Easter

Easter is not modern celebration; it has his origins by the ancients Saxons. Nowadays is a
Christian holiday but back then Easter was known as Eastre. Eastre was commemorate by the
ancient Saxons in order to celebrate the return of spring. The Christian missionaries found the
Saxons and tried to convert them in to Christianity. So Easter always had its pagan side but it
was “corrupted” by Christianity. In order to avoid fighting the missionaries spread their beliefs
and permit the pagan feast, but in a religious way. This pagan festival called Eastre happened at
the same time as the resurrection of Christ, so it was easy to the missionaries to teach silently
their religion. Then Eastre turn out to Easter because of the modern spelling. Easter was
celebrated on different days of the week, so in A.D 325 the emperor Constantine invented the
Easter rule. Easter would be celebrated on the first Sunday that occurs after the vernal equinox. It
should be celebrated between the dates of Mach 22 and April 25. There is a period called Lenten.
Lenten is the forty-six day before Easter Sunday. It starts on Ash Wednesday which sometimes
coincides with the carnival.

During the season of Lenten, Christians are not supposed to eat meat. But on the Easter
Sunday which is the resurrection of Christ, Christians are allowed to eat meat, in Cape Verde
usually is chicken with potatoes. The traditional Christian families do this meal very fancy. The
decorations are made with the Easter bunny and eggs. Usually kids color the outside part of the
egg.

Nowadays Easter is celebrated especially by Christians. They do their fancy meal and
kids paint the eggs. In Cape Verde the eggs are normally regular eggs, but in foreign countries
there are eggs with different flavors, chocolate, vanilla etc.

Back in the days Easter was a day that joins all the members of a family, but now our
youth just do not care about this day. Christian or not, Easter was celebrated with great joy, it
was wonderful to see parents helping their children to prepare and color an egg. Hopefully our
society will give more importance to days like this, not for its meaning but for what it does in a
family.

Luis Evora