Celebrate

I would like to know more about Greek holidays and I know that easter is very popular is Greece, so I was just wandering if they celebrate with an Easter bunny.

Yes, Easter is a very significant holiday in the Greek Orthodox religion, but they do not celebrate with an Easter bunny. That is more of an American, Catholic custom.

We want to do something different htis year for our 4 year old. Usually we have dinner and the egg hunt then thats it. I want to be a little more funnier from he gets up to he goes back to bed.

Well i would say color eggs, then have an Easter egg hunt for Friends/family with little prizes. fill his basket with toys that you and he can play with like a ball, or a plastic bat/ball set, coloring books, and crayons, silly putty was always a favorite in my household, rubber duckies for bath-time(wal-mart has different colors), and maybe a storybook like Little Cottontail or something like that for bed-time.
P.S. if you have the room for it you can think about getting him a real live bunny, or if you have a yard maybe some live-peeps

I just watched the South Park episode Fantastic Easter Special, and it made me wonder….why DO we color eggs and eat marshmallow peeps and tell kids stories about rabbits on Easter? Does it have a biblical reference? Is it completely made up just to make it a "cute" holiday?

Its a mixture of traditional Easter customs and folk culture from various countries, some modern, some going back a few hundred years, none known to be ancient.

The idea for eggs is though to come from Eastern Europe. Christians would traditionally fast from meat, dairy and eggs during lent – the 7 week before Easter – starting from Ash Wednesday – the day after Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) when people had a bit of a feast using up the eggs to make pancakes. At the end of Lent, people would give eggs as a present to signify the end of the fast – to make the present special, people would decorate them. Quite simply at first but later on rich people started to decorate with jewels, gold and all sorts, even make eggs out of Precious stones and the like.

The "Easter bunny" is from Germany and was originally a hare – the "Oschter Haws". There is a folk myth in parts of Europe that hares lay eggs probably caused by the similarity between hares nests (they don’t burrow like rabbit) and some birds nests. It may have been a bit of a tease – sending out children to gather hare’s egg.

Both of these folk customs have been, of course, subverted and exploited by secular commercial interests.

The fasting does have a biblical reference recalling Jesus’s fast for 40 days in the desert (Lent takes a bit longer because catholics traditionally never fast on a Sunday – its always a feast in celebration of the Resurrection) so Easter Eggs do have a roundabout biblical origin.

To forestall some probable replies, there is absolutely no historical evidence that any of this is pagan in origin.

Do you go to Church?
Do you decorate your house up all cute?
Do you own an Easter tree?
Do you have an Easter egg hunt?
Do you have a family dinner?
Do you give gifts?

well, im greek.. so mine MAY be diferent.. idk

uhmm, i go to midnight mass.. (you’re outside holding candles from like 10 -1 am and stuff.. its fun ahah

and we dont decorateout house
or have hunts anymore cause me andmy brothers are too old for that.. but our parents might give us some chocolate or something

never heard of an easter tree.. haha

and yeah, we have our family over like… our cousins and aunts uncles grandparents
and me and my grandma dye eggs red
so after we each get an egg and have like an egg war and we slam our eggs onto another persons.. and whosever egg doesnt crack wins.
aha

and the good thing is that the greekeaster is usualy on a diff name than normall… so i get extra days off school!

tell me all! ive heard that in greece they paint eggs red. is this true? why????

I can’t answer the question, but it makes sense. Eggs are associated with fertility.
–That Cheeky Lad

Our desks always look so dull and boring, i’d like to brighten mine with an Easter theme

This article has tips for decorating this Easter. It specifically talks about your apartment/home, but you can easily have them apply to your work environment!

http://apartments.typepad.com/my_pad/2008/03/5-tips-for-east.html

how do they celebrate easter, any traditions that they have?

Since like 99.9% of Italy is Roman Catholic they go to mass(church) Easter Morning. Plus they start on Palm Sunday which is actually a week before easter, or wait, I think it started Ash Wednesday they’re supposed to fast for 40 days before Easter, but most just give up something they like to eat alot, like say veal or pasta or wine etc. Anyways on Easter Sunday there is a big meal served with red wine, and most gather with family and the women all wear black, as a sign of mourning for the death of Jesus. Not really a celebration though.

how do they celebrate easter, any traditions that they have?

Since like 99.9% of Italy is Roman Catholic they go to mass(church) Easter Morning. Plus they start on Palm Sunday which is actually a week before easter, or wait, I think it started Ash Wednesday they’re supposed to fast for 40 days before Easter, but most just give up something they like to eat alot, like say veal or pasta or wine etc. Anyways on Easter Sunday there is a big meal served with red wine, and most gather with family and the women all wear black, as a sign of mourning for the death of Jesus. Not really a celebration though.

I want to know why people celebrate it lyk every second sunday of april or however it is. Why doesnt it have a specific date?Why do they celebrate?What proof do they have its happend on that particular day itself?

The same is for Christmas also. Please give me an answer either seperatly for Easter and Christmas or both together.

Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring. This is in commemoration of the rebirth of the goddess of fertility, which was incorporated into Christianity in order to make it palatable to pagans who were being enticed to join the ranks of this fledgling religion in the fourth century.

The proper Holy Days were commanded by God in Leviticus 23 and include Passover and the Feast of Firstfruits. Passover is always on the fourteenth day of the Hebrew month of the abib (ripened barley).

Christmas is celebrated at the time of the renewal of the yearly cycle when the day starts getting longer, another pagan holiday. For the biblical truth of when Jesus was born, see http://www.messianic.com/articles/dates.htm.

(BTW, the only birthdays mentioned in the Bible were associated with ungodly men and had dire consequences — Gen. 40:20 and Matt. 14:6.)

i dont cuz im muslim and i think easter is gay

I just dyed 10 dozen eggs and put together baskets!