There's something about spring that causes the juices to start flowing. The sap rises in trees, and suddenly the apparently dead limbs bud and produce leaves. The hormones start flowing, and young men's fancies turn to thoughts of love. The almond trees burst into bloom. The bears sleepily emerge from hibernation. All of nature seems to awaken from a winter sleep and begins life anew. Not only does nature put on a parade, but in Paris, London, New York and other cities ladies don their spring finery and fancy hats to parade up and down the avenues. The spring equinox on March 21 marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring, and despite the dire predictions of certain groundhogs, we know that summertime is just around the corner. Because of the tilt of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbital rotation about the sun, the sun appears to move south for six months and then back north again in an endless annual cycle. March 21 is one of the dates when the sun crosses the equator at high noon, and day and night are the same length; hence the term "equinox" meaning equal night.
The Easter parade began many centuries ago, around 2,000 BC, with the dawn of post-diluvian civilizations and the worship of pagan gods in ancient Babylon and later in ancient Anglo-Saxon cultures. The word Easter is derived from the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn, Eostre. At the time of the spring equinox an annual festival was held in her honor. It was thought that she had prevailed on the sun god to return. The ruins of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, England stand today as a testimony to the spiritual significance of this event in Druid culture. Massive stones were erected in two concentric circles in precise design so as to mark significant days in the Druid's calendar. A headstone was placed so that the rising sun would appear at the top of one of the stones at the time of the summer solstice when viewed from the headstone. Other stones were placed to mark the two equinoxes and tradition tells us that the Druids danced naked to celebrate these events. This was the forerunner of Easter sunrise services. The Easter parade also includes customs from other cultures; Easter bunnies and colored eggs come from antiquity as symbols of new life and fertility.
The Christian world joined the Easter parade in AD 325 when the Council of Nicaea declared that the resurrection of Christ be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. Depending on the phases of the moon this can occur as early as March 22 and as late as April 25. Part of the parade is the observance of Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Lent, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and of course Resurrection Sunday. Due to the pressures of political correctness and public relations expediency, there has been a gradual, and today almost complete capitulation of the Protestant churches in joining the "Easter parade."
