Easter

Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year.  The week before Easter is known as Holy Week.

 Holy Week gives Easter its meaning and is very special in the Christian tradition. The Sunday before Easter is Palm Sunday and the last three days before Easter are Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday (sometimes referred to as Silent Saturday). Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday respectively commemorate Jesus' entry in Jerusalem, the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. The day before Easter is properly called Holy Saturday.

  Easter also refers to the season of the church year called Eastertide or the Easter Season. Traditionally the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until Ascension Day or until the day of Pentecost, seven weeks later.

Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, its position in the calendar, and linguists. In the older English versions of the Bible the term Easter was the term used to translate Passover. 

Easter is linked to the Passover and the Exodus from Egypt recorded in the Old Testament through the Last Supper and crucifixion that preceded the resurrection. According to the New Testament, Jesus gave the Passover meal a new meaning, as he prepared himself and his disciples for his death in the upper room during the Last Supper. He identified the loaf of bread and cup of wine as symbolizing his body soon to be sacrificed and his blood soon to be shed. 1 Corinthians 5:7 states, "Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed"; this refers to the Passover requirement to have no yeast in the house and to the allegory of Jesus as the Paschal lamb.

The New Testament teaches that the resurrection of Jesus, which Easter celebrates, is a foundation of the Christian faith 1 Corinthians 15:12-20.  The resurrection established Jesus as the powerful Son of God, Romans 1:4 and is cited as proof that God will judge the world in righteousness, Acts 17:31 God has given Christians "a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead",1 Peter 1:3 Christians, through faith in the working of God Colossians 2:12 are spiritually resurrected with Jesus so that they may walk in a new way of life, Romans 6:4.  One interpretation of the Gospel of John is that Jesus, as the Passover lamb, was crucified at roughly the same time as the Passover lambs were being slain in the temple, in the afternoon, Exodus 12:6.