LYCOS RETRIEVER
Easter: Easter Season
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Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts, in that they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars (both of which follow the cycle of the sun and the seasons). Instead, the date for Easter is determined on a lunisolar calendar, as is the Hebrew calendar.
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Easter follows Holy Week, the end of the season of Lent. The Evening Prayer (Vespers) of Easter ends the Paschal Triduum, the three day period which began on the evening of Holy Thursday. The Triduum contains the heart of the Christian faith: Jesus' death and resurrection. Easter is not just a day, but an entire fifty day season, called Eastertide, marked by joyful festivities and liturgical fullness. You might hear "Christ is Risen!" and "Alleluia!"
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The elaborate decoration of Easter eggs became a major form of home-produced folk art both in Europe and America. Among the Pennsylvania Dutch, who produced an elaborate Easter culture, eggs are dyed with onion skins, producing a rich reddish-brown color, or with other natural dyes. These eggs are then scratch-carved with designs, dates, names, or even religious verses, or elaborately decorated by winding the pith of a reed around the egg to create patterns. The Pennsylvania Dutch ... make Easter birds out of large goose or duck eggs, furnishing them with wings, beaks, and tails. These are hung from the ceilings of farmhouse kitchens as festive seasonal decoration.
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Easter ... refers to the season of the church year called Eastertide or the Easter Season. Traditionally the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until Ascension Day but now officially lasts for the fifty days until Pentecost. The first week of the Easter Season is known as Easter Week or the Octave of Easter.
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A Christian scholar, the Venerable Bede (672-735 AD), first asserted that Easter was named after Eostre, the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring, eastre. Pagan festivals associated with birth, the renewal of life, fertility and sunrise date back long before Christianity. Pagan religions in the Mediterranean area are recorded as having a major seasonal day of religious celebration at or following the Spring Equinox. Many of the present-day customs of Easter have their origins in these festivals.
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Many people are drawn to the beauty of rabbits in every season, not just at Easter. And Bunny Heaven helps its customers outfit themselves and their environments with images of various breeds of these distinctive but often-misunderstood creatures.
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