Easter

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Easter, also called Pasch (derived, through Latin: Pascha and Greek Πάσχα Paskha, from Aramaic: פסחא‎, cognate to Hebrew: פֶּסַח‎ Pesaḥ), or Resurrection Sunday, is a festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred three days after his crucifixion by Romans at Calvary c. 32 AD.

Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon, the full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March (taken to be the date of the equinox). This was the practice of all the early church except the quartedemecians. Ecclesiastically, the equinox is thus reckoned to be on 21 March (although the astronomical equinox occurs on 20 March in most years), and the "Full Moon" is not necessarily on the astronomically correct date. The date of Easter therefore varies from 22 March to 25 April inclusive. Eastern Christianity bases its calculations on the Julian calendar, whose 21 March corresponds, during the 21st century, to 3 April in the Gregorian calendar, and in which therefore the celebration of Easter varies between 4 April and 8 May.

Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, as well as by its position in the calendar. In many languages, the words for "Easter" and "Passover" are identical or very similar.

The word Easter appears once in the King James Version in Acts 12:4. Easter, which means the celebration of the resurrection, was put into Acts 12:4 by design. The Translators knowing that in Acts the believers would be celebrating the Christian Pascha, and not the Jewish Pascha, which historically was in the same week until the middle ages. Before Acts, the Jewish Passover was celebrated, and translated that way because Jesus had not yet died as the Passover Lamb of God. After his death they no longer celebrated the Old shadow Passover (Greek - Pascha) by killing a lamb, but they practiced the new resurrection celebration of Easter (also Greek - Pascha).

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