Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring and marks the resurrection of Jesus. In Italy, Easter Sunday is a day for family gatherings and meals while Easter Monday is considered a day for friends to relax and picnic together. Common Easter symbols like eggs, lambs, and doves have both Christian meanings related to Jesus' resurrection as well as pagan origins associated with new life in spring.

1. PASQUA
EASTER
๑ DOMENICA DI PASQUA
EASTER SUNDAY
๑ PASQUETTA
EASTER MONDAY
๑ SIMBOLI DI PASQUA
EASTER SYMBOLS
Istituto Comprensivo ‘L. Montini’ – Campobasso – Italy
Classes 3C and 3F
School year 2007 - 2008

2. DOMENICA DI PASQUA
EASTER SUNDAY
Easter is called a moveable feast because its date changes every year. We
celebrate it on the first Sunday following the first full moon of spring, so it can
fall on any date from March 22 to April 25. At first it was a pagan celebration of
the spring rebirth and new life and later on it has become a Christian celebration
of the resurrection of Jesus.
Italians consider Easter Sunday to be a more "relaxed" holiday than Christmas
as it is merely an excuse to take a long weekend. We have in fact, the old saying
Natale con I tuoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi ‘Christmas at home with your family,
Easter with whomever you please’.
Easter has its own symbols and a mixture of rites. Mass at midnight on Holy
Saturday, or on Easter morning. Then there is a family gathering for the rest of
the day, which means a big traditional meal. Since Easter is the end of the Lent
season, food plays a big part in the celebrations. No Easter table would be
complete without eggs, lamb and bread. Hollow chocolate eggs, often with a gift
inside, are traditionally exchanged and opened at the end of the dinner.

3. PASQUETTA
EASTER MONDAY
Easter Monday, called Pasquetta or Lunedì dell’Angelo, celebrates the rising of
Christ announced by the Angel to the women rushed to the sepulchre.
This day is a public holiday, introduced by the Italian State after World War II to
extend the Easter holiday. Cities empty out: all shops, stores, banks, public
transportation and services, offices, bars, tobacconists and newsstands are closed.
If Easter is a family day, Easter Monday is a day for friends to eat and relax…to
recover from all the family stress of Easter The picnic with friends, less formal
than the family gathering, was and still is a well-established tradition everywhere.
If the weather is good, people go to the countryside, to the mountain or to the
beach. The place each group of friends chooses, changes from one year to another,
depending on their mood of the moment.

4. SIMBOLI DI PASQUA
EASTER
The traditional Christian symbols of Easter have pagan origins.
The egg has always represented a mysterious object from which life originates. In
ancient times it was a symbol of fertility and rebirth of the earth. To Christians it
represented the rebirth of Christ. Throughout the centuries, eggs have been
associated with Easter celebrations. It is a widespread custom to give and receive
l’uovo di Pasqua, ‘the chocolate egg’. During the Eastertide bars, pastry shops and
supermarkets display plain or milk chocolate eggs of all sizes and styles. Some are
sugar-decorated, sold 'natural', without a wrapper, others have brightly-coloured
foil wrappers, ribbons, bows and flowers. Most of them contain a surprise.
Once people used hard-boiled coloured eggs: they were handed out to worshippers
after their blessing. Early Christians used red coloured eggs to symbolize the
Resurrection.
The dove or colomba is considered the symbol of peace in memory of the end of the
Flood, when it went back to Noah holding in its beak an olive branch.
The lamb, sacrificed for Passover of the Jewish tradition, to Christians
signifies Christ‘s death on the cross.