You can tell Easter is hopping around the corner,
There are eggs splattered all around,
People smiling all around,
Bunnies hopping on the ground,
Chicks hatching day by day.
People shouting hip-hip hooray,
Lambs springing up and down,
Yellow colours around the town,
Cookie makers in our house,
Chocolate ducks, let’s eat them up.
New creations that are ruff, ruff, ruff,
Hear the ducklings go quack, quack, quack,
Our roast dinner yum, yum, yum,
Let’s eat everything,
Put it in our tum.
Young kids making new creations,
What about the real organisation,
We forget what the meaning of Easter is,
So tell me why we don’t do this organisation?
We are too blind across the nation.
Hope you enjoyed that poem. Now, here is what’s accruing.
What is Easter?
Easter is the oldest and most important festival in the Christian calender. Most of us know that Easter is the day that Jesus was said to come to life after being crucified, visiting his friends and followers once more. Whether you believe in God or not, the Easter story does provide an interesting historical insight into what life was like some 2000 years ago.
The last week of Easter, Christians remember the last week of Jesus’ ‘life’ or ‘Holy week’. This is the end of lent which is the traditional time of fasting in the Christian calendar.
Easter starts off with:
On this day Jesus went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish festival of Passover. Loads of people gathered upon the streets to see Jesus. They waved Palm branches as he passed by. For the many who believed Jesus as a son of God it was an important moment. They all shouted ‘Hosanna’ – this means ‘save us now.’
Today, people remember Palm Sunday by decorating churches with palm branches. Sometimes in the shape of a cross to remember Jesus dying on the cross.
Jesus understood that his time on Earth was nearly over, so he gathered his friends and followers (his 12 diciples) together to share a final meal together (the last supper.) He passed around bread (which he said was ‘his body’) and wine (which he said was his ‘blood’) This was his way of saying he was going to die soon. Later this day he got betrayed by Judas, he identified Jesus to soldiers working for opposing religious authorities. In return he would have a bag of money. The authority then passed Jesus over to the Romans who executed him.
On Good Friday, Pontus Pilate decided to ask the crowd of people outside whether Jesus should be put to death for making claims that he was the son of God. They said yes he should. He was flogged and whipped many times, and was made to wear a crown of sharp thorns while the soldiers in charge of him taunted him. After this he was made to carry his own cross to the spot of his execution, a hill overlooking the city. Here he was nailed to the cross and placed alongside two criminals. A sign was placed above Jesus’ cross which read ‘The King of the Jews’.
Jesus had told his disciples in advance that he would rise again on the third day after his death. He had been buried in a tomb guarded by an enormous stone so that no one could steal the body. When some women came to visit the grave a couple of days after his death they found that the huge stone had been moved and the tomb was empty. Jesus was seen that day and for several days later, and revisited old friends who realised what had been prophesied had come true – Jesus had indeed risen from the dead.