter were birds eggs. These eggs were painted in bright colors to give them further meaning as a gift.

As chocolate became more wide spread in the 20th Century, a chocolate version of the traditional painted egg was developed. The size of the chocolate egg has grown over the years and is now more likely to be the size of an ostrich egg rather than a small birds egg. 

Easter Present

Chocolate eggs are given to children. The eggs are either hollow or have a filling, and are usually covered with brightly colored silver paper.
Easter Egg Hunt : Small chocolate eggs are hidden for the children to find on the traditional Easter Egg Hunt.