Jesus rose from the dead and is the Lord. For Christians, Easter marks the celebration of this, their most fundamental belief. The joyous Easter season is preceded by the somber preparatory period of Lent. A myriad of rituals and customs are observed as we prepare for Easter yet we are sometimes unaware of their origins. Our modern rituals are historically significant and, not surprisingly, rooted in the Jewish tradition.

Lent is the forty-day period beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending on the Wednesday of Holy Week, excluding Sundays. The length of Lent is no coincidence. In the early Church, Lent evolved around the theme of adult baptism. An essential element of a candidate’s preparation for baptism at the Easter Vigil consisted of fasting. Gradually, the Lenten fast, an act of cleansing or purification, became linked with the number forty. Jesus fasted for forty days in the desert, Moses prayed for forty days on Mount Sinai and the Israelites wandered for forty years in the desert. Later, as infant baptisms became customary, Christians continued to prepare for Easter by fasting for forty days.

On Ash Wednesday, palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday are burned and the ashes placed on the foreheads of the parishioners. To the ancient Hebrews, placement of ashes on the forehead was an act of penance. For early Christians, this ritual was practiced to expel public sinners from the community. These penitents were expelled from the community for the forty days of Lent in imitation of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise and were reminded that the penalty for sin was death (“Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return”, Genesis 3:19). Over time, the emphasis shifted from public to private sin. Thus, Ash Wednesday rituals were adopted in a mitigated form by all members of the parish.

The six weeks of Lent culminate with Holy Week. On Palm Sunday, now called Passion Sunday, the liturgy begins with the blessing of palms followed by the gospel account of Jesus’ triumphant return to Jerusalem. The theme then changes radically with the reading of His passion and death. Palm Sunday, then, primarily celebrates the beginning of Jesus’ passage from life to death to new life, the Paschal Mystery.

"Paschal" is a Hebrew word meaning “passing by” and evolved into “Passover”. The greatest of all Jewish feasts, it commemorates God saving the Israelites from slavery. The angel of death struck the first born of the Egyptians but “passed over” the chosen people. It was during the annual Jewish Passover that Jesus “passed through” suffering and death into new life.

Holy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper, the institution of the Holy Eucharist. As part of the ritual, a ceremonial washing of feet occurs imitating an act of humility and service by Jesus. This rather joyful liturgy begins in the evening approximating the time of the actual supper. At the end of the service, the alter table is stripped, symbolic of Jesus being stripped before crucifixion, setting the tone for Good Friday.

Good Friday, of course, is the anniversary of the death of Jesus. It is the only day of the year that the Eucharist is not celebrated. The Eucharist received during Good Friday services is consecrated on Holy Thursday. Instead, the rituals performed consist of Scripture readings, adoration of the cross and prayers that reflect upon His suffering and death.

The Easter Vigil, the primary celebration of Easter, is the most important ritual of the year. In the early Church, a vigil or “watch” was observed because Jesus rose from the dead during the dark hours of the first day of the week, Sunday. Furthermore, it was commonly believed that the risen Lord would return during the night hours of the Easter Vigil. It was natural that all would be waiting, as His return would mark the end of time. Today during each Mass, we still proclaim "Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again."

The rituals of the modern Easter Vigil echo that of the early centuries, except for the service of light, adopted centuries later. It begins with the new fire and lighting of the Paschal candle followed by Scripture readings and prayers. Then, the theme changes into one of baptism, especially of adults. Finally, the Eucharist is shared by all including those newly baptized.

Easter Sunday follows the theme of the Easter Vigil: Jesus is raised from the dead and is the Lord! This day did not exist in the early Church because what we celebrate as Easter occurred during the night preceding the dawn on Sunday. In this sense, Easter Sunday is the first day after Easter and marks the beginning of the fifty-day Easter season.