"Easter" is just as much a time for a Christian to celebrate as is Christmas.

Indeed, it is likely to be a more important time for several reasons...

You see, the time of Jesus' birth was important, but it was His death and His resurrection after three days and three nights (according to the scriptures) that gave to mankind the precious gift of atonement... God's gift to those who choose to accept it... where we may accept the substitutionary payment for our sins which we commit, and which mankind has committed.

Without the full Good Friday - Easter Sunday "event" that happened nearly two thousand years ago, we would not be able to be "saved" through God's grace.

Surely, then, this is a good reason to remember it happened, and to give grateful thanks to God for his plan which He established "before the foundation of the world".

Perhaps we should also consider briefly some of the negative points made by some folk.

Some say that we are not supposed to observe special days. Well, we aren't actually. Easter is an occasion where we can remember the special significance of Jesus's atoning sacrifice and subsequent resurrection (Yes, the two have to go together) - but that is not to say we should not think of them every day. Certainly every time we take communion.

While some Christians choose to follow a liturgical calendar throughout the year, others do not. Let us not become pharisaical in our outlook and condemn others for not being as we are. After all, who is to say that we are without fault in our interpretation?

There are those who say that we observe this special occasion on a pagan feast day - just like Christmas. Well, this may be true, like Christmas, but for a different reason.

Christmas was dated at the time of the northern hemisphere's winter solstice, coinciding with the Norse celebration of "Jul" (pronounced "Yool"), known in present day times in Scandinavian countries as "Lucia" (pronounced "Loo-See-Yer"). The missionary Augustine chose to suggest to his converts to Christianity that the day after the one with the greatest amount of dark damp cold night should be celebrated as a day of new birth - not of the Sun but the Son! That is how and why we celebrate Christ's birth in the snow - no self-respecting Palestinian sheep would lamb at that time of year!

Indeed, much of the Christmas tradition has been built around the season that Augustine took to celebrate the nativity, and it is very unlikely that much of it is therefore historically linked to the birth of our Lord and Saviour. After all, the attendance of the Magi took place perhaps two years later. This is why Herod killed all children up to two years old, of course.

Now Easter is said to be named after the Philistine goddess Eshtar, the same pagan deity as the Greeks' Astarte. Whether or not that is so, it is celebrated according to a calendar which theoretically takes into account the phase of the moon in calculating the occasion of the Jewish Passover ("Peschar") because that was the time of the year when Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, was crucified by the Romans, and resurrected afterwards.

Useful source pages
We have gathered material on different parts of the Easter story which we hope you will find useful. In time, there will be many more... indeed these are currently incomplete. We have some information which we are currently asking for permission to post here, rather than just link, because frequently links vanish as isps and virtual hosting companies vanish.

The Trial
From different judges in different parts of the world, each highly respected in their respective countries, we have critiques of the New Testament narrative of the trials of Jesus.

One is a Christian in the USA. Another is a Jew in Australia, who was greatly inspired by the remarks he heard addressed by the Jewish Chief Justice from the state of Israel back in 1969.

The Crucifixion
This topic is also contentious to some. There are groups who claim that Jesus was not impaled upon a cruciform shaped gallows, but rather an upright stake. There are others who claim that nails were not used, but ropes, as depicted in a Monty Python movie.

We have two fairly detailed accounts by medically qualified writers concerning the method used by the Romans to execute malefactors. If you are a person who is at all squeamish, please be careful how far you read these accounts, because they could be upsetting.

However, if you are stout of heart, you will find them interesting, to the point of fascinating, to see how far man had degenerated in his ability to inflict long-term suffering and slow death on his fellow.

One is doctor David Terasaka, M.D.. Another is doctor C. Truman Davis, M.D. who was practicing in Arizona at the time.

We hope to add more as time goes on. Please revisit, perhaps on a weekly basis!