Easter: Christian celebration of the Resurrection and its traditions

European languages

Many languages refer to Easter with a word derivation from the Aramaic pas-cha, borrowed from the Hebrew word Passover, among others:

In northwest Germany, the term Paasken for Easter in Low German has survived to this day. This linguistic tradition points to the essential relationship of the death and resurrection of Jesus to the exodus of the Israelites from slavery and emphasizes the enduring rootedness of Christianity in Judaism.

Most West Slavic languages call Easter "Great Night (Great Nights)", in Polish Wielkanoc, Czech Velikonoce, Slovak Veľká noc and Slovenian Velika noč. By contrast, Belarusian uses Вялікдзень (Vyalikdsen), Ukrainian Великдень (Velykden), Bulgarian and Macedonian Великден (Velikden), and in earlier times Serbian Велигдан (Velikdan) meaning "Great Day" (Great Days), in the same way the Baltic languages Latvian Lieldienas and Lithuanian Velykos.

In both Sorbian languages, the word for Easter is Jutry (Upper Sorbian) and Jatšy (Lower Sorbian), respectively, and derives from the Slavic jutro ("the morning"). The Hungarian húsvét literally means "to eat meat", as does the Estonian lihavõte. The Georgian name აღდგომა (aghdgoma) means "resurrection" or "rising" in general German, as do the Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian Uskrs (Cyrill. Ускрс).

Etymology

The introduction and cultivation of the term Easter in German is closely related to the structuring of the Frankish-German church provinces. These had different linguistic and clerical characteristics. In the archbishopric of Cologne, the Cologne ecclesiastical province, which was Frankish in character, the term pāsche predominated and was written in this way, especially in the documents that survive today. Boniface had Mainz as his episcopal see, and from the Anglo-Saxon tradition ôstarun was used there in the documents in Anglo-Saxon imitation as a typical missionary word.

The New High German Ostern and the English Easter have the same linguistic root, to whose etymology there are different approaches. The Duden dictionary of origins derives the word from the Old Germanic Austrō > Ausro "Morgenröte", which possibly denoted a Germanic spring festival and continued in Old English to Ēostre, Ēastre, in Old High German to ōst(a)ra, plural ōstarun. The root word is related to the ancient Greek name of the deified dawn Ēōs and the Latin aurora "dawn", which in turn influenced other languages. The underlying Indo-European root is the noun *h₂au̯s-os "dawn", derived from an Indo-European verbal root *h₂u̯es- "(to become light in the morning)" or *h₂au̯s- "(to draw from water), to fetch fire".

Ēostra is first documented in 738 by Beda Venerabilis (De temporum ratione 15). He is responsible for the assumption that the word referred to an Anglo-Saxon goddess of light, after whom the month of April was named in Anglo-Saxon Ēosturmanoth. The German Dictionary of the Brothers Grimm quotes him with the caveat that he may have invented this goddess-whose later name they assume to be Ostara. The hypothetical deity Ostara is viewed more skeptically today. It is more probable that Beda took up folk traditions that were cultivated in the context of early-year vegetation rites and were connected with the matron and disen cults and, moreover, were common in the pagan Germanic area of the time and are partly still handed down today.

Because of the discovery of the empty tomb of Jesus "early in the morning, just as the sun was rising" (Mk 16,2 EU), the dawn is a symbol of the resurrection in Christianity. The Canons Hippolyti (c. 350) therefore gave the instruction for the Easter Vigil: "Let all therefore watch until the dawn, then wash their bodies with water before celebrating Pascha, and let all the people be in light". This also tied into the biblical exodus tradition of the Israelites on the night of "passing over" (Passover in Hebrew): "A night of watching was it for the Lord when he brought them out of Egypt. As a night of watch to the glory of the LORD it is for the Israelites in all generations" (Ex 12:42 EU).

Honorius Augustodunensis (12th century) derived Easter from east (cf. English easter and east), the cardinal direction of sunrise. At that time, many new Christians were baptized "at sunrise" on Easter morning - Old High German for ostarun. This is also the point of departure for the name researcher Jürgen Udolph, who explains the word with reference to the Easter baptism date from the North Germanic word family ausa ("to pour") and austr ("to water"). Thus a pre-Christian water rite was called vatni ausa ("to water with water").

Another interpretation is based on the Latin term hebdomada in albis ("white week") for the Easter octave. Since alba loses the meaning "white" in the Romance languages and takes on the special meaning "morning light" or "dawn", this may have been rendered by the corresponding Germanic word.

Easter is one of the movable festivals whose calendar date varies each year. Easter Sunday depends on the full moon of spring, and the beginning of spring is fixed on March 21, which is different from the astronomical date (March 19-21) and from the calculation according to the Jewish calendar.

After the First Council of Nicaea in 325 had decided on a first generally binding regulation, which now used the Julian calendar, Pope Gregory XIII had the Gregorian calendar introduced in the area of the Western Church in 1582. However, the Eastern Churches (with the exception of the Finnish Orthodox Church and the Eastern Syrian Church) remained with the Julian calendar, so that since then the date of Easter in Western Christendom can differ from that of the Orthodox and Ancient Near Eastern Churches by up to five weeks. The Easter feast of the Eastern and Western churches lies on the same day a total of only 27 times in this century.

All other movable Christian feasts are calculated from Easter Sunday.