Fact-check log

Every sourced claim on this site, with the page it was checked against on 14 November 2026. We quote Encyclopaedia Britannica article bodies, not any "Ask Anything" or "Top Questions" boxes. Wikipedia is not used as a source.

• Easter, Latin Pascha and Greek Pascha, is the principal festival of the Christian church, which celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his Crucifixion. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• The Resurrection is a central doctrine of Christianity and forms the basis of salvation and the hope of eternal life. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• The earliest recorded observance of an Easter celebration comes from the 2nd century, though the commemoration of Jesus' Resurrection probably occurred earlier. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• Fixing the date triggered a major controversy in early Christianity, known as the Paschal controversies, which was not definitively resolved until the 8th century. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• In Asia Minor, Christians observed the day of the Crucifixion on the same day that Jews celebrated the Passover offering, on the 14th day of the first full moon of spring, 14 Nisan. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• In the West the Resurrection of Jesus was celebrated on the first day of the week, Sunday, and Easter was always celebrated on the first Sunday after the 14th day of the month of Nisan. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• The churches increasingly opted for the Sunday celebration, and the Quartodecimans ("14th day" proponents) remained a minority. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• The Council of Nicaea in 325 decreed that Easter should be observed on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox (March 21). Britannica Scholars: Easter
• Easter, therefore, can fall on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• Eastern Orthodox churches use a slightly different calculation based on the Julian rather than the Gregorian calendar, with the result that the Orthodox Easter celebration usually occurs later than that celebrated by Protestants and Roman Catholics. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• Moreover, the Orthodox tradition prohibits Easter from being celebrated before or at the same time as Passover. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• In the 20th century several attempts were made to arrive at a fixed date for Easter, with the Sunday following the second Saturday in April specifically proposed. While this proposal and others had many supporters, none came to fruition. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• Renewed interest in a fixed date arose in the early 21st century, from discussions involving the leaders of Eastern Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, Coptic, Anglican, and Roman Catholic churches, but formal agreement on such a date remained elusive. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• The English word Easter, which parallels the German word Ostern, is of uncertain origin. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• One view, expounded by the Venerable Bede in the 8th century, was that it derived from Eostre, or Eostrae, an Anglo-Saxon goddess possibly associated with spring and fertility. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• Given the determination with which Christians combated all forms of paganism, Britannica calls the idea that Christians appropriated pagan names and holidays for their highest festivals a rather dubious presumption. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• There is now widespread consensus that the word derives from the Christian designation of Easter week as in albis, a Latin phrase that was understood as the plural of alba ("dawn") and became eostarum in Old High German. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• The Latin and Greek Pascha ("Passover") provides the root for Paques, the French word for Easter. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• In the Christian calendar, Easter follows Lent, the period of 40 days (not counting Sundays) before Easter, which traditionally is observed by acts of penance and fasting. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• Easter is immediately preceded by Holy Week, which includes Maundy Thursday, the commemoration of Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples; Good Friday, the day of his Crucifixion; and Holy Saturday, the transition between Crucifixion and Resurrection. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• Liturgically, Easter comes after the Great Vigil, which was originally observed sometime between sunset on Easter Saturday and sunrise on Easter Sunday. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• The use of the Paschal candle, to denote the appearance of light out of darkness through the Resurrection, was first recorded in the year 384; by the 10th century it had gained general usage. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• The Easter sunrise service is a distinctive Protestant observance in North America. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• The custom of the Easter lamb appropriates both the appellation used for Jesus in Scripture ('Here is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!' John 1:29) and the lamb's role as a sacrificial animal in ancient Israel. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• Since the 12th century the Lenten fast has ended on Easter with meals including eggs, ham, cheeses, bread, and sweets that have been blessed for the occasion. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• The use of painted and decorated Easter eggs was first recorded in the 13th century. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• The church prohibited the eating of eggs during Holy Week, but chickens continued to lay eggs during that week, and the notion of specially identifying those as "Holy Week" eggs brought about their decoration. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• The egg itself became a symbol of the Resurrection: just as Jesus rose from the tomb, the egg symbolizes new life emerging from the eggshell. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• In the Orthodox tradition eggs are painted red to symbolize the blood Jesus shed on the cross. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• The custom of associating a rabbit or bunny with Easter arose in Protestant areas in Europe in the 17th century but did not become common until the 19th century. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• In the United States the Easter bunny also leaves children baskets with toys and candies on Easter morning. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• In some European countries other animals brought the Easter eggs: in Switzerland the cuckoo, in Westphalia the fox. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• First lady Lucy Hayes, the wife of Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes, is often credited with sponsoring the first annual Easter egg roll on the White House lawn, in 1878. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• Some historical records note that the Hayes first opened the White House lawn to egg rolling festivities the following year, in 1877, after a young boy asked President Hayes directly for permission to use the space. Britannica Scholars: Easter
• In many churches Easter is preceded by a season of prayer, abstinence, and fasting called Lent, observed in memory of the 40 days' fast of Jesus in the desert. Britannica Students: Easter
• Holy Week begins with Palm, or Passion, Sunday, which celebrates the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. Britannica Students: Easter
• Britannica Students says that in some European countries other animals brought the Easter eggs: in Switzerland the cuckoo, in northwestern Germany the fox. Britannica Students: Easter
• The egg was a widely used premodern and pre-Christian symbol of fertility and restoration. Britannica Scholars: Easter eggs
• The tradition of dyeing and decorating Easter eggs is ancient, and its origin is obscure, but it has been practiced in both the Eastern Orthodox and the Western churches since the Middle Ages. Britannica Scholars: Easter eggs
• In the United States, the White House Easter Egg Roll has been held, with some interruptions, on the Monday following Easter since 1878. Britannica Scholars: Easter eggs
• Celebrations of the Resurrection of Christ date to the 2nd century ce and possibly earlier. Britannica Scholars: Easter bunny
• Despite Bede's theory and the similarity between the words Eostre and Easter, they do not share etymological roots. Britannica Scholars: Easter bunny
• In the modern era the connection between Eostre, spring, and the hare has been disputed; she may have been a local protective deity rather than a fertility figure. Britannica Scholars: Easter bunny
• English accounts from the 17th century report hunting for the Easter hare and eating its meat as part of the holy day's feast. Britannica Scholars: Easter bunny
• German records of the same era describe children hunting for eggs hidden by the Easter hare (Osterhase). Britannica Scholars: Easter bunny
• German immigrants to Pennsylvania in the 18th century are credited with bringing to the United States the tradition of an Easter hare that lays and hides eggs. Britannica Scholars: Easter bunny
• In 1969 the official White House Easter Bunny made its first appearance at the Easter Egg Roll when a staffer of First Lady Pat Nixon donned a giant white rabbit costume. Britannica Scholars: Easter bunny
• Holy Week, in the Christian church, is the week between Palm Sunday and Easter, observed with special solemnity as a time of devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week
• Marked by distinctive liturgies, processions, observances, and acts of reflection that vary across Christian traditions, the week serves as the most sacred period of the liturgical year. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week
• Holy Saturday commemorates Christ's burial and his triumphant descent into hell. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week
• Originally, only Good Friday and Holy Saturday were observed as holy days. Later, Wednesday was added, and by the beginning of the 3rd century the other days of the week had been added as holy days. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week
• By the later 4th century the practice had begun of separating the various events of the final week of Jesus' life and commemorating them on the days on which they occurred. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week
• The name Holy Week was used in the 4th century by St. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, and St. Epiphanius of Constantia. In the Greek and Roman liturgical books, it is called the Great Week. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week
• In Eastern churches, Holy Week is preceded by Lazarus Saturday, which celebrates the raising of Lazarus of Bethany and marks the end of Great Lent. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week
• In 2016 the Holy Week observances in the Roman Missal were revised, in a decree issued by Pope Francis, to allow women and girls to participate in the foot-washing ritual on Maundy Thursday. Prior to this decree, the ritual was restricted to men and boys. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week
• It is still uncertain when Christians first began to make an annual (as opposed to a weekly) memorial of the death and resurrection of Christ. Church of England: Passiontide
• This Pascha (a word derived indirectly from pesach, Hebrew 'Passover') was at first a night-long vigil, followed by the celebration of the Eucharist at cock-crow. Church of England: Passiontide
• The procession with palms, which was already observed in Jerusalem in the fourth century, is accompanied by the reading or singing of the Passion Narrative. Church of England: Passiontide
• Maundy Thursday (from mandatum, 'commandment', because of the use of John 13.34 in the Antiphon) contains themes of humble Christian service expressed through Christ's washing of his disciples' feet, the institution of the Eucharist, and the agony of Gethsemane. Church of England: Passiontide
• The veneration of the Cross is older; the sequence of meditations and music known as the Three Hours' Devotion was introduced into the Church of England in the nineteenth century. Church of England: Passiontide
• It is a widespread custom for there not to be a celebration of the Eucharist on Good Friday, but for the consecrated bread and wine remaining from the Maundy Thursday Eucharist to be given in communion. Church of England: Passiontide
• The church remains stripped of all decoration through the following day, which is a day without a liturgy: there can be no adequate way of recalling the being dead of the Son of God, other than silence and desolation. Church of England: Passiontide
• The Church of England notes that the services and ceremonies of Holy Week have in the course of Christian history been the occasion of, or have actively encouraged, hostility towards the Jews, and that this places a double responsibility on those who lead the keeping of Holy Week today: to be faithful to the act of collective memory, but also to be sensitive to the ways in which an unreflecting use of traditional texts can perpetuate a strain of Christian anti-Semitism. Church of England: Passiontide
• The World Council of Churches states that the Council of Nicaea established that the date of Easter would be the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox. World Council of Churches
• The Orthodox churches still use the Julian calendar to calculate the vernal equinox and the full moon that follows it, which is why they calculate a different date. World Council of Churches
• At present, the Julian calendar is running 13 days "slow" of the Gregorian; by the year 2100, the difference will be 14 days. World Council of Churches
• The gap between the two Easters is different every year. It can be as much as five weeks. World Council of Churches
• Culture Vannin says a breakfast of flitters is what you need on Good Friday, cooked in their own shells to avoid using any iron on this day. Culture Vannin: Flitters
• The Manx tradition for the morning of Good Friday is the eating of flitters. These shellfish (known as 'limpets' in England) are caught from the rocks and cooked there on the shore. Culture Vannin: Flitters
• No iron should be used at all in the fire this day (in recognition of the nails used to put Jesus on the cross), and so the flitters should be cooked in their own shells in the embers of the fire, and eaten using sticks. Culture Vannin: Flitters
• The shells are then thrown into the sea with the Manx invocation, 'Gow shoh as bannee orrin' ('Take this and bless us'), before performing the Flitter Dance over the embers of the fire. Culture Vannin: Flitters
• Culture Vannin also describes the curious tradition of visiting the beach after sunrise on Good Friday to prise flitters from the rocks. Culture Vannin: Singing for your supper
• They were baked in their shells over a fire made from mychurachan (flotsam and jetsam) and eaten with barley cake and milk. Culture Vannin: Singing for your supper
• The remnants were thrown into the sea while a charm or prayer was recited, and the party would then perform a processional dance, stamping out the embers of the fire. The Flitter Dance was collected by Mona Douglas in the 1930s, and it is still performed today, although not usually on the beach. Culture Vannin: Singing for your supper
• Timeanddate gives Easter Sunday 2027 in the United Kingdom as Sunday, 28 March 2027. Timeanddate: Easter Sunday UK
• In the UK, traditional Easter meals include roast lamb, Simnel cake, and hot cross buns. Timeanddate: Easter Sunday UK
• Although Easter Sunday is not a bank holiday in the United Kingdom, Good Friday and Easter Monday are bank holidays in most parts of the UK, although Easter Monday is not observed as a bank holiday in Scotland. Timeanddate: Easter Sunday UK
• Timeanddate notes that the monarch takes part in the Maundy Thursday ceremony, distributing Maundy money in a centuries-old Holy Week custom. Timeanddate: Easter Sunday UK