Easter Story Food Recipes Cooking International Guide
Easter Story And The Passion Play
By Katerina Octanova
For members of the Christian church, the Easter story is not
celebrated or commemorated only on the Easter weekend. Many believers
want to remember the details of the story on a more regular basis.
For them, Easter is not just one of the most important of the
Christian holidays on the church calendar, but its ramifications
are meant to extend farther into their life.
Re-Enactments Of Death And Resurrection
For this reason, many Christians engage in symbolic re-enactments
of the story of Christ’s death and resurrection, so they will
be reminded that for them in their faith, the story of the Easter
events is not just a once-a-year thing.
The most frequent re-enactment of the story of Easter, of course,
is the sacrament of the Mass in the Catholic Church, or similar
acts in Protestant and other churches.
Bread With Holy Communion
This is the ritual that symbolically repeats both the Last Supper
of Christ with His disciples and the crucifixion itself. Believers
are given bread, either literally or in the form of some type
of communion wafer, which is meant to symbolize the breaking of
Christ’s body on the cross.
The wine, or in many cases is grape juice, symbolizes His shed
blood. The Easter devotional spirit is meant to inhabit each performance
of the ritual, as the believers commemorate the crucifixion and
incorporate the resurrected body of Christ into themselves.
The Passion Play
Another type of re-enactment of the Easter story is one which
takes place during the Easter period itself, and is known as the
Passion Play. This is when many people in a congregation, or in
many cases in a town or village, literally re-enact the events
of the arrest, trial, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Certain towns are in fact well-known for their year-long preparation
for this event, and sometimes the Passion Play is so elaborate
that it becomes a major tourist attraction. This has happened,
for example, with the German village of Oberammergau, where sometimes
as many as 1200 villagers participate in the play.
Easter Has The Most Lasting Effect
Of all the Christian holidays, Easter is the one that is meant
to have the most lasting effect in believers’ lives. Christmas
may be more fun in some ways, but it only lays the groundwork
for the sorrow and victory of the Easter story, and the incorporation
of that message into daily life.
Whether it’s through regular devotional Bible reading, meditation
at the Stations of the Cross in the church, or an energizing visit
to a great church festival, these re-enactments of the story of
Easter can serve to strengthen a believer’s faith.
About the Author:
Katerina Octanova has written a number of articles on food and
cooking including Christmas
Gift Baskets, The
Christmas, Christmas,
Santa
Claus, Christmas
Hamper, Christmas
Party, Christmas
Gift For The Office, Christmas
Gift Idea For Family.
Keep a lookout for more of her articles on this website.
Did You Know?
How have hunting eggs and the Easter Bunny become associated
with Christian Easter?
Early Christian leaders faced a hard road
when trying to convert people they considered pagans over to Christianity.
People who practiced any religion other than Christianity were
considered pagans.
It was not limited to those who followed
Druid celebrations or other pantheons of Gods and Goddesses. One
way that Christian leaders managed to recruit more pagans was
to adopt some of the pagan rituals and make them Christian holidays.
The egg was considered by pagans to be
a symbol of rebirth. In fact the very name "Easter" comes to Christianity
through the Saxons who worshipped the Goddess Eostre whose totem
animal was the hare.
Christian leaders took on these symbols
of rebirth and spring to help sway more pagans into becoming Christians.
The tradition of hunting colored eggs and the Easter Bunny has
thrived more in part to the commercial aspect of Christian Easter
than any real lingering religious meaning.
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