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Critic James A. Keller suggests that the central event in Christian faith, which is the basis of Easter celebrations, can never be fully grasped.

He writes, “All we have is other people’s accounts of what the eyewitnesses purportedly saw, and these accounts are typically sketchy and were written many years later. Thus, the historian who wants to understand what the resurrection event was must use later, sketchy, second-hand accounts of what the eyewitnesses saw, and from these accounts he must try to determine what the resurrection event was.”

Despite disputes surrounding the accuracy of reports about His resurrection, Christians around the world participate in traditional rituals to celebrate Easter.

According to the apostle John, Mary of Magdala saw Jesus following the resurrection and to eleven disciples (not including Thomas) on the same day. A week later, He appeared to the twelve disciples, including “Doubting” Thomas and He also met with Simon, Peter and Nathaniel from Cana, Zebedee’s sons and two other disciples by Lake Tiberias.

Lastly, the Acts of the Apostles cite Jesus’s appearance to Saul/Paul on the road to Damascus, to Peter in a trance and to the twelve apostles as He ascended into heaven.

In 1 Corinthians 15 St. Paul wrote, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith,” which proves that the resurrection is the single most important event in Church history.

He added, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:14-20).

That is why Christians celebrate this day more than any other in the calendar year.

To read more The Significance Of The Resurrection

When people celebrate their own particular Easter traditions, especially in the church, they are conscious of the fact that they are sharing the celebration with millions of Christians in other parts of the world.

But despite the common Christian stories that underlie this commemoration of the death and resurrection of Christ, many of the customs used by churches in different regions will vary. Some, like the date of Easter, are decided by church decree while others reflect the specific cultures in which churches find themselves.

Some Easter traditions take place on a very large scale and might vary from country to country, yet will still tie believers together from all over the world.

These great Carnivals are held annually in Rio de Janeiro and Mardi Gras in New Orleans, as well as the annual Passion Plays in places like Oberammergau in Germany or Fazenda in Brazil.

Of course, by no means is every attendee there because they’re thinking of the meaning of Easter, but these events are still important in the lives of many believers.

Some countries’ Easter traditions seem to combine elements from other Christian holidays, or appear to bear little relation to Easter at all. For example, in Papua, New Guinea, congregations have an Easter Tree at the front of the church for the Easter Sunday service.

Packages of tobacco and cigarettes are hung from the branches, and are distributed to the people after the service. This is a custom to which North American Christians would have trouble relating.

But even though certain values may differ from culture to culture, resulting in these different traditions, Christians still share a common faith, which is what’s really important.

To read more Many Easter Traditions Around The World

There are many types of re-enactments of the Easter story that extend it beyond the church’s walls or beyond the chronological confines of the Easter celebration itself. This occurs because many believers feel the need to draw the story of Christ’s death and resurrection into their lives in a deeper way, in order to strengthen their faith.

The Christian Easter message is not something that occurs only on one special weekend in the spring, but is meant to be incorporated into believers’ lives and attitudes all year long.

A much more literal re-enactment of the Easter story, called the Passion Play, takes place either in local churches or on a much larger scale in towns like Oberammergau in Germany, or Fazenda in Brazil.

This play draws the faithful (and more than a few tourists) from every part of the world. The participants recreate the events leading to the death and resurrection of Christ. This re-enactment drives home the truths of this most powerful of the Christian stories in a deep and dramatic way.

Many people engage in commemorative re-enactments of the Easter story every time they go to church.

The Stations of the Cross, patterned after several events between the moment of Christ’s arrest and crucifixion, are often set up in chapels or sculptures around a church, so each week a believer can meditate upon the ramifications and meaning of Easter in their lives.

All of these different re-enactments serve to strengthen a believer’s faith and keep the salvation story alive in their daily life.

To read more Re-Enactment Of The Easter Story

The last thing you want to hear during a spring break or a long weekend is that your kids are bored. Involving them in Easter activities will help prevent this, and may provide a chance for you to teach them the meanings your family ascribes to this spring season.

If you are a family that adheres to the Christian faith, then you may look for things like Easter poems to learn or games to play. Or you may just want to find some good pictures for them to color, or crafts to make.

If you want to add a more spiritual turn to activities at Easter, then other websites can help you expand to include that extra dimension as well. For example, the Children’s Chapel site (www.childrenschapel.org) provides the blueprint for many activities that include object lessons to teach the Christian Easter story.

There are Easter egg hunts where each egg has part of the story painted on it, or you might want to print out coloring pages that have images from that story. Between songs, crafts and stories, you can make sure your children understand the relation of Easter to your faith.

Teachers could also arrange Easter activities, though they wouldn’t necessarily want to promote the views of any particular faith. This celebration takes place all over the world, so studying the customs in other countries can provide an excellent education about world cultures.

So for example, a class could study Easter songs from other countries, or how eggs have been decorated for other types of spring equinox festivals. The activities can be inspired by Easter, but can then be used to provide a valuable learning experience as well.

To read more Where To Find Easter Activities Online

The Easter stories are familiar to most people in the North American culture, and of course they are closely associated with the Christian church.

But when you look at the ancient fertility festivals that existed in the past, and have a closer look at the history of Easter symbols and traditions, it soon becomes clear that this is, in essence, a pagan holiday.

There may still be reasons to say it’s Christian as well, connected to Christ’s divinity and His death and resurrection, but the pagan elements are undeniable.

Myths that eventually tied in with the Easter stories of death and resurrection were already well known throughout the Middle East as the church began to form.

For example, the tale of the Phrygian goddess Cybele and the death and eventual resurrection of her lover, Attis, was widespread throughout Anatolia, and other lands around Israel.

The history of Easter, as it was known in the church, likely began with that story and the many other similar myths in the region.

The Easter stories of Christianity, with its own dying and resurrecting god, fit so well with other festivals celebrated in the spring that one might almost think it was planned that way.

Christians may shrink from some of the elements they would consider less savory, especially those dealing with sex and a goddess, yet the origin of Easter does lie in a story about the creation of a new form of life.

Viewed this way, it may be possible for Christians to think of their own Easter celebrations as a culmination of the aspirations of all those earlier fertility cults.

To read more Easter Stories With Symbols And Traditions

Christian believers might find it offensive if someone remarked that Easter Sunday is a pagan fertility festival. But given all the fertility symbolism associated with this spring celebration, like Easter eggs, baby chicks, and even the fertile and prolific Easter bunny, they should hardly be surprised at the realization.

Most people have some vague idea that a few elements of the celebration might stem from earlier pagan ideas, but many Christians are deeply disturbed at just how many of those elements there are.

Despite the Easter devotional emphasis in the way the church now celebrates this spring festival, a surprising number of Christians don’t believe it should actually be celebrated by the church at all. To begin with, they believe that Christ freed all His followers from having to follow that sort of ritual calendar.

In fact, the only ritual explicitly instituted by Christ was Holy Communion or the Catholic sacrament of the Mass. So not only should Easter Sunday not be commemorated, say these believers, but Easter itself should be abandoned.

What of this idea, that Easter Sunday and Easter celebrations in general should not be entertained by the church? Many people who advocate this idea take the Bible very literally, so that if a ritual or spiritual practice is not found there, it shouldn’t be used.

Other Christians, though, look at the deeper meaning of Easter to find an answer there. What was supposed to have been accomplished with the death and resurrection of Christ was the salvation of a sinful people.

Some might argue that even if the Easter rituals began life in paganism, Christianity has also lifted them up from those pagan roots and made them holy as well.

To read more The Disturbing Elements Of Easter Sunday

The idea of creating colored Easter eggs is a spring tradition that appears to have predated Easter itself. It’s possible that the practice arose in several parts of the world independently of each other, because the egg can easily be connected to concepts of life and growth.

In the same way that many cultures throughout history have linked fertility cults in general to the arrival of spring, eggs in their turn have been linked to fertility. So eggs have been a part of this yearly celebration since well before the Christian Easter came into being.

The significance of Easter eggs appears to mirror, or maybe even continue, traditions that existed long before they appeared. For example, a pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon spring festival to the goddess Eostre may actually have given the Christian celebration its name.

This goddess appears to have been associated both with the egg and the hare, or rabbit, both of which signified fertility. This might be the origin of the Easter bunny as well. Eggs have been associated with many stories about new life and creation, from China to India to Europe.

In recent years, Easter eggs have taken on a broader cultural connotation and are connected less and less to the origin of Easter itself. For example, the White House Easter Egg Roll is a family event that has been celebrated for over a century, being a partly political event that symbolizes the connection of the President to the general populace.

Egg hunts at parties have become mainly a hunt for prizes and an entertainment for kids. Yet it’s significant that even now, centuries after eggs took on such mythical significance, people still gravitate to them rather than to other objects during spring events that hold special meaning.

To read more Traditional Celebrations With Easter Eggs

Child food allergies can be a mere annoyance with frequent bouts of vomiting or eczema, or they can be life-threatening conditions that close off the windpipe and slow the pulse.

Most allergies do not result in a trip to the emergency room, but most sufferers feel that it is better to be safe than sorry and avoid these dangerous foods. What distinguishes an allergy from intolerance is the body system affected.

Allergies involve an immune system response to a perceived antagonist, whereas food intolerance involves an upset reaction from the digestive system.

A wheat allergy is another one of the common child food allergies. This type of allergy is most commonly diagnosed during infancy or early childhood years, but many children outgrow this problem by age 5. Symptoms may include a weak pulse, blue skin, difficulty breathing, dizziness, chest pain and throat swelling.

People with wheat allergies should avoid breads, cakes, muffins, cereals, pasta, couscous, crackers, beer, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, soy sauce, condiments like ketchup, meat substitutes, dairy products, hotdogs, natural flavorings, modified food starch, vegetable gum and coffee substitutes. Commonly, people with wheat allergies are allergic to grains like barley, oat and rye as well.

You can get additional information at the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network at www.foodallergy.org. You can learn about different types of child food allergies, how to treat emergencies and where to find local support groups.

You can read about all the latest studies, research and articles regarding the diagnosis and treatment for food allergy sufferers. Here you will also find recipes and local events raising support and awareness about food-related allergens.

To read more Different Types Of Child Food Allergies

Every year 50,000 people go to a hospital ER with allergic reactions to food. Of those cases, 150 people die from their reaction to milk, eggs, soy, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, fish or shellfish.

“All other allergies have lots of treatments,” says Anne Munoz-Furlong, founder of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network. “With food allergy, we have nothing: Avoid the food, take epinephrine (adrenaline shots to counteract anaphylaxis, a deadly reaction) and get to the hospital.”

You may feel scared, alone and uncertain when accidental exposure occurs, so you should map out how to get food allergy help before the situation ever arises.

Of course, many parents want their children to be cured of this awful ailment once and for all. Some parents enroll their children in clinical trials to get food allergy help. During these trials, the children will be given a small amount of allergen, either with a pinprick, orally or beneath their tongue, and their reaction is monitored and treated by the doctor, as necessary.

Every few weeks, the child will come back and take a slightly higher dose until the body develops a better tolerance to the protein. At first the experience can be stressful, both for parents and children, since so much energy and effort go into typically avoiding these situations. However, this technique has worked for some children with egg, peanut and milk allergies.

The most common food allergy help is simply avoiding the troublesome food itself. Some people find it easiest to just avoid eating peanuts or anything that might have come into contact with a peanut, rather than go through the trials and tribulations of long-term immunotherapy.

There are a number of great cookbooks full of food allergy recipes and the FDA requires food manufacturers to put warning labels on just about all foods now. Over-the-counter antihistamines can relieve hives, sneezing, runny noses and gastrointestinal symptoms.

Bronchodilators can relieve the symptoms of asthma or difficulty breathing. While these methods cannot prevent the allergic reaction, they can relieve the symptoms afterwards.

To read more Knowing Where To Find Food Allergy Help

A children food allergy can be devastating news for parents — just ask the Ringstroms. Five-year-old Blake Ringstrom suffered allergic reactions to so many foods that he went from a pork and navy bean diet to being fed through a tube implanted in his stomach.

“We felt like we were grasping at straws,” says Blake’s mother, Becky. “He wasn’t getting better, he wasn’t growing, he was still kind of sick all the time… the itching was constant.

We had to put socks over his hands so he wouldn’t make himself bleed.” However, thanks to the Food Challenge, Blake is now able to eat most sit-down meals with his family.

In another case, five-year-old Ashley Garcia came to the emergency room after eating an ice cream cone with nuts, which made her parents fear that she had a life-threatening children food allergy to peanuts.

Her father recalls, “By the time we got there, her eyes were bloodshot red and it seemed like there was a whole other layer of skin. She broke out in a rash.” After some consideration, the Garcias agreed to a Food Challenge, despite the risk that she may suffer those terrible food allergy symptoms again.

“If it’s going to happen, this is probably the best place for it to happen,” they concluded. Over time, Ashley was finally able to eat a whole Reese’s peanut butter cup without reacting.

There are many stories of children food allergy patients to consider. Some parents at wit’s end say their lives have been changed by Food Challenge testing. However, this test is not for all child food allergies.

Kids who have severe asthma, are otherwise sickly, or who have lost consciousness during an allergy attack generally are not good subjects for testing. Also, the test can be very time-consuming (six hours at a shot, once a week for months on end) and, as a result, very expensive.

Other parents prefer to buy cookbooks with food allergy recipes and buy specially made products to work around the restrictive diet. In the end, it’s best to speak with an allergy specialist to determine the best course of action.

To read more Knowing About Children Food Allergy Patients