Recently as I was discussing with a friend about Easter, I recalled that Easter Sunday was related to the Spring Equinox and the Full Moon. It’s one of those random facts I discovered while doing “6 Things to Consider”. Here is that posting.
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Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.
The first full moon after the Spring Equinox is also the date of the Jewish Holiday of Passover and is the first full moon of their year. It will also fall between March 22nd and April 25th.
The name “Easter” is thought to be derived from the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess called Eostre. Pagans held a Spring Festival in her honor.
The White House Easter Egg Roll is a popular event on the Monday after Easter. The tradition began when Dolley Madison, wife of James Madison, 4th President of the United States felt that it would be good for the children of Washington DC to roll Easter eggs just like Egyptian children rolled colored eggs on the site of the Pyramids. Until 1877 the Easter Egg Roll was the grounds of the United States Capitol moving to the White House lawn in 1878.
In 1885 Tzar Alexander III of Russia commissioned Peter Carl Fabergé to create an egg as an Easter surprise for his wife Maria. The Tzarina so loved the gift that Fabergé was commissioned to make one each year, which he did until 1917 when the Tzar was overthrown. In all there are sixty-one eggs.
Handel’s Messiah is a work deplicting Jesus”life. It has three main sections. Even though it is mainly thought to be a Christmas piece the second section is for the Easter Passion. The “Hallelujah” chorus concludes this second part.
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About “6 Things to Consider”
Between 2016 and 2011 I published a site titled 6 Things to Consider. During those years I would put together 6 paragraphs on a random subject with new posts appearing 6 days a week. After five years of this, I stopped publishing new pieces. The site, while still online, became dormant for several years until the beginning of 2018 when due to a technical issue it was taken down. I have a backup of most of those posts and will randomly post them here as part of my “View from the Shore”.