Easter is one of the two most important festivals in the west (the other is Christmas). Easter celebrated in church every year is generally set as the first Sunday after the full moon at the vernal equinox (between March 21st and April 25th). If the full moon falls on a Sunday, Easter will bepostponed for one week. So Easter may be any day from March 22nd to April 25th. According to this method, Easter in 2005 should be March 27th.
Easter celebrations begin with lent. Lent lasts exactly forty days from Ash Wednesday to Easter, and it is a day of self-reflection and repentance.
On Easter Day,people in western countries give mainly eggs as gifts. Churches, schools or large families hide boiled eggs behind trees, grass or rocks early in the morning, and invite children who come to theparty to look around, which becomes the main activity of the day. The annual Egg Roll in the White House is often broadcast live by TV stations. People also dye eggs in colorful colors to increase the festive atmosphere. Later, it was developed to make chocolate and candy look like eggs, wrapthem in coloredpaper and give them to each other. Because eggs symbolize life that will be revived after death in the west.
The most representative mascots in Easter are eggs and rabbits. There is also an interesting legend: eggs were fasted 40 days before Easter in the old days. One year when Easter came, in order to surprise the children, a mother hid the boiled eggs in the grass outside the door and told the children that there was an Easter surprise in the grass. The children searched carefully in high spirits, and suddenly a rabbit jumped out of the grass, and the eggs were exposed immediately. So the children shouted everywhere: “The Easter surprise is that rabbits brought us EasterEgg”.
Easter is also a festival to send flowers, bonsai, corsage and so on to thepeople you care about. Manypeople who go to church alsopresent bouquets to the church this day. Adults often give each other greeting cards or small gifts. Gifts are mostly related to regeneration: chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies, fluffy chickens, etc.
The most traditional Easter gift custom is thatpeople send live chickens, ducklings, rabbits, etc. to children at Easter, but some children are too young to feed these small animals carefully, so the alternative is to give themplush toys or other substitutes for these small animals.
