Dolly Parton - He's Alive

Easter and the word of the Day

EASTER

Easter is observed on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox. Considered Christianity’s most important holy day, it celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Depending on which calendar a church follows, some will celebrate Easter earlier than others.

Leading up to Easter Sunday is an entire season of Easter observances beginning with Ash Wednesday, the official beginning of Lent. Lent is a time of fasting and reflection which represents the time Jesus spent in the wilderness for 40 days. Many know this as a time when Christians give something up for Lent.

Then during Holy Week, the Sunday before Easter is known as Palm Sunday. It commemorates Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem on a donkey just five days before He was crucified. Maundy Thursday remembers Jesus’s last supper; Good Friday is the day of the crucifixion, Holy Saturday is the period between the crucifixion and the resurrection and Easter Sunday.

HOW TO OBSERVE

If you choose, you can participate in any number of church services. Dye eggs with children and have an Easter egg hunt. Local communities hold annual Easter egg hunts as well, so check your local social media, newspapers and community listings for dates and times. Use #Easter to share on social media.

HISTORY

Before Easter, Passover was the primary holy day celebrated, and it is closely linked with Easter. Jesus’s last supper was a Passover meal. By the 2nd century, Easter (Pascha) was being celebrated alongside Passover as well as pagan spring festivals.
The tradition of an Easter Bunny comes from medieval Germany where the Osterhase or Easter Hare would lay its colorful eggs in nests prepared by children. Immigrants in the 18th-century settling in the Dutch Pennsylvania countryside brought this fable and tradition with them to the United States.
Dying eggs is a tradition that dates back thousands of years across many cultures. Eggs have long been a symbol of rebirth, fertility, and life springing forth. Today Easter egg hunts take place across the country, and it is not unusual to see a giant Easter Bunny surrounded by children in their Sunday best getting their pictures taken.

Word of the Day : April 21, 2019

resurrection

noun rez-uh-REK-shun

Definition :

1 a (capitalized Resurrection) : the rising of Christ from the dead.

b (often capitalized Resurrection) : the rising again to life of all the human dead before the final judgment.

c : the state of one risen from the dead.

2 : resurgence, revival.

Did You Know ?

In the 1300s, speakers of Middle English borrowed resurreccioun from Anglo-French. Originally, the word was used in specific Christian contexts to refer to the rising of Christ from the dead or to the festival celebrating this rising (now known as Easter). By the 1400s, the word was being used in the more general sense of "resurgence" or "revival." The Anglo-French resurreccioun comes from the Late Latin resurrectio ("the act of rising from the dead"), which is derived from the verb resurgere ("to rise from the dead"). In earlier Latin, resurgere meant simply "to rise again" and was formed by attaching the re- prefix to the verb surgere, meaning "to rise." Resurgere is also the source of English resurge and resurgence.

Examples :

"After the ceremony was concluded upon the present occasion, I felt all the easier…. [All] the days I should now live would be as good as the days that Lazarus lived after his resurrection; a supplementary clean gain of so many months or weeks as the case might be." — Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, 1851.

"Every few weeks I get a press release declaring that coal is going to make a comeback, but reports of the resurrection have been greatly exaggerated." — Chris Tomlinson, The Houston Chronicle, 11 Mar. 2019.