The Season of Easter

At Chilhowie United Methodist Church, Easter, and the Sundays that follow it, remind us of the power of God to transform our lives. We celebrate this season with a special sense of joy and awe. The Christ that died for our sins on Good Friday is now risen from the dead and living in our midst!!

Each Sunday is really a mini Easter Celebration.

What is the Season of Easter?

The Easter Season, also known as the Great Fifty Days, begins at sunset Easter Eve and continues through the day of Pentecost. It is the most joyous and celebrative season of the Christian year. It focuses on Christ;s resurrection and ascension and on the givings of the Holy Spirit on the first Easter (John 20:22-23) and the Day of Pentecost ( Acts 2). Lessons from the Acts of the Apostles replace readings from the Old testament because the eaarly church, empowered by the Holy Spirit, is the best witness to the resurrection. The ancient Christian name for this festival is Pasch, derived from the Hebrew pesah ("deliverance' or "passover"), thus connecting the Resurrection to the Exodus. The origin of the English word Easter is disputed but may come from the Anglo-Saxon spring goddess Eastre and her festival. Pentecost comes from the Greek pentekoste, which means "fiftieth." It refers to the Jewish Feast of Weeks, which Greek-speaking Jews called the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1). Early Christians aslo used the term Pentecost to refer to the Great Fifty Days as a season.

Ways in Which We Celebrate During the Easter Season

The Flowering Easter Cross: On Palm Sunday we place a wooden cross covered with chicken wire in the church yard. On Good Friday we drape the cross with a black cloth. On Easter Sunday, we have buckets of flowers around the base of the cross. As people arrive at church they take flowers from the bucket and place them in the chicken wire that surrounds the cross. The instrument of death is transformed into a beautiful statement of life.

Another Easter Tradition is a cantata performed by our choir on either Easter Sunday or Palm Sunday. If a full cantata isn't performed, then several special Easter pieces are sung.

On one of the Sundays during Easter we typically celebrate Holy Communion.

On Pentecost Sunday, the last Sunday in the season of Easter, we celebrate with Holy Communion, and also by getting the congregation to wear red. Red is a color symbolic of the flames of the Holy Spirit that descended on the believers that were gathered in the upper room.

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