Easter Sunday

On the night from Holy Saturday to Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

This temporal determination arises from the account in the Gospels that the disciples found Jesus' tomb empty on the morning of the third day. Christian liturgies are therefore characterized by rich light symbolism (e.g., candles or torches), which is meant to vividly express that Jesus, through his resurrection, has brought joy and brightness back into the darkness as the "light of the world." From the Easter Vigil onwards, church bells are also rung again in Western Christianity, which had fallen silent from Jesus' "hour of death" on Good Friday. In the communities where the cross was symbolically covered on Good Friday, it is revealed again and presented to the entire congregation.

With Easter Sunday, regionally different customs have become associated. In German-speaking regions, painted Easter eggs are hung on trees or bushes during the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, for example. They were probably colored to indicate that the consumption of eggs was prohibited during the pre-Easter fasting period. Only the uncolored eggs of Easter morning were allowed to be eaten again. From the 17th century onwards, the story of the Easter Bunny seems to have emerged, who brought colored eggs to the children. In the Orthodox churches of the Byzantine tradition, the Easter Bunny plays a different role: they dye the eggs red only on Easter morning to symbolize the blood of Christ, whose resurrection redeems all people from death. In both the Western and Eastern traditions of Christianity, the lamb that is often eaten at Easter serves as a reminder of the Jewish Passover lamb—but with the interpretation that Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross for humanity, just as the Passover lamb commemorates God's redemptive action for the ancient covenant people in Egypt.