Easter - Passover - Good Friday

Here is the problem with language. Written language in particular.
Words.

Words are constructed by arranging letters of the alphabet in an accepted and agreed upon code. A combination of words becomes a sentence.  Sentences are words arranged to convey complete thoughts.  Sentences combine to form paragraphs and the imagery continues to expand.  These conjured images are highly subjective and individual. No two people have exactly the same perspective. The mental image that written language congers in the human mind is not an exact science. 

Let's take for example the word EASTER.  It means many different things to many different people. There are Religious associations, seasonal associations, celebratory associations and family memories all connected with the concept of the word Easter.  To be neither a sentence nor a paragraph it conveys a universe of images.
  

Easter is celebrated during Spring.  Spring, a season of new beginning. After an unforgiving winter life, which seemed dead to the world, springs back into existence. Easter roughly corresponds to a shift in the orbit of the Earth when light is replacing darkness. A moment in astronomical time called the Vernal Equinox. Life on the Earth appears to be resurrected from the dead. The the newness of life is all around.

This new beginning was celebrated long before it became associated with the traditions of the Jewish Passover or the Christian Resurrection of Christ.  Even Pagans knew that things were changing during this time of the year. The metaphors celebrated in these different traditions are strikingly similar.
The Passover celebrates a release from bondage and the promise of a new life for some people.  The Resurrection of Jesus proclaims and celebrates the release from sin and the Salvation of a new life. for some people.

There is even symbolism in the Easter Egg. An egg is the beginning of life. It is the promise of a new creation.  The colored eggs become symbolic seeds of bright colors and new ideas ready to bring forth a new day. 

All this to say, no matter what Easter means to you I hope you celebrate in a way that makes you rejoice in the Newness of  Now and see God all around.

As you were,

Jay