Back Амшаԥ Abkhazian ӀутӀыж ADY Paasfees Afrikaans Ostern ALS ፋሲካ Amharic Ēaster ANG عيد القيامة Arabic ܥܐܕܐ ܕܩܝܡܬܐ ARC عيد القيامه ARZ Pascua AST
Easter, also called Resurrection Day and Pascha, is a Christian holiday celebrating Jesus Christ returning from the dead. Christians believe that it is the holiest day in the year. Some people who are not Christians celebrate it as a cultural holiday.
Easter is not held on the same date every year. This is called a moveable feast. Currently all Christian churches agree on how the date is calculated. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday following the first full moon which is on or after March 21st. This means it is celebrated in March or April. It can occur as early as March 22 and as late as April 25. Western churches, like the Roman Catholic Church, use the Gregorian calendar, while Eastern churches, like the Eastern Orthodox Church, use the Julian calendar. Because of this, the date of Easter celebrations is different for these two types of churches even though the way they calculate the date is similar. In 2015 Easter was celebrated on April 5 for both the Gregorian calendar and Julian calendar. In 2019 Easter was celebrated on the 21st of April.
Eastertime includes a period of 50 days, beginning from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday.[1] The first Sunday after Easter is celebrated the Divine Mercy Sunday.
The word "Easter" is derived from Eastra, the name of the ancient German Goddess of Spring.[2] Her festival occurred at the vernal equinox. The French word for Easter, Pâcques, comes from the Greek word for Passover, which is the Jewish holiday celebrated at about the same time of the year.