The last week of the Lent which precedes the celebration is the Grand Week, which starts with the Palm Sunday (the celebration of Jesus’ entrance in Jerusalem) and ends with Easter Sunday.
The Grand Week has the role of sharing Jesus’ torment. In that week the 40 day Lent finishes and nature is revived. On the Thursday of the Great Week, the bells stop ringing, they will ring again only on the Grand Saturday. This marks the beginning of Jesus’ torture.
The History of Easter
Easter was celebrated for the first time around 1400 B.C. On that day the Jews left Egypt with God’s help. The scripture Exodus of the Old Testament shows us the instructions given by god for celebrating Easter, during Moses’ time. The Jews from Antiquity remembered that God saved them from the slavery they endured in Egipt.
Easter Traditions
The Old Saxons celebrated the coming of the spring by paying tribute to the Godess of spring, Eastre .During the second century, Christian missionaries came within the Nordic tribes, with their pagan rituals, and tried to convert them to Christianity. They made it, but only to some extent. For the new Christians, the interdiction of keeping their old pagan celebrations would have meant death. To save lives, the missionaries decided to make their message heard slowly, permitting the pagan rituals to be performed, but in a Christian manner.
The Grand Week of Easter
During the Grand Week, housekeepers make a general cleaning.They sweep the court yards, they repair the fences, they wash the curtains and the furniture, they scrub the floors and clean the whole house, clothes and carpets.
Several things are celebrated on the great Thursday: Jesus washing the Apostles’ feet, the Last supper, the Ghetsimani prayer and the catching of Jesus by the ones who wanted to kill him.
Christian symbols in relation to celebrating Easter
The cross symbolizes the Crucifixion, the opposite of the Revival. In 325, Constantine ordered that the cross should be the official symbol of Christianity. It is not only the Easter symbol, but it is also used by the Catholic Church as a symbol of faith.
Easter rituals in Romania
In Bucovina, the girls go and wash the bells with clean water.With this water they wash afterwards to be beautiful all year round and to be ran after by boys just like people run towards the church on the night of the Resurrection.
The Easter Bunny
The presence of the rabbit in Easter Tradition is due to pagan rituals and divinities worshiped in times long gone. The cute animal is considered to be a symbol of fertility. An old legend says that the Goddess Eostre found a wounded bird, one winter, on the field. To save it from a certain death, the goddess turned it into a rabbit, but preserved it’s capacity to lay eggs.
Irina and kids from School 92 Bucharest
