Easter Sunday: Festum festorum

Rev. Fr. Stephen Touthang *

Easter Sunday at MBC Church, Chingmeirong, Imphal on April 8 2012 :: Pix - Banti Phurailatpam

Pope Leo I calls Easter as festum festorum (the greatest feast) of all Christian feasts. Easter is the sacred celebration of Christ's resurrection from the dead. It is the oldest, most central and holiest of all Christian festivals.

According to Venerable Bede, the Anglo-Saxon cleric and historian of late 7th-century/8th-century England, Easter gets its name from Eostre or Eastre, a Teutonic goddess of the dawn whose annual festival took place on the vernal equinox, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere.

While, some scholars dispute this theory, it appears that "Easter" comes from the same root as the Englsih word "east", the direction of the rising sun.

Similarly, the German designation for Easter is "Ostern". In many other languages however, the name for the festival of Christ's resurrection comes from Pascha, the Greek/Latin transliteration for the Hebrew word "Pesach" (Passover). Examples of this derivation can be seen in the Spanish Pascua, Italian Pasqua, French Paques etc.

The foundation of the Christian faith is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ lived the righteous and perfect life that we, because of our fallen and corrupt nature cannot.

He suffered the penalty for our sins by taking our guilt upon Himself and accepting the most ignominious death on the cross.

He rose bodily from the death that first Easter morning ensuring that we who have been baptized into His death and resurrection will rise again in glorified bodies on the Last Day. This is the great paschal mystery that Christians have celebrated since the earliest days of the church.

As the apostle Paul joyfully declared, "…Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death by a man has come also the resurrection of the death. For as in Adam all dies, so also in Christ shall all be made alive…. O death, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! (I Cor. 15:20-22 and 55-57).

On Easter Sunday, therefore, the Christian churches celebrate God's great triumph over sin, death and the devil with the ancient greeting:
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

SUNDAY: there are two popular beliefs about the origin of the English word "Sunday".
i) It is derived from the name of the Scandivavian sun goddess Sunna (a.k.a. Sunne, Frau Sonne)
ii) It is derived from "Sol", the Roman god of the Sun. this phrase "Dies Solis" means "Day of the Sun".

The Christian Saint Jerome (d. 420) commented, "If it is called the day of the Sun by the pagans, we willingly accept this name, for on this day the Light of the world arose, on this day the Sun of Justice shone forth."