The story is told that Steinberg, the artist, struck with the beauty of a gypsy girl, took her to his studio and frequently had her sit for him. At the time he was at his masterpiece, “Christ on the Cross.” The girl used to watch him work on this painting. One day she said to him, “He must have been a very wicked man to be nailed to a cross like that.” “No,” said the painter, “On the contrary, he was a very good man, the best man that ever lived. He died for others.”
   
The little girl looked up at him and asked, “Did he die for you?” Steinberg was not a Christian at the time, but the gypsy girl’s question touched his heart and awakened his conscience and he became a believer in Him whose dying passion he had so well portrayed.

– Eugene A. Hessel

Easter - Early Celebrations

After the Christian Sunday which began on the very first Easter, the festival of Easter is the oldest celebrated by the Christian church. The feeling of the early church was that every Sunday is Easter. When the annual celebration began it was called "the Great Easter." The Great Easter festival is associated with Pascha, as Paul declares "Christ our Passover (pascha) is sacrificed for us" in 1 Corinthians 5:7 (KJV). The earliest observance of Pascha was precisely the anniversary of the original event.

The earliest Easter customs have their roots in the idea of Easter signifying the end of one period and the beginning of another. Easter is the beginning of the New Year for the church. Christ's resurrection brought mankind into a new world, the world of Christianity. For this reason baptism, which signified a new life in Christ, took place only at Easter for the Quartodecimans. The new converts began a fast on the Friday before Easter (Nisan 15). This was not in mourning for the death of Christ, but to prepare themselves spiritually for their death with Christ. On Good Friday they died with Christ and through baptism rose again from the dead with Him to a new Christian life. Thus from its earliest origins, fasting has been associated with Easter.

The period of fasting was gradually increased to the observance of Holy Week. After another period of time the 40 day celebration of Lent was instituted. After Easter arrived, it was celebrated with joy. There was to be no kneeling or fasting for 50 days until Pentecost. Easter is also strongly bound with the celebration of the Last Supper. In 1215 the Lateran Council urged all those who were lax in church attendance to commune on Easter, if at no other time. This was so important that failing to do so could mean excommunication and refusal of Christian burial.

Sources: The Dictionary of Bible and Religion, William Gentz | The Bible Almanac, White
| Easter a Pictorial Pilgrimage - Pierre Benoit |

Easter Quotations

Our life’s a flying shadow, God’s the pole,
The index pointing at Him is our soul;
Death the horizon, when our sun is set,
Which will through Christ a resurrection get.

       — Sun Dial inscription once on the wall of Glasgow Cathedral
   

We bring the atoms of sin to the cross where they are smashed.  

Anonymous

The cross is central. It is stuck into the middle of the world, into the middle of time, into the middle of destiny. The cross is stuck into the heart of God.

Frederick W. Norwood, Today is Mine