Easter is a major Christian holiday. This year, the Catholics will celebrate it on April 5, and the Orthodox on April 12.
Easter marks the resurrection of Christ. According to the New Testament, Jesus was crucified in Passover. Passover marks the Exodus, and is celebrated in springtime, when the world is reborn after the winter months. Similarly, Easter marks the liberation from the subjugation to sin and death and the resurrection, the beginning of a new and eternal life, thanks to the sacrifice and death of Christ on the cross. The holiday is celebrated on Palm Sunday, or Resurrection Sunday, calculated each year according to the onset of spring and the lunar cycle. It is a festive holiday. It begins with a church prayer on Saturday night, accompanied by candles that symbolize the defeat of darkness by the resurrective light. Additional prayers take place in the morning. During the two days of Easter, people visit relatives and eat typical foods such as Easter eggs.
Related holidays: Lent - forty days of fasting and reflection, prayer and contrition, prior to Easter. Annunciation Day is celebrated on April 7, marking Michael’s arrival to Maria’s home in Nazareth, as related in the New Testament, to tell her she was about to give birth to a boy by the Holy Spirit. The center of the celebrations is Nazareth. On the fortieth day of Easter, the Christians’ mark Jesus’s rise to heaven. In the Catholic Church, this is a major holiday when attending mass is mandatory and work must be avoided. On the fiftieth day of Easter, the Christians mark Pentecost, according to the New Testament, the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples and they were authorized and inspired to spread the gospel.
Food customs: During Lent, some believers avoid food products, including meat, fish, milk, and egg. Others avoid foods they like such as sweets. Some avoid certain foods only on specific days of the week, such as Monday (Orthodox), Wednesday (Catholics) and Friday (both, mainly during the last week before Easter). Some observe a complete fast on Good Friday, crucifixion day right before Easter.