Celebrating Easter

Easter is a Christian festival celebrated all over the world. Easter Sunday marks the day that Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead. He was executed three days before on Good Friday by crucifixion. Christians call Jesus rising from the dead his resurrection.

Easter is not only celebrated by Christians. A lot of non-Christian people also choose to mark the occasion in some way.

Easter is a spring festival and can represent the beginning of new life not only in Christianity but also in nature. Often Easter is represented with baby animals such as chicks or lambs.

Easter is celebrated in lots of different ways all over the globe. Often, Christians will attend a church service on Easter Sunday. Eating hot cross buns and chocolate Easter eggs are also common traditions.

For Christians, eggs represent new life. Easter eggs are used as a symbol for the resurrection of Jesus. Traditionally, chicken eggs were painted and decorated however, now it is more common to find chocolate Easter eggs. Lots of people also enjoy hiding chocolate eggs and taking part in an Easter egg hunt.

In 2024 Easter Sunday is on 31 March. The week leading up to Easter is called Holy Week. The date of Easter Sunday varies from year to year. It is celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon, on or after 21 March.

In an acrostic poem, the first letter of each line spells a word or phrase.

The word that is spelt is what the poem is about. Here is an example using the word Spring.

Spring is in the air

Planting bulbs

Rainfall and sunshine

Irises, tulips and daffodils

Nests, chicks and lambs

Green shoots in the garden

Create your own acrostic Easter poem using the word Easter.

To challenge yourself even more, you could try and use rhyming words.

Easter bonnets represent the tradition of wearing new clothes at Easter time. For Christians, wearing new clothes at Easter represents new life and the resurrection of Jesus. Sometimes competitions are held to see who can create the most extravagant bonnet using Easter and Spring related items.

Draw your own Easter bonnet or print off the template.