Beech Tree News Network

Easter is a holiday that I have celebrated throughout my life. This day is often associated with family meals, Easter egg hunts, baskets, and a variety of chocolates. It is also an important day of faith.

Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, a foundation of the Christian faith. The resurrection described in the New Testament occurred three days after His crucifixion at Calvary, probably between 30 and 33 AD. The week before Easter, called Holy Week, includes Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, respectively commemorating Jesus' entry in Jerusalem, the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.

Many people have written or commented about Easter. A few are listed below:
•    Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer;
Death is strong, but Life is stronger;
Stronger than the dark, the light;
Stronger than the wrong, the right... --Phillips Brooks, "An Easter Carol"
•    The joyful news that He is risen does not change the contemporary world.  Still before us lie work, discipline, sacrifice.  But the fact of Easter gives us the spiritual power to do the work, accept the discipline, and make the sacrifice.  --Henry Knox Sherrill
•    Easter is the demonstration of God that life is essentially spiritual and timeless.  --Charles M. Crowe
•    See the land, her Easter keeping,
Rises as her Maker rose.
Seeds, so long in darkness sleeping,
Burst at last from winter snows.
Earth with heaven above rejoices... --Charles Kingsley
•    Angels, roll the rock away;
Death, yield up thy mighty prey:
See, He rises from the tomb,
Glowing with immortal bloom. --Thomas Scott, "Easter Angels"
•    Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay there.  --Clarence W. Hall

While reading about Easter, I came across a website reporting American Easter statistics (http://www.statisticbrain.com/easter-statistics/). The site included statistics about how people describe Easter. The statistics showed that 67% of American adults described Easter as a religious holiday while 42% described Easter as Jesus’ resurrection. Additionally, 65% of Catholics and 78% of Protestants described Easter as a religious holiday, while 37% of Catholics and 51% of Protestants described the day as Jesus’ resurrection. Since the categories don’t total 100%, many people may have chosen both responses.

I asked family and friends which of the two descriptions – religious holiday or Jesus’ resurrection – they would use to describe Easter. Seventy-nine percent chose Jesus’ resurrection as their preferred description. Then, 20% of these people added that Easter is a religious holiday to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, combining the two descriptions. For example, one said:  “Both. It’s a religious holiday celebrating Jesus’ resurrection.”

About 400 years ago in the poem “Even Such Is Time,” Sir Walter Raleigh wrote:
“…But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust.”
His words reflect the Christian faith. This week, we prepare our hearts as well as our baskets to celebrate Easter Sunday.