Easter eggs: Symbolism, legends and traditions
The concept of the hollow chocolate Easter egg seamlessly embodies the symbolism of Easter.
Ash Wednesday on 6 March marked the beginning of the Lenten season 2019 and the 40-day fast enjoined by the Church before Easter. The festival, which falls according to the lunar cycle, has no fixed date and varies every year according to the phases of the moon. This time it will be observed as late as 27 April, with Good Friday being on 25 April. Last year, both fell in March, not long after Holi.
Incidentally, Christian Holi was on Shrove Tuesday, a day before Ash Wednesday, and is so named because the faithful are shriven of their sins on this day by confessing them to the priest.
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The observance of a sectarian Holi is confined to the Indian sub-continent as Christians have to otherwise abstain from revelry of any kind, Holi included, during Lent. Very few observe the ritual now, which, like the Mardi Gras carnivals, is the last celebration before the period of Lenten austerity. Lent also perpetuates the 40-day fast of Christ in the desert before his death and resurrection. It is the latter event, which is celebrated as Easter, that always falls on a Sunday and hence not so widely known as Christmas.
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Interestingly, T S Eliot wrote a memorable poem on Ash Wednesday, in which he lamented the death of three nuns in a drowning accident.
On this day Christians’ foreheads are marked with ash obtained by burning the palm fronds of the previous year’s Palm Sunday, as a reminder of the Biblical text: “Dust thou art and into dust thou shall descend”, which is the ultimate fate of all humanity!
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