Interesting Historical Easter Facts

Where Did Lent Come From?
Many of the churches had various periods of fasting before Easter. Some had one or two days, others several weeks. At the end of the sixth century, Pope Gregory I established a forty day period of fasting and repentance, using the forty of Israel, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus in the wilderness as patterns to follow. It was Gregory who fixed the beginning of Lent as Ash Wednesday, with ashes placed on the head as a reminder that “dust thou art and to dust returneth.”

Pretzels, Anyone?
Christians in the Roman Empire made a special Lenten food of flour, salt, and water, since meat and dairy foods were forbidden during Lent. Because Lent was a season of penance and devotion, the dough was shaped into the form of two arms crossed in prayer. In Latin, “little arms” is bracellae. When the food was taken to Germany, it was called a brezel or a pretzel. The oldest known picture of a pretzel may be in a manuscript from the fifth century in the Vatican. Pretzels are still an item of Lenten food in many parts of Europe and are sometimes distributed to the poor in the cities.

The Sunrise Service
In Luke 24:1 the women went at early dawn to the tomb. In 1732 some young men of the Moravian community at Herrnhut, Germany went to the cemetery at dawn to meditate on Christ’s Resurrection. This became the first known Easter sunrise service. In 1741 the Moravians in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania celebrated the first Easter sunrise service in America.

What about Holy Week?
The observation of the week before Easter as Holy Week probably began in the fourth century when pilgrimages to Jerusalem began. When Egeria traveled to Jerusalem at the end of the fourth century, she gave a detailed account of the contemporary observance of Holy Week. Christians used liturgical drama to reenact the last scenes of Christ on earth. On Palm Sunday they reenacted Christ’s joyous entry into Jerusalem. Maundy Thursday’s love feast and foot washing recalled the institution of the Lord’s Supper. The Good Friday of the crucifixion became a day of deepest penance and fasting. On the evening of the Great Sabbath, during that time when Christ lay in the grave, the Easter vigils began with Scripture reading, singing and prayer. Everyone poured into the church with light to await the glorious Resurrection morning.

What’s in a Name?
The Latin word paschal for the Hebrew for Passover (pesah) became the Latin word for the Resurrection day in the Romance languages, such as Spanish and French. The eighth century historian Bede wrote that Easter, the English word for the holiday, came from the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eoster, the goddess of spring and fertility.