CHRIST'S RESURRECTION is the most important day of the church year. Easter Sunday varies from year to year because the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.) determined that it would be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. There are two times during the year when the length of day and night are equal: the vernal equinox and autumnal equinox. The word "Easter" is probably derived from the Goddess of Spring, Eostre.
Many churches hold an annual Easter sunrise service. This comes from the fact that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary first learned of Christ's resurrection at dawn on the first day of the week. Matthew 28:1
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Christian Churches commonly fill their altars and surround their crosses with masses of Easter lilies to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus and the hope of life everlasting. In the Old Testament, the lily is associated with Christ in the Song of Songs passages ("I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.") and Hosea, through whom God promises a resurrection to Israel if the nation repents. The reference reads: " I will heal their waywardness and love them freely...Israel will blossom like a lily." Lilies are said to have been found growing in the garden of Gethsemane after Christ's night of agony. Tradition indicates that the beautiful white lilies sprang up where drops of Christ's perspiration fell to the ground in his final hours of sorrow and distress.
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