Easter is the celebration of the day of the Resurrection. It is the greatest and oldest feast in the Christian calendar. Especially for the Orthodox, there is no greater feast than Easter including the feast of the Nativity (Christmas), which in the Western Church appears to be the chief feast of their ecclesiastical calendar. The reasons for the preeminence of Easter among the Orthodox are many, all based on a particular passage of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, "if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain" ( 15:14). Characteristic of the importance of the Resurrection for the Orthodox is the fact that Easter is also called in Greek 'Lampri', the brightest day of all. The Resurrection light that is brought to the Orthodox home from the midnight service of the Resurrection is taken to be the visible symbol of a new life in the resurrected Christ, a life of joy after the sorrow of the Cross. And though the Passion is observed with the depth and significance it befits the supreme sacrifice of Christ, it is His Resurrection that seals the redemption issuing from the Cross. Without it, the Orthodox feel, the divide drama would have remained unfulfilled in terms of the experience of human life by which a triumphant katharsis must follow all sacrifices including that on Golgotha. Every Sunday Liturgy of the year is devoted to the Resurrection rather than to the suffering Christ. Hence the joyful tone of the Orthodox Eucharist and the underlying victory against the forces of evil implied in the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. In this respect, the etymology of Pascha claimed by some as deriving from the Greek verb 'paschein' (to suffer) is erroneous. The name Pascha is merely the approximate rendering by sound of the Hebrew name for Passover.

The English word "Easter" is not a biblical word. It is thought to be a translation of the name of the Anglo-Saxon spring goddess, "Eostre". In any case, it is an English word which is used today to translate the Greek term 'Pascha', which translates the Hebrew term for 'Passover'. The Christian Church transformed the Jewish Passover, which commemorated the freeing of the Hebrew people from Egyptian bondage into a feast which commemorated the death and resurrection of Christ which freed humanity from the bondage of death, sin and evil.

We do not have a command from Jesus to celebrate the Paschal Feast. But the Bible clearly indicates the New Testament belief that Christ is the New Pascha for believers in Him, and that this is to be celebrated by Christians:

"For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival ..."
(I Corinthians 5:7).

Thus the celebration of Christ's Resurrection became the first Christian Feast - the Christian Pascha.

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