Happy Resurrection Sunday!

You may have noticed that a number of churches and ministries refer to today as Resurrection Sunday.

According to Wikipedia:

The modern English term Easter developed from the old English word Ēastre or Ēostre or Eoaster, which itself developed prior to 899. The name refers to Eostur-monath, a month of the Germanic calendar attested by Bede as named after the goddess Eostre of Anglo-Saxon Paganism.

So it would appear that some folks are eager to distance themselves form a name that has pagan roots. Now, I'm not going to get all legalistic about this, but I personally like the change. Some churches have even given up Easter Egg Hunts, recognizing that the egg has been part of pagan
Spring and fertility celebrations for millennia. (To be fair, the boiled egg is also a part of the Jewish Passover meal, the Seder.) Now, I'm not going to get all legalistic about this, but personally, I like the change. After all, the term Resurrection Sunday puts the emphasis right back where it belongs, on Jesus Christ and on what is arguably the single most important event in history, His resurrection!

By the way, did you ever wonder how the day for the holiday (formerly, Holy Day) is set on the calendar each year? Again, according to Wikipedia:

Easter is the first Sunday after the Pascal Full Moon, which is the first moon whose 14th day (the ecclesiastic "full moon") is on or after March 21(the ecclesiastic "vernal equinox").

Got that?