Easter: Quotes, Wishes, Messages, History, Significance and Celebration

We live in a world where all people celebrate all religions without any prejudice. People always celebrate every celebration as their own without any discrimination. For example, Eid and Bakrid are celebrated Muslim community; however, people do eat, share and enjoy Biryani. Everyone does eat cake and celebrate the birthday of Christmas. Similarly, Easter is also an annual event celebrated by the Christian community and by all in this year.

History of Easter

Easter is the day celebrated as the day when Jesus was resurrected from the dead. The Bible, especially the New Testament, describes the real history of Easter, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ that happened the third day after his burial. The week before Easter is said to a "Holy Week" for the following reasons: 

1. Holy week is the last week of The Great Lent, and Easter falls right after it. 
2. The Holy week comprises Palm Sunday, Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday or the Spy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday or the Holy Thursday, Good Friday or the Holy Friday, and Holy Saturday.
3. After these celebrations fall the Easter, from which season of Eastertide begins, which is nothing but a celebration of Jesus Christ's Resurrection. 

When is Easter celebrated? 

Easter is considered to be a "movable feast" because it doesn't have a fixed date to be celebrated like the other festivals. According to the Gregorian or Julian calendars, a fixed date cannot be assigned to celebrate Easter. However, Easter can be celebrated on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25. Easter falls on a different date every single year. Usually, the celebration of Easter is determined based on the Jewish calendar. The Jewish calendar is based on the lunar or moon's cycles. It is important to note that Easter should fall on a Sunday after the Passover full moon. Easter 2014, Easter 2015, Easter 2016 to Easter 2020 dates, and the future is quite different, not the same. Easter 2020 was celebrated on Sunday, April 12 based on the Western calendar or Gregorian calendar and on April 19 based on the Orthodox calendar or the Julian calendar. Easter 2021 will be celebrated on Sunday, April 4 based on the Western calendar or Gregorian calendar and on May 2 based on the Orthodox calendar or the Julian calendar.

Easter 2023 Date

• When is Easter 2023?

Easter for the year 2023 is celebrated/observed on Sunday, 9 April.

• Easter dates for the years 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027

Easter Quotes

• The resurrection is at the core of our beliefs as Christians. Without it, our faith is meaningless. — Joseph B. Wirthlin
• I’m so excited for spring I think I wet my plants. – Unknown
• Golf is just the adult version of an Easter Egg Hunt. — Unknown
• I innocently believe spring comes from your heart.- Alexandra Vasiliu
• Spring will come and so will happiness. Hold on. Life will get warmer. – Anita Krizzan
• Jesus gave us spring as a reminder of how beautiful life can be after death.- Unknown
• Spring brings new growth. Weed out the bad and make new for something beautiful.- Unknown
• Spring: A lovely reminder how beautiful change can truly be.- Unknown
• Easter is very important to me. It’s a second chance.- Reba McEntire
• Celebrity interviews, recipes and health tips delivered to your inbox.
• Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe filled with slush. – Doug Larson
• The story of Easter is the story of God’s wonderful window of divine surprise. — Carl Knudsen
• Spring makes everything young again. – Unknown
• Where man sees but withered leaves, God sees sweet flowers growing. – Albert Lighton
• Don’t wait for someone to bring you flowers. Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul. – Luther Burbank
• There would be no Christmas if there was no Easter.- Gordon B. Hinckley
• Never yet was a springtime, when the buds forget to bloom. – Margaret Elizabeth Sangster
• Today we celebrate the gift of victory over every fall we have ever experienced. — Jeffrey R. Holland
• Bunnies are cuddly, the large and the small, but I like the chocolate ones best of all.- Unknown
• Let your light shine before others.- Matthew 5:16
• Spring adds new life and new joy to all that is.- Jessica Harrelson
• People come together with their families to celebrate Easter. What better way to celebrate than to spend a few hours going on the journey of Christ’s life. — Roma Downey
• Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own.- Charles Dickens
• Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with our resurrection. — Watchman Nee
• April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.- William Shakespeare
• The beautiful spring came, and when nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.- Harriet Ann Jacobs
• The promise of spring’s arrival is enough to get anyone through the bitter winter.- Jen Selinsky
• In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. -1 Peter 1:3
• Easter is meant to be a symbol of hope, renewal, and new life. – Janine di Giovanni
• The great gift of Easter is hope.- Basil Hume
• Where flowers bloom, so does hope.- Lady Bird Johnson
• Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soul. – Bishop Reginald Heber
• For I remember it is Easter morn, and life and love and peace are all new born. – Alice Freeman Palmer
• Despite the forecast, live like it’s spring. – Lily Pulitzer
• Blossom by blossom the spring begins. – Algernon Charles Swinburne
• But from this earth, this grave, this dust, my God shall raise me up, I trust. — Walter Raleigh
• The very first Easter taught us this: that life never ends and love never dies. – Kate McGahan
• Can words describe the fragrance of the very breath of spring?- Neltje Blanchan
• Let everything you do be done in love.- 1 Corinthians 16:14
• Bloom where you are planted.- 1 Corinthians 7:20-24
• I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden. – Ruth Stout
• It is spring again. The Earth is like a child that knows poems by heart. – Rainer Maria Rilke
• Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.- Virgil A. Kraft
• On Easter Day the veil between time and eternity thins to gossamer. — Douglas Horton
• Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song. – Pope John Paul II
• Always it’s spring and everyone’s in love and flowers pick themselves.- E.E. Cummings
• Keep your face towards the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you. – Unknown
• A true friend is someone who thinks you’re a good egg, even if you’re cracked. — Unknown
• With the coming of spring, I am calm again. – Gustav Mahler
• May little chicks and flowers bring into your life the joys of spring. – Easter Greeting
• By grace we are saved through faith. —Kevin DeYoung
• The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day He created spring. – Bernard Williams
• To a Christian, Easter Sunday means everything, when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. — Bernhard Langer
• Sunshine is the best medicine.- Unknown
• It’s when you crack open a chocolate Easter egg, that smiles emerge. – Anthony T. Hicks
• Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in the books alone, but in every leaf in springtime. – Martin Luther
• We proclaim the resurrection of Christ when his light illuminates the dark moments of our existence. — Pope Francis
• Spring is the time of plans and projects. – Leo Tolstoy
• I suppose the best kind of spring morning is the best weather God has to offer. – Dodie Smith
• By grace, we are saved through faith. – Kevin DeYoung
• All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today.- Unknown
• No matter how chaotic it is, wildflowers will still spring up in the middle of nowhere.- Sheryl Crow
• Wherever life plants you, bloom with grace. – Unknown
• I must have flowers, always and always.- Claude Monet

Easter Wishes

• Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won’t stay there. – Clarence W. Hall
• I am the resurrection and the life.- John 11:25
• The first real day of spring is like the first time a boy holds your hand. – Richelle E. Goodrich
• The Earth laughs in flowers.- Ralph Waldo Emerson
• All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt! – Charles M. Schulz
• ‘Twas Easter-Sunday. The full-blossomed trees filled all the air with fragrance and with joy. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• I still believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and true love. Don’t even try to tell me different.- Dolly Parton
• Christ the Lord is risen today, sons of men and angels say. Raise your joys and triumphs high; sing, ye heavens and earth reply. – Charles Wesley
• The deep roots never doubt that spring will come. – Marty Rubin
• God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. – Saint Augustine
• Easter is the only time when it’s perfectly safe to put all your eggs in one basket.- Evan Esar
• Let your joy burst forth like the flowers in the spring. – Unknown
• Faith makes all things possible. Love makes all things easy.- Dwight L. Moody
• I am going to try and pay attention to the spring. I am going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees. I am going to close my eyes, and listen. – Anne Lamott
• Blessed are those who have not seen and have yet believed. – John 20:29
• Egg hunts are proof that your children can find things when they really want to.- Unknown
• The resurrection gives my life meaning and direction and the opportunity to start over no matter what my circumstances. – Robert Flatt
• That is one good thing about this world, there are always sure to be more springs.- L.M Montgomery

Easter Messages

• The first blooms of spring always make my heart sing. – S. Brown
• Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life- S.D. Gordon
• In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. – Margaret Atwood
• For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. -John 3:16
• Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.- Hans Christian Anderson
• Spring’s greatest joy beyond a doubt is when it brings the children out.- Edgar Guest
• The Easter egg symbolizes our ability to break out of the hardened, protective shell we’ve surrounded ourselves with.- Siobhan Shaw
• God is love and He has defeated evil. – Pope Francis
• Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat.- Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Spring is nature’s way of saying ‘Let’s party!’- Robin Williams
• Let your dreams blossom.- Unknown
• To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.- Audrey Hepburn
• The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all. – Mulan
• You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.- Pablo Neruda
• Easter is the demonstration of God that life is essentially spiritual and timeless. – Charles M. Crowe
• Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! – 2 Corinthians 5:17
• Keep going. Keep growing.- Unknown
• If people did not love one another, I really don’t see what use there would be in having any spring. – Victor Hugo
• God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. -1 Corinthians 6:14

Why is it named Easter?

The word Easter is an old, archaic word which is said to have derived from the old German word which means "East" which again originated from an even more archaic word Latin word which means "Dawn". In the literal and metaphorical sense, in the spring the dawn brings in a new beginning in the east. Apart from that, Easter also seems to have derived from the name of a pre-Christian goddess in England. Her name was Eostre, and she was celebrated during the beginning of the spring. There is no solid proof of her origin found in history except in writing found in the late seventh and early eighth century. It was penned down by Venerable Bede, a British Monk who lived during that period. 

Significance of Easter

As far as any celebrations or holidays are concerned, there is a considerable change which we can witness. To cite an example, Christmas happens in the season where the winter begins. There is no mention of the exact date when Jesus Christ was born. The only reason why it was celebrated in December is because of the winter season. The winter is always said to be the dark period where danger, evil lurk in the corner. The winter gradually weans away, and there begins a new start, a new bright light for the world, which is the spring. Easter falls in the spring as it is the redemption and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Spring is not just the redemption and resurrection of Jesus Christ, himself but also the budding of new life in the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom. This also a perfect time to celebrate the rise of Jesus as it brings a new symbolism. 

Easter is also closely related to the Jewish Passover, therefore marking it as an important day. The Jewish Passover is nothing but the celebration of the Jews who were rescued from Egyptian slavery. This event marks the story of Exodus and the celebration that God as he rescued them. Apart from that, it is also the celebration of freedom. In Hebrew, it is termed as "Pesach" which refers to the Paschal Lamb. A Paschal Lamb was sacrificed to honour the Passover. It is also about the concept that God "passed over" (Pasach). God is said to have passed over the homes of Jews during the 10th plague on the Egyptians. This is also, in a way, a sign of redemption and resurrection of the humankind from evil. 

Similarities between the Jewish Passover and Easter

Both celebrations are different from the two belief systems. The Jewish Passover is celebrated by the Jews and Easter is celebrated by the Christians but they both celebrate the primary tenets of their respective faiths. The Jews celebration is mainly based on their independence from the Egyptians and their slavery. Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. These two events mark important dates in the history of their religion. Besides, historians and researchers also noted that the final short period of time lived by Jesus Christ happened during the period of Jewish Passover. The last supper and Passover Seder have similarities. Liberation, rebirth, happiness, new beginnings are filled in both the holidays.       

Easter Eggs

Easter Eggs and Easter are two inseparable things. Even a Non-Christian person is aware that Easter is nothing without Easter Eggs. Easter eggs are just chocolate eggs or filled with chocolates and tiny gifts. As people observe the Great Lent before Easter, they go out their way to celebrate Easter to the fullest. Traditionally, Easter Eggs mean fertility and rebirth. In other interpretations, it also refers to the empty tombstone as Jesus is no longer found inside.  

How to celebrate Easter? 

As Easter is an annual event, these are several ways to celebrate it.

1.  Children and sometimes adults hide the eggs and play treasure hunt, which is an enjoyable way to celebrate Easter. 
2. Egg decorating is also a popular way of celebration. Children find it very amusing and entertaining as gifting the eggs gives them joy, and it has a personal touch to it too. 
3. Egg rolling is again a famous tradition where rolling egg races are conducted. It is also symbolic of the rock which rolled away from Jesus Christ's tomb before his resurrection.
4. Adults can throw a party, host a dinner where they can cook Up Some Easter omelettes to kick off the celebrations. 
5. Conduct a small speech competition and people from children to adults can narrate the story about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.    

Overall, these are the few important and should know facts about Easter, and it's a celebration to be enjoyed. Easter is a special day to forget dead hopes, bring a new energy and see a new sun rising!

---

Co-author:  Akshaya Saravana Kumar

Akshaya is currently pursuing Masters in English Literature. She is an avid reader, an animal lover and a movie freak. She loves to spend her past time travelling to strange places in different time zones with her imagination and fall in love with fictional characters.