It was Maundy Thursday, 2023, and it was 6:45 PM. I was preparing for a Maundy Thursday service to begin at 7:00 PM at the church I served at before coming to FBC. An older member named Hattie stopped me on my way into the sanctuary and asked a great question: “What do bunnies and eggs have to do with Easter?” My first thought was that it was an excellent question. My second thought was… I needed way more than 90 seconds to answer that.

Like Christmas and other holidays, Easter is often misunderstood and mis-celebrated. Either its origins are said to be based on pagan holidays, or we treat it as a day to dress up, attend service, and eat Reese’s Eggs. So, to fully embrace Easter and the season following, let’s look at how the early Christians understood and celebrated the day of Christ’s resurrection.

First, the early believers didn’t call it Easter— that word would be meaningless to them. The early church believed that Jesus’ death and resurrection were central to God’s plan to save the world. These events were not seen as a single, isolated moment in history, but part of the great trajectory of God’s providential interventions. Holy Week was understood to be a continuation and fulfillment of the Passover and Exodus events. Not coincidentally, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus happened at the time of the festival of Passover, so when the early Christians referred to the anniversary of Jesus’ passion and the celebration of his resurrection, they called it Passover like how Pentecost continues to be named after an Old Testament festival, even though it is given new meaning in the Church as the celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit. It was called “Passover,” or some translation of that word, as it still is to this day in most languages of the world.

So, what about the English word “Easter”? Where did that come from? It comes from an Old German word for “dawn,” as in, facing toward the dawn — facing east. The word “Easter” is not derived from pagan fertility gods or anything like that.

Over time, even centuries later, the symbols of bunnies, eggs, and spring flowers became attached to Easter. These were remnants of Roman and European paganism. There were ancient festivals, like the winter solstice at Christmas time and the spring equinox, or Roman festivals like Saturnalia and Lupercalia. In the same way that the image of Santa Claus developed over time, these symbols became attached to Easter.

However, when one studies the early Church, one sees that this was not present in the beginning. The early Church was critical of paganism. Easter was not based on anything other than the date of Passover. The question was not when to celebrate the Resurrection but how to calculate the precise date relative to Passover. This is an oversimplification, but the World Series happens every year in November. The dates are relative to the end of the season and how the weeks fall every year. By the same logic, the day we face the dawn in anticipation of our own resurrection is called Easter. It helps to know that “Easter” is only a word used in English. Most other languages still call it something that is a version of the word for Passover. For example, in Italian, it’s Pasqua.

Easter was never just one day. The Pasch was never just an “anniversary celebration” of his resurrection. The celebration of the Pasch every spring was a way to relive the events of that week in a way that brings them back around so that we can participate in them — just like the celebration of the Passover brought back the events of the Exodus for faithful Jews. “Past history made present mystery,” as they say. The celebration of the Pasch every spring was a way to relive the events of that week in a way that brings them back around so that we can participate in them — just like the celebration of the Passover brought back the events of the Exodus for faithful Jews.

The hope of the messianic banquet was partly fulfilled at the Last Supper when Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Communion. But then he said he would not drink from that cup again until the final consummation at the wedding feast of the Lamb when the kingdom of God is fully revealed, after the final resurrection. (Jesus hinted at this in his parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew 22.)

In some ways, the Early Church treated Resurrection Day as the beginning of a new year, and in the same way, we might make New Year’s resolutions to improve our habits. The early Christians used Lent, and then the Pasch, to solidify ways in which they wanted to take their spiritual lives to the next level. It has always been a tradition to make real changes in your life during and after Lent, not just go back to your old ways. So, it could be said that Resurrection Day was a real call to conversion.

On the one hand, the Pasch is not just a day or even the anniversary of a day; it is the recurring cycle of God’s Salvation History and the rhythm of our participation in it. On the other hand, it was also not just one feast day, as in “Easter Sunday.” For the early Christians, it was the whole thing from sundown on Maundy Thursday to sundown on Resurrection Sunday. That whole thing was considered a single “holiday/holy day” in which Christians participated in Christ’s passion and resurrection.

What we call “Easter” is not just a day, as if it can just come and go like any other weekend. It’s about the past, present, and future. It brings the past forward, connecting us in the present to God's extraordinary interventions in history. Then, the present becomes focused on the future as we face the dawn in an “easterly” direction in the hope of the wedding banquet of the Lamb and the return of Christ.

As the Pasch passes this year, I want to encourage you to remember it — and keep observing it — the way the early Christians did. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Think of Resurrection Day as part of God’s great plan. Think about how God is continually getting involved in the world.
2. Make a point to observe Easter Sunday every Sunday. Again, especially if it’s usually only one day for you, try to make every Sunday Easter Sunday.
3. Come out of Lent differently. After the Resurrection celebration (and Sunday dinner is eaten), don’t just go back to the same old way everything was before Lent as if now you can go back to having whatever you gave up until next year when it’s time to give up something again. Instead of going back, go forward — create some new habits, such as prayer or Bible reading. Don’t give yourself permission to miss church so often.
4. Live in gratitude. Make a conscious effort to ground your faith in what God has done in the past. Remember that gratitude for the past empowers faith in the present and trust in God for the future. If you’re not a regular prayer person, make a point to pray more often. In fact, let your whole life be driven by gratitude.

I wish you a blessed Paschal (Easter) season!