Easter actually began as a pagan festival celebrating spring in the Northern Hemisphere, long before the advent of Christianity. Since pre-historic times, people have celebrated the equinoxes and the solstices as sacred times".
The Spring equinox is a day where the amount of dark and the amount of daylight is exactly identical, so you can tell that you're emerging from winter because the daylight and the dark have come back into balance. People mapped their whole life according to the patterns of nature.
Following the advent of Christianity, the Easter period became associated with the resurrection of Christ. In the first couple of centuries after Jesus's life, feast days in the new Christian church were attached to old pagan festivals. Spring festivals with the theme of new life and relief from the cold of winter became connected explicitly to Jesus having conquered death by being resurrected after the crucifixion.
Easter actually began as a pagan festival celebrating spring in the Northern Hemisphere, long before the advent of Christianity. Since pre-historic times, people have celebrated the equinoxes and the solstices as sacred times".
The Spring equinox is a day where the amount of dark and the amount of daylight is exactly identical, so you can tell that you're emerging from winter because the daylight and the dark have come back into balance. People mapped their whole life according to the patterns of nature.
Following the advent of Christianity, the Easter period became associated with the resurrection of Christ. In the first couple of centuries after Jesus's life, feast days in the new Christian church were attached to old pagan festivals. Spring festivals with the theme of new life and relief from the cold of winter became connected explicitly to Jesus having conquered death by being resurrected after the crucifixion.