What is Easter? Why do we celebrate Easter? These are just a few of the questions we ask ourselves when Easter comes. Some may have the answers to these questions and others do not, and I don’t blame them. When Easter comes around, families get excited because this is a fun time, time consisting of exchanging Easter baskets, coloring eggs, hiding eggs, and great brawls to find the coveted Golden egg, completely missing the meaning of Easter.

To begin our journey to Easter, we attend mass and receive our ashes on Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent. Lent is a season of fasting. Individuals usually fast from doing, eating, drinking, etc. something during this time. Lent typically lasts about 40 days. This meant to resemble Jesus’s 40 days in the desert, where he was tempted and tested by the Devil.

Several special days are leading up to Easter, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, then Easter Sunday. Holy Thursday is the day the Apostles and Jesus had their last supper together, for Jesus knew of his appending death. Good Friday was the day Jesus was condemned to death upon the cross and died. It is “Good Friday” because Jesus died and in doing so forgave us of our sins and granted us eternal life. Holy Saturday was the day Jesus was laid in his tomb and Easter Sunday Jesus rose from the dead and took his place in Heaven next to his father.

Easter is a celebration of Jesus’s triumph against death. To celebrate this triumph, some attend church and glorify him, some carry crosses up hiking trails, and others enjoy a lazy day surrounded with family. All are acceptable, but we must remember the real reason for Easter.

I bet you are also wondering what the Easter bunny symbolizes, according to old stories the bunny usually gives birth to offspring during this time and the birth symbolizes new life.