EASTER

This weekend some Americans celebrate the Christian holiday of Easter. Easter is when Christians celebrate the life of Jesus and what they believe was his return from the dead.

In America, many children are told stories about the Easter Bunny. He is said to hide eggs, chocolates and other sweets, for children to find on Easter morning.

The Easter Bunny tradition probably developed from a German celebration of spring. Germans first settled in North America in the eighteenth century. Eggs are an almost worldwide symbol of fertility and renewal.

​Individual families often organize Easter egg hunts. But egg hunts can also be public gatherings. Every year, on the Monday after Easter, the U.S. president holds an event called the White House Easter Egg Roll.

This is the 137th year the White House has held the event. The President and his wife invite hundreds of children to the White House. They join the children in hunting for eggs, playing games, and reading stories.

Many Christians in America attend religious services on Easter Sunday. Often, these services take place at sunrise.

Churches in France do not ring their bells on the two days before Easter Sunday. The bells are silenced in respect of the death of Jesus. They ring again on Easter Sunday, the day Christians believe he came back to life.

French children are told a story about why the bells are quiet on Friday and Saturday. Parents say the bells have flown to Rome to see the head of the Roman Catholic Church. But on Sunday morning, the bells return and ring again.

Orthodox Christians in America celebrate by blessing food baskets. In Greece, people color hard-boiled eggs and play a game by knocking them together. They eat lamb and party into the late night.