48/70 D007 Easter Day

Today is Easter Day in Australia, precisely speaking, Easter Sunday, which is a big festival to be celebrated for the day Jesus rose from his death. Actually, in Australia, Good Friday is the start of a four-day weekend for Easter Day. Many Australian people take a short vacation around this time. Most schools, organizations, and businesses are closed during this time. The resurrection of Jesus is a pivot event in the Christian world. The celebrations usually last for around two weeks. The week before Easter day is called Holy week and the week after is Easter week.

Holy week commemorates the last week of Jesus' life. It consists of the big days such as Palm Sunday (Passion Sunday), Holy Wednesday (Spy Wednesday), Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday), Good Friday (Holy Friday), but does not include Easter Sunday.

Palm Sunday celebrates the journey Jesus made into Jerusalem. Its name derives from the palms people used to welcome Jesus. Spy Wednesday is so called because it is traditionally thought of as the day Judas betray Jesus. Maundy Thursday commemorates the Maundy and Last Supper. Good Friday is to remember the crucifixion of Jesus. Good here means pious or holy. Another version of the explanation to "good" is while what did to Jesus was definitely not good, but the results of Christ’s death are very good.

In some places of the world, Easter has celebrated as a spring festival long before the advent of Christianity. In the first couple of centuries after Christ, Christian feast days were attached to old pagan festivals. Easter with the theme of spring and relief from the cold eventually was absorbed to represent Jesus's resurrection after the crucifixion. Because of its connection with the tradition, Easter Day falls on the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox. So it is a movable festival, ranging between 21 March and 25 April.

Bunny/rabbit and its eggs are symbols of Easter. This tradition may be stemmed from pagan beliefs, but it serves well with Biblical descriptions, as the strong fertility of the bunny/rabbit and eggs tie in well with the re-birth of Jesus following his crucifixion. Rabbit is also associated with Virgin Mary in that a rabbit can reproduce without loss of virginity. Titian’s famous painting The Madonna of the Rabbit depicts this relationship. Mary holds the rabbit in the foreground, signifying both her virginity and fertility.

However, rabbits are seen as pests in Australia, so there have been suggestions to replace Easter bunny with the bilby, a native Australian mammal with big ears. But up till now, Easter bunny is still the most popular figure here during Easter time.On Easter Day, young children receive or search for Easter eggs. Many communities groups and some families organize Easter egg hunts in parks or gardens.