4 Lent And Easter Facts You Probably Don’t Know

We're heading into the Lenten and Easter seasons and there are a lot of religious and non-religious things you might not know about this time of the Christian year. We all know that Easter Sunday is when Christ rose from the dead, but why is it that we celebrate with bunnies and painted eggs? And what the heck is up with all the candy?

Here are a few facts about the Lenten and Easter season that explain why Christians celebrate this time of the year the way that we do.

1. Why does the date of Easter move around so much - The reason why Easter moves around the calendar has to do with the Nicean Accord three hundred years ago, the Julian calendar, and the Gregorian calendar. You can read a really long, interesting explanation here, but because of the internet, we never have to do the math as to when Easter will be - we just have to Google it.

2. Easter eggs might symbolize Christ coming out of the tomb - But most likely it was a holdover from pagan spring festivals that celebrate the return of spring. Look, in the early days of Christianity they were trying to get converts so they said, yeah, spring and baby chicks - we'll just say it's Christ being reborn and leave it at that.

3. What is the deal with all the bunnies and baby chicks - Same thing as above. Rebirth, resurrection, it's all the same thing when you're trying to get people to jump over to your religion.

4. Easter eggs part deux - Back in the olden days, eggs were not eaten during Lent, probably because it is considered a luxury food. During Easter week, some people began decorating them to give as gifts on Easter Sunday because the time for fasting and not eating yummy things is over, and that's how we got painted eggs.

So many things to learn, and I promise you, I'm not being flip or disrespectful about the pagan origins of Easter in the Christian church. It's just the facts, man. Happy Easter!