The Festival of Resurrection: Why Easter Deserves More Love Than It Gets
If Easter didn’t happen, Christianity might have remained a footnote in ancient Roman history.
Published : April 19, 2025 at 3:50 PM IST
Unlike its glitzy, snow-dusted cousin Christmas, which hits you in the face with trees and fairy lights, Easter tends to sneak up on us. No jingles. No shopping hysteria. Just a handful of chocolate eggs that may be left unsold on the supermarket shelf. And yet, Easter is the most significant holiday in Christianity.
In the simplest terms, Easter commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. According to Christian belief, it marks the day Jesus rose from the dead, three days after being crucified on Good Friday. This moment is the cornerstone of Christian theology. It’s about the triumph of life over death, and beginnings over endings.
But if Christmas is the romantic comedy of Christian festivals, Easter is more like a gritty indie drama that sneaks up on you and changes the way you see the world.
The Road to Easter
Easter doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s the grand finale to Holy Week, which itself is the climax of Lent (a 40-day period of fasting, introspection, and self-denial). The week begins with Palm Sunday (celebrating Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem), escalates through Maundy Thursday (the Last Supper), hits a low on Good Friday (the crucifixion), and then builds up to Easter Sunday, when Jesus is back.
For a religion that has endured across centuries, continents, and cultures, Easter is the moment that ties everything together. If Easter didn’t happen, Christianity might have remained a footnote in ancient Roman history.
If you're wondering why the world doesn't make a bigger deal out of it, then understand that Christmas has the better PR team. It's been branded, marketed, and embedded into global pop culture with the finesse of a Coke ad campaign. On the other hand, Easter is harder to box up and sell. How do you commercialize resurrection without getting awkward? It’s also, quite frankly, a harder story. Christmas is about birth, joy and hope. Easter requires wrestling with suffering, death, doubt—and then hope again. You can’t stick a resurrection under a tree.
Where Do Easter Eggs and Bunnies Come From?
Here’s where things get fun. If you’ve ever wondered how rabbits and eggs ended up in a religious festival about resurrection, you’re not alone. The egg is a symbol of new life, and rabbits are famously good at multiplying. These symbols have roots in pre-Christian spring festivals, especially those dedicated to Ēostre or Ishtar, goddesses associated with fertility, dawn, and renewal. Some scholars believe that the word “Easter” itself comes from Ēostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. Others trace its symbolism to Ishtar, the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love and war, who also had resurrection themes in her mythology.
While there's no direct theological connection between Jesus and Ishtar, the themes of rebirth, renewal, and new beginnings span cultures and religions. Whether it’s Nowruz in Persian tradition, Ugadi in South India, or the Vernal Equinox, humans have always celebrated the coming of spring and the idea that life triumphs over the cold, dark winter.
So if you squint a little, Easter fits snugly into a much larger pattern. It’s about starting over. Whether through divine resurrection or the blooming of spring flowers. You don’t have to be religious to appreciate Easter. At its heart, it’s a festival of second chances. It says, “You messed up? That’s okay. Try again.”
If Christmas is the party, Easter is the morning after, when you clear your head, sweep up the glitter, and ask yourself, “What now?” It’s about rebuilding. Resurrection of relationships, of faith, of purpose, even of your messy to-do list. It’s about rising again not necessarily from the dead, but from disappointment, failure, heartbreak, or just plain laziness.
On Easter, you might not put up lights or decorate a tree nor buy gifts (like some do on Christmas). But you could pause and think about what it means to start over. Whether you find that spark in prayer, in a walk outdoors, in a hot cross bun shared with someone you love, or in deciding to get up and try again, Easter has something for everyone.
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