Marilyn's Photos - April 5 2026 - Easter Through the Ages
Easter is so important to the Roman Catholic Church and similar Western religious organizations. There were services every day during last week's Holy Week. I wonder if the Easter message has changed through the ages. That's a few thousand years for evolution. So I cracked the AI Encyclopedia spine to find out.
Early Christian Era - 1st to 4th century - astonishment and triumph: He is not here: He is risen - Luke. The Paschal Greeting of He is risen, the resurrection as a victory over death, linked to baptism, and the dyeing of eggs red to represent the blood of Christ.
Medieval Period - 5th - 15th centuries - Christ's victor is now over the hellmouth conquering death and Satan, Lenten fasting, and a ritual of light and dark with services held in darkness with one candle.
Early Modern Period - 16th - 18th centuries - Luck of Easter and new passover with Christ the Paschal Lamb sacrificed to bring new life...
19th Century - present - Rebirth and renewal - Spring, new geinnings, older traditions like the Easter Bunny (fertility) and the Easter Lily (purity). Global hope - peace, resurrection hope and person fresh starts for believers, and cultural expressions like egg hunts symbolizing the search for the empty tomb.
Easter messages are not a major deal the way Christmas messages are. Christmas is family, hope, charity, joy, goodwill, whereas Easter is resurrection, renewal, triumph and political peace.So the big messenger should be the Pope. And that was the case this year - he gave an Urbi et Orbi - a pope's most solemn apostolic blessing. These are reserved for special times.
The next most religious message is Donald Trump's wavy greeting 'Happy Easter to all, may God bless you, may God bless the United States of America.' This is backed up by the White House website message that looks to be written by a Christian Evangelist. Other leaders had little to say. King Charles has no Easter message this year so had to give in with a social media post. Mark Carney did not release a specific Easter Message.
My big surprise, along the way, was this website - BBC News PIDGIN HERE. The title is Christmas messages from leaders around di world and subheadline:
As millions of pipo around di world dey celebrate Christmas day wit dia families and friends, leaders around di world don drop messages. See some of di messages from ogbonge leaders across di world.
These are not typos - this turns out to be a BBC news service in West African Pidgin English that was launched in 2017. It is a real site, rather than a parody. Go check it out.
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