Catholic Easter
Description:
Just like Christmas, Easter in Canada is not only a church holiday for believers: it is a truly popular and very beautiful holiday, for which, like Christmas, Canadians begin to prepare long before its arrival. Many TV programs, magazines and books tell about how to decorate the table, what to cook, what to give, and in cities there are fairs and bazaars where you can buy all sorts of beautiful and tasty treats and gifts.
In Catholic-Protestant Canada, the Easter Bunny, which bears Easter eggs, is the most common everyday symbol of the Resurrection of Christ. Where did this, most often, cheerful character, come from on modern Easter cards and in the windows of souvenir departments of Canadian stores?
And the tradition of popularizing the hare came to Canada in the XVIII century, and, of course, from Europe, or rather from Germany. Indeed, originally the ancient Germans celebrated the vernal equinox and praised on this day the goddess of spring and fertility Ostara, in whose name the current name of the holiday - Easter (German - Ostern). At that time, the hare was considered a sacred animal. This was not an innovation of the Germans, because the hare, symbolizing fertility and fertility, also accompanied the goddess of love Aphrodite and since ancient times was revered by the Romans and Egyptians.
Another Canadian family Easter tradition is to present Easter baskets with dyed eggs or egg-shaped sweets. This tradition was brought to Canada from Germany. In medieval Western Europe, eggs acquired the value of the unit of payment at Easter: they were paid by debtors. It was with eggs on Easter that peasants paid with the church for renting land, and that, in turn, distributed them to the poor. Over time, this custom was transformed into the distribution of dyed eggs to children. Much later, a century later, real colored eggs began to complement or replace chocolate and caramel eggs, and from the 30s of the last century - also colorful candy jelly beans, resembling bird eggs. Ready basket with painted or plastic eggs, if desired, you can buy in a Canadian store, most often in Italian.
The entertainment industry and manufacturers of sweets, toys and souvenirs, which put paraphernalia, rather than a Christian idea, in no small measure contribute to the fact that modern youth and children have almost forgotten what religious event the Easter holiday is associated with. Therefore, in recent years, more and more clergymen in Easter preaching call not to return to pagan origins and not to turn the Resurrection of Christ into a feast of spring and fertility. Believers mentally experience a landmark event in Christian history - the Resurrection of the Savior from the dead. In the Christian understanding, Easter symbolizes deliverance from evil and the beginning of a new life.
In multinational and multi-faceted Canada, the Easter holiday reveals two parallel attitudes of people and, accordingly, two rows of Easter symbols: for some it is a fire and a candle, and for others - a hare and painted eggs. However, they get along quite amicably. Both of them reconcile the festive Sunday dinner with traditional symbolic Easter dishes and an indispensable dessert. In Toronto, for example, you can buy a cake with vegetables and eggs from 33 crusts of thin dough, each of which symbolizes one year of Jesus’ life. It goes without saying that many Easter Canadian sweets are traditionally smeared with maple syrup, the main Canadian product of the coming spring.
However, the most important thing for all Christians is to try not to get bogged down in paraphernalia and not to lose in the vain pursuit of traditions the state of spiritual joy of the day of Christ’s Resurrection.