It's probably appropriate that we consider the reason for the current holiday period.

Nineteen hundred and ninety years ago (give or take) and around this time of the year, the Roman occupying force in Israel decided to execute a troublesome though largely unknown Jew. They scourged him with their usual brutality and then took him to a hill nearby, nailed him through the wrists to a crossbeam and through the ankles to a support beam and set the lot up for display, along with a couple of other 'criminals', 'pour encourager les autres'.

This Jew didn't last long and apparently died on his cross (it was likely more like a 'T') pretty quickly. Thereafter he was removed and given to his entourage for disposal. They wrapped the body as was the custom and placed in a tomb (cave) with a large rock placed at the entrance.

That all of the above happened is reasonably certain. Thereafter the story becomes controversial.

Returning to the scene a day or two later they discover that the rock has moved and the body gone. According to some accounts, they see a a man, or two men or two angels, who advise that the Jew is risen but will meet his followers later in Galilee.

And with that, one of the most consequential events in human history happened. Believing or not, it's undeniable that the world and world history changed dramatically as a result of those events 1990 years ago.

That's what the current celebrations are about.

Good Morning mhaze,

To my grand kids Easter is about delicious chocolate
Easter eggs, cute Easter bunnies, traditional food,
Easter egg hunts and a time when we exchange chocolate
and enjoy a holiday. To other people I suspect its a
time when they enjoy a break and spend time with their
family and friends - camping, going away and so on.

To Christians its celebrating the Resurrection of Christ.

So I guess it all depends on your personal and cultural
beliefs. When I asked a Greek friend of mine when
Easter was more important to him than Christmas he
said - Anybody can be born, but only God can rise from
the dead.

We live in a post-Cbristian era, where Bunnings think Easter is strictly for DIY "projects" and buying stuff from them. People kill themselves and others on the roads, travelling ridiculous distances in the time available. Hot Cross buns are available months before Easter. Whack jobs tell us we should stop saying Easter Eggs and call them 'seasonal chocolates'. Most people don't give a toss about the meaning of Easter.

"That all of the above happened is reasonably certain"

The fact of Christs crucifixion is reasonably certain. What is not certain is the Christen account of how it was carried out, their account is at odds with a traditional Roman crucifixion. The idea all was done in a day, and Christ was dead and removed from the cross all in the same day, would be very unusual for the time. The Romans were very big on example.

"In Roman-style crucifixion, the condemned took days to die slowly from suffocation—caused by the condemned’s blood-supply slowly draining away to a quantity insufficient to supply the required oxygen to vital organs. The dead body was left up for vultures and other birds to consume."

"The goal of Roman crucifixion was not just to kill the criminal, but also to mutilate and dishonor the body of the condemned. In ancient tradition, an honorable death required burial; leaving a body on the cross, so as to mutilate it and prevent its burial, was a grave dishonor."

What happened to Christ after his crucifixion. and much of the before and during, is most likely pure theatre concocted by St Paul and his followers some time later to establish the religion of Christianity. The St James (brother of Jesus) Jerusalem Christians do not speak of a resurrection at all. After Christs death the Jerusalem Christians remained a sect within orthodox Judaism, believing strongly in the exclusion of gentiles from the faith. St James was a leading member, and regular speaker within the established Jewish Sanhedrin until his assassination, which was orchestrated by other factional leaders within the Sanhedrin in about 62AD.

cont

cont

St Paul who never knew Christ, but claimed he was the greatest apostle of all, even greater than the original 12, who only knew the earthly Jesus, but he spoke directly to the heavenly Jesus through dreams and apparitions. St James did not hold with St Paul's notion of Christianity, and there was open hostility between the two when they did meet. Paul offered James money to smooth things over, but things got out of hand, and the last straw for James was when Paul declared himself a Roman citizen, and came under the protection of Rome. Unfortunately for the Jerusalem Christians after the death of James they melted back into Judaism, whilst Paul went on to found a universal religion in Christianity. Like all Pauls, St Paul was a good bloke and Christians today should be thankful for his perseverance in establishing their religion for them, myths and all.

The big break for Christianity came in the fourth century when Emperor Constantine converted, some say he didn't actually convert until he was on his death bed, there is a story behind his conversion, winning some battle after praying to the Christian God on the insistence of his wife who was dabbling in Christianity at the time, but no matter Christians should be thankful Constantine won the battle. Constantine freed Christians from persecution and declared tolerance of the religion in 313AD, but that had been very much the case for the past couple of hundred years anyway Constantine did set up the First Nicene Council in 325AD, which formalised Christian belief through the Nicene Creed based of the doctrine of St Paul, which worked well with the Romans, I sure nothing was included in the Creed that Constantine would have disagreed with, and it made Christianity inclusive within the Roman Empire.

BTW; Constantine crucified lots of people.