EASTER
By : RaNay Casper
Easter celebrates Jesus Christ ' s resurrection from the dead . This is Christianity ’ s most important holiday . It is called a moveable feast because it doesn ’ t fall on a set date of every year . Christian churches in the West celebrate Easter on the first Sunday following the full moon after the Equinox on March 21st . Therefore , Easter is usually anywhere between March 22nd and April 25th every year . Christians use the Julian calendar to calculate when Easter will occur and celebrate the holiday for a week or two . The exact origins of this religious feast day ’ s name are unknown . Some people claim that the word Easter comes from Eostre , a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility . Other people say Easter is derived from the Latin term hebdomada alba , or “ white week ,” an ancient reference to Easter week and the white clothing donned by people who were baptized during that time . Through a translation error , the term later appeared as esostarum in Old High German , which eventually became Easter in English . In Spanish , Easter in known as Pascua ; in Latin Pascha or Pasch , for Passover .
SOURCE : http :// www . history . com / topics / holidays / history-of-easter
APRIL FOOLS ! By : Amanda McClain
April 1st is a day that we now call April Fool ’ s Day . On this day in the 1700s , the English Pranksters started a holiday by playing jokes on each other . This day is also called All Fools ’ Day , and has been celebrated in many different cultures . However , they are not sure on how this had actually originated . One theory is that it started back in 1582 , when France had switched the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar . People who didn ’ t get the news or who were too slow to get the news about the start of the New Year being moved to January 1st continued to celebrate it at the last week of March to the first of April . In earlier times , people sometimes went pretty far to celebrate April Fools ’ Day . In 1957 , some reporters reported that a group of Swiss farmers had conveyed that they were experiencing a record-breaking spaghetti crop . They had many pictures of people harvesting noodles from trees . Many people were actually fooled by this silly hoax . At another time , the restaurant Burger King played a pretty good trick on their customers . They advertised a “ left-Handed Whopper ,” and many customers thought it was real and came to try it out . As you can see , there are many ways that April Fools is celebrated , but nowadays there is only one “ right ” way- and that is playing tricks on your friends and family !
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