Lively Easter holiday - in the electronic resources of the Presidential Library

On April 16, 2017, the entire Christian world will celebrate Easter, the most essential religious holiday. Shortly before this day, the Presidential Library offers its readers numerous rare materials dedicated to Lord’s Resurrection day.

“The feast of the Resurrection of Christ is called Passover (from the Jewish “pesach,” which means passing by), named after the Old Testament holiday, established in memory of the deliverance of the Jews from Egyptian slavery. In accordance with remembered on this holiday episode of the resurrection of Christ, the name Easter in the Christian Orthodox Church has obtained a special meaning and began to denote the transition from death to life, from the earth to heaven,” - thereof is the history of the origin of the holiday’s name according to 1910 year edition of Holy Week: (Great Monday, Great Tuesday, Great Wednesday, Sheer Thursday, Good Friday, Great Saturday) and Easter.

In the first centuries of Christianity, Easter was not always celebrated at the same time. “In the East, in the churches in Malaysia, it was celebrated on the 14th day of the spring month, no matter what day of the week this date occurred. While Western Christians, considering it indecent to celebrate Easter together with the Jews, committed it on the first Sunday after the spring full moon. Two different customs existed up to 1 Universe Council (in 325), at which the decision was taken to celebrate Easter everywhere on the first Sunday of the Easter full moon, so that the Christian Passover would always be celebrated after the Jewish one,” – according to the above-mentioned book Passionate Week and Easter. Only in the fifth century the name “Easter” became common for the holiday of the Resurrection of Christ.

The biblical story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is presented in an electronic copy of the rare edition of 1888 Friend of the people: collected religious and ethical articles for discussing with the people. In the same edition we will find numerous stories about the amazing occurrences that happened on Easter days in Russia of the XIX century. Among the episodes with the healing of hopelessly sick, there are, sometimes, such as the following: “In a monastery guided by reverend Monk Paphnutius of Borovsk, once on the 1st day of Easter, unhappily for the entire brotherhood, there was no fish food at all. Paphnutius, in consolation to them, said: “Do not grieve, the all-merciful Lord will give and generously to those who afraid of Him.” And right after that, the sexton who came to the flooded river to draw water for the Divine Service noticed in the water such a thick shoal of fish that, after extracting them with the fishing nets, it were so many of them that enough for the entire Easter week for the complete brotherhood. It is remarkable that this fish has ever been in such a multitude neither before, nor after that Easter.”

In presented on the Presidential Library website rare, dedicated to the Easter festivities, books, there is the one with the history of the emergence of certain essential traditions. Thus, the 1892 edition of the Twelve great feasts of the Christian Orthodox Church or the Parterre of the Church Garden tells about the procession on Sunday night: “They go eastward around the temple and reach the west, where they stop in the porch of the church. Here, on behalf of the clerics, for the first time the prayer’s ears hear a sweet song – “Christ is Risen!” In the surrounding nature, at this time, there is still a deep darkness of the night… Thus, The Myrrhophores on the first day of the week (the day of the Resurrection of Christ) very early, when it was still “dark,” came to the tomb of their Teacher Jesus Christ with prepared fragrances, and here their ears heard a joyful Angelic greeting: “Christ has Risen!”

Easter tradition to exchange colored eggs with each other has in the book the following explanation: “Mary Magdalene went to Rome to announce the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ to Caesar Tiberias and, as a sign of her joy, gave him a red egg… It can be assumed that the Equal-Apostles Mary expressed with it her faith in the resurrection of all the dead: everyone knows that an alive, beautiful chick is hatched from the egg; such as, in due time, our body will rise from the grave and live forever with the soul with which it lived on the Earth. And the red egg reminds us of that precious blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which he shed on the cross for the sake of godless us.”

The Easter holiday is presented in the Presidential Library's stock not only in rare editions of the XIX – the early XX century. You can also find here digitized colorful postcards from different countries, rare newsreels dedicated to the celebration of Christ's Resurrection, and other interesting materials.