Easter in Denmark and Argentina

The national church of Denmark is the Lutheran Church. Its religious holidays are celebrated as public holidays throughout Denmark.

Easter is one of the Danish Folkekirke's most important religious holidays. Schools and most work places in Denmark will be closed Skærtorsdag (MaundyThursday) on March 28th, Langfredag (Good Friday) on March 29th, and Påskedag and Anden Påskedag, Easter Sunday and Monday (March 30th and April 1). Other public holidays during that are related to the Easter season include St. Bededag


The History of Easter The ancient Saxons celebrated the return of spring with an uproarious festival commemorating their goddess of offspring and of springtime, Easter, through her earthly symbol, the rabbit. In the rites of spring the rabbit symbolised fertility. In a German book published in 1682, a tale is told of a bunny laying eggs and hiding them in the garden. The Easter Bunny is a cute little rabbit that hides eggs for us to find on Easter. The Easter bonnet and new clothes on Easter symbolise the end of the dreary winter and the beginning of the fresh, new spring. At the turn of the century it was popular for families to stroll to church and home again to show off their "Sunday's best".

As with almost all Christian holidays, Easter has been secularised and commercialised. The nature of Easter and its symbols, however, are not necessarily a modern fabrication. Since its conception as a holy celebration in the second century, Easter has had its non-religious side. In fact, Easter was originally a pagan festival. When the second-century Christian missionaries encountered the tribes of the north with their pagan celebrations, they attempted to convert them to Christianity. They did so, however, in a clandestine manner. It would have been suicide for the very early Christian converts to celebrate their holy days with observances that did not coincide with celebrations that already existed. To save lives, the missionaries cleverly decided to spread their religious message slowly throughout the populations by allowing them to continue to celebrate pagan feasts, but to do so in a Christian manner. As it happened, the pagan festival of Easter occurred at the same time of year as the Christian observance of the Resurrection of Christ. It made sense, therefore, to alter the festival itself, to make it a Christian celebration as converts were slowly won over. Easter is therefore now celebrated as the rebirth of Christ. The early name, Eastre, was eventually changed to its modern spelling, Easter.

The Israelites/Jews had been celebrating Easter for thousands of years before the tradition even came to the continent of Europe and other places around the world. At that time the name for the feast was quite different, however; it was called the Passover. This celebration stems back to the time when the Israelites were still slaves in Egypt, and they had cried out to God in their misery. According to the Bible, God heard their cries and sent 10 plagues over Egypt to convince the Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave the country. The tenth plague was the worst, killing every Egyptian firstborn, not only of the livestock but also humans--even Pharaoh lost his firstborn. The only reason that the Israelites did not suffer under this plague was because they were told to offer a perfect lamb the night that the Spirit of God would roam through Egypt and kill the firstborns. After eating the lamb, they should sprinkle the lamb's blood on the sides and tops of their doorframes, so that the Spirit of God will pass over these houses, thus The Passover.

The Date of Easter Prior to AD 325, Easter was celebrated on different days of the week, including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In that year, Emperor Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea. The Council issued the Easter Rule, which stated that Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday that occurs after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. However, a caveat must be introduced here. The "full moon" in the rule is the ecclesiastical full moon, which is defined as the fourteenth day of a tabular lunation, where day one corresponds to the ecclesiastical New Moon. It does not always occur on the same date as the astronomical full moon. The ecclesiastical "vernal equinox" is always on March 21. Therefore, Easter must be celebrated on a Sunday between the dates of March 22 and April 25. The culmination of events during Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday reflects the return of Jesus to Jerusalem. Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper and the treason of Christ, and Good Friday honours the crucifixion of Jesus. Finally, Easter Sunday celebrates the resurrection of Christ after his crucifixion.

Orthodox Jews still celebrate the Passover today, while Messianic Jews celebrate Easter like the rest of the Christians around the world. The reason for this difference in celebration is that Orthodox Jews do not accept Jesus Christ to be the Messiah sent from God, and therefore they do not celebrate his Crucifixion or his return from the kingdom of death. This is what Christians celebrate, hence the days Good Friday for Christ's Crucifixion and Easter Sunday, for the first day he appeared before the disciples again. This is why Easter is so important in the Christian part of the world today, even though fewer and fewer people observe the holiday in its original form. A lot of people just see it as another day of vacation and time to relax and spend with one's family. But for professed Christians around the world, Easter is just as important to them as Christmas, because Easter is celebrated in remembrance of Christ returning from the kingdom of death.

Easter in Denmark Most families in Denmark celebrate Easter with great family reunions where the families gather around a festive dinner table. Families are rather preoccupied with colourful table decorations, such as daffodils and yellow and purple napkins. It is also quite popular to paint and to decorate the eggs during the Easter holiday. Children usually get Easter Eggs made of chocolate from their parents and grandparents. One of the ways to get more Easter Eggs is by writing a gækkebrev to a family member or a good friend. The Danish gækkebreve are letters written like little poems or rhymes but without the writer's name, which must be guessed by the receiver. The gækkebreve can be decorated with paintings, a snowdrop - vintergæk - or by cutting little patterns in the paper. If the receiver cannot guess the sender's identity within a certain period of time, the receiver will have to give an Easter Egg to the sender.

Easter Eggs Today, children, especially in the United States, hunt coloured eggs and place them in Easter baskets along with the modern version of real Easter eggs -- those made of plastic or chocolate. The traditions of the US are pretty much the same as those of e.g. Australia, where many people give out Easter Eggs made of chocolate. Some families have the tradition of going camping during the Easter Holidays, while others celebrate it in other ways.

Since ancient times many cultures have associated eggs with the universe. They've been dyed, decorated and painted by the Romans, Gaul's, Persians and the Chinese. They were used in ancient spring festivals to represent the rebirth of life. As Christianity took hold , the egg began to symbolise man's rebirth.

The Easter Basket The Easter Basket shows roots in a Catholic custom. Baskets filled with breads, cheeses, hams and other foods for Easter dinner were taken to mass Easter morning to be blessed. This evolved in time to filling baskets with chocolate eggs, jellybeans, toys and stuffed bunnies for children that were left behind by the Easter Bunny.

Easter in Latin America Easter here is celebrated in the same way as in most other places. According to Luzianna, who is studying International and Intercultural Communication, people in Brazil will dress up for Sunday Mass and bring with them chocolate eggs for the children to exchange with their friends at church. They will attend Mass with their families, and celebrate Easter by for one thing eating a better meal than usual. Most of them follow the Catholic tradition in celebrating Easter, when it comes to the more religious part.

According to Nazarena Mazzaro, who is an Argentinean Ph.D. student at Aalborg University, Easter is considered to be the most important tradition, and people will make special food and have specific festivities. Argentineans will not eat meat on Fridays for 40 days before Easter, and they try to eat very small amounts of food in order to remember Christ and the sufferings which he underwent. Usually Argentineans eat a lot of meat, but during Easter they eat fish. Usually they will imitate what was eaten centuries ago, and they have a very special cake called "roscas de pascuas," among other things. The most Catholic Argentineans will profoundly remember the death of Christ by trying to feel and "live" the pain and horror, which he suffered before his death. Most people are very generous during that time, for which reason they put great emphasis upon giving their love and affection to their families, friends, and people in need. They will confess for all the "badness" which has occurred during the past year.



hen til mig elske JEG elske jer

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