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The easter lamb is a very old tradition, originating back to the Israeli slaves in Egypt.

When God cursed the egyptians with ten Plagues, the last one was:

"About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sit on the throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt - worse than there has ever been or ever will be again" - Exodus 11:4-6

Moses informed all of the Israeli to mark lamb's blood on their doorposts, in which case the Angel of Death would spare them.

Every Israeli family slaughtered a lamb, which they ate with bread and herbs. When finished eating the lamb, they took the blood and spread it over their doors to keep Death away.

It was this tenth and final plague that led the Pharaoh to allow the Israeli people to leave, which they did, led by Moses.

In Christianity, we say that the Easter lamb is a symbol of Jesus and the sacrifice he made when dying on the cross.

Today many families still see lamb as a good Easter dish.

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The Easter bunny is a pretty new tradition here in Denmark. It came to Denmark in the 19th century from Germany, where it already was an old tradition. There, the children would make nests for the 'Osterhase', where the creature could lay its colored eggs.

The Easter bunny is more a tradition for children than anything else. The night to Easter Sunday, the (parents) Easter bunny will hide a lot of candy and chocolate, often in the backyard, and then the children will go on an egg hunt to find them.

The Easter bunny is not religious; the Bible never mentions a long-eared, short-tailed creature delivering decorated eggs to well-behaved children on Easter. Still, the Easter bunny has become a prominent symbol of the Christian holiday.

And a lot of children here in Denmark love the Easter bunny and get very excited every year cause they'll get a lot of candy from the Easter bunny.

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Pontius Pilates presents Jesus to the crowd

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Pontius Pilates presents Jesus to the crowd

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Gække-letters

Gække-letters, pronounced gehcke-letters, is a specifically Danish Easter
tradition. Gække-letters are messages with short poems. Often the poems
give the receiver a task: guess who sent the letter. The receiver is allowed
three guesses, and if the guess is correct, the task-giver must buy a chocolate
egg or other kinds of sweets for him/her. That’s why, at the bottom of a
gække-letter, you won’t find a name, but dots, replacing the letters in the
sender’s name.  Gække-letters are mostly correspondences between children
and their older relatives (e.g. parents, grandparents, aunt, uncles, etc.).

The gække-letter is named after the flower snowdrop, in Danish ‘vintergæk’,
because people sometimes glue, tape or press a dried snowdrop to the letter.
Before writing the poem, the paper is first folded, then cut in the edges, which
creates a symmetrical pattern as seen below

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Painted by Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper is a late 15th-century mural painting and is one of the world's most famous paintings.

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Painted by Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper is a  late 15th-century mural painting and is one of the world's most famous paintings.

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Why do we celebrate Easter - the story behind Easter Sunday

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Why do we celebrate Easter - the story behind Easter Sunday

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Also called Resurrection Day, Easter is the day Christians celebrate Jesus Christ’s revival. The story behind it is as follows:

After a three-year travel through Palestine, Jesus, being a Jew himself, trekked to Jerusalem with his twelve apostles to celebrate the Jewish Easter, pesach. This day is called Palm Sunday. Jesus rode into the city on a donkey’s back and was, because rumours of his greatness and miracles that had been widely spread, warmly welcomed by joyous townsfolk, who threw palm branches down on the ground as it was Eastern tradition to cover the ground that someone of high honour was walking on.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday pass, until, the day before his crucifixion, Maundy Thursday dawned.

Maundy Thursday is one of the most important and solemn days on the Christian calendar. After a couple of days in the city of Jerusalem, Jesus, knowing that his death was near, shared one last meal with his disciples. This famous meal is called the Last Supper, and has been depicted by many an artist, including Leonardo da Vinci.

When the disciples arrived for the meal, Jesus washed their feet, which they found very odd, as it was a servants job to wash guests’ feet. But Jesus insisted, wanting to prove that he was not above a servant.

Many priests often repeat this ritual, e.g. the Pope, who last year washed the feet of young detainees during a mass at the church of the Casal del Marmo.

During the meal, Jesus blesses some bread and wine and gives it to his disciples, saying:

"Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me".

"Drink ye all of this; for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and
for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this,
as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me".

This is recreated every Sunday, at Church Service, when the churchgoers walk up to the altar, where they receive wine and bread. It is called the Eucharist.

Besides knowing of his upcoming death, Jesus was also aware that he would be betrayed by one of his disciples, and also told them as much at the Last Supper, much to the disciples’ distress.

After supper Jesus goes to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he spends the night in prayer. He asks his disciples to guard him during the night, but they all fall asleep. When Friday morning dawns, a group of armed men, sent by the Jewish authorities, arrive to arrest Jesus. To identify Jesus they have one of his disciples, Judas, who betrays Jesus by identifying him with a kiss. Judas receives 30 silver pieces, but later returns the blood money, horrified and overcome with guilt by his own actions and hangs himself.

Jesus, without struggle, follows the men to be questioned in front of a group of Jewish religious leaders.

The reasons for the arrest were that many had become enraged by Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God, and furthermore, the religious leaders felt that Jesus had challenged their authority and feared his popularity among the people.

Maundy Thursday has now passed, Good Friday has begun. After a trial, where Jesus, despite taunts and floggings, still adamantly claimed to be God’s son, Jesus is sentenced to death. Governor Pontius Pilate, though, is reluctant to sentence Jesus, despite the Jewish priests’ hurling accusations, recognizing no political threat, and asks of the people of Jerusalem their opinion.

According to the gospels, it was custom of the Roman governor to release one prisoner at Pesach. Trying to avoid having to sentence a, in his opinion, innocent man, Pilates brought out Barabbas, a notorious prisoner and murderer and told the crowd to choose: release Jesus or Barabbas. The crowd, to his dismay, demanded Barabbas’ release and demanded Jesus crucified.

After putting a crown of thorns on his head and mockingly dressing him in purple, the colour of royalty, the people force Jesus to carry a cross all through the city, all the way to Golgotha, a site outside of Jerusalem’s walls where Jesus was nailed to the cross he had been carrying and after six hours died.

After his death some of his followers request the body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes with spices. They then buried him and put a large rock in front of the entrance to his grave.

On the third day of his death, Easter Sunday, some women, amongst them his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene, came to the grave to anoint Jesus’ body, as there hadn’t been time to do so on the day of his crucifixion, as haste was made to inter his body before the start of the Sabbath. They found, though, that the great rock in front of the entrance had been removed. Inside the tomb, they were greeted by an angel who told them: "Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus
who was crucified. He is not here; for he has risen,
as he said. Come; see the place where he lay. Then
go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen
from the dead, and behold, he is going before you
to Galilee; there you will see him. Lo, I have told you."

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Easter Day always jumps a bit around in late April on the calendar, but if you look it up on the Internet, you can quickly find out when Easter is celebrated. This year Easter Sunday falls on the 20th of April. If you want to figure it out by yourself, it’s a bit of a puzzle. Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after spring equinox. The Internet is preferable, innit?

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Easter is, from a biblical viewpoint, the most important and oldest Christian celebration. Originating from the Jewish pesach, a major festival commemorating the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, Easter in a Christian sense celebrates the revival of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion.

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Made by Andreas Hauerslev, Ellen Pørtner and Emil Iversen.

This padlet is going to tell you about Easter and how we celebrate it here in Denmark. We have some traditions that you're going to be introduced to and the story behind Easter is also going to be explained.