WQ #166: March 27: Beliefs/Easter
Happy Wednesday! Welcome to #WQ (Wednesday Quotes). Here’s your chance to showcase your photos, poems, thoughts, and stories about beliefs that inspire. On March 31st, Christians celebrate Easter, which is a basic belief in the Christian faith. But it has other connotations as well. As always, feel free to combine your favorite challenges and double dip. All you need is one excellent quote about the topic.
WQ 2024: A Year of Inspiration
My WOTY (Word of the Year) is “inspire,” which means to fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative. Synonyms include stimulate, motivate, cause, incline, persuade, or encourage. My page lists nine categories that inspire me and possible topics generated. WQ 2024.
Category: Beliefs Inspire Us
According to Google, my title is not one of the “79 Easter blog post titles that will blow up my traffic.” Instead I did some background checking on the holiday in typical history consultant fashion. I hope the topic will inspire you to share something about what you think or do during this holiday.
Holiday celebrations also change over the years taking different symbols and activities. Original meanings of holidays can become blurred and commercialized. Topics suggested by a Google search for Easter posts included: Floral accessories for Easter, DIY Easter card ideas, and Cutest Easter outfits for babies/toddlers. Out of 79 blog post ideas, not one of them mentioned the name of Jesus or any reference to a religious celebration.
History of the Easter Holiday
Easter Sunday is based on a lunar calendar and is celebrated on the Sunday on or after the Paschal Moon or the first full moon after the vernal equinox. The early Christian name for the holiday is derived from the Hebrew name of Passover, Pesach, and it is still called Pascha in some churches.
Probably because it is a spring holiday, since the spread of Christianity throughout Europe, the celebration mingled with pagan traditions that celebrate spring. Easter and much of the symbolism we see today originated with the pagan goddess of fertility, ‘Eastre.’ Eggs and bunnies both represent fertility and new life.
Even though you see Easter Egg hunts in neighborhood parks, on church grounds as well as the White House lawn, the greater emphasis Christians attach to the holiday is on resurrection, which means rising from the dead rather than fertility.
I was surprised to learn that the topic of resurrection is not limited to the Christian church. The History Channel website shares ancient historical resurrection stories in which a mythical god takes and sometimes and returns a person who dies to life, more or less on the whim of the god.
The Bible also records accounts of holy people, including Jesus, raising people from the dead. In the biblical story of Lazarus, Jesus raised his friend from the dead after he had been dead for four days. He also raised a widow of Nain’s son and the ruler, Jairus’ daughter. The Apostle Peter raised a woman named Tabitha from the dead. The Old Testament Prophet Elijah raised a widow’s son from death.
As the Gospels explain the unfolding of the resurrection of Jesus, he was celebrating the Passover feast with his followers. After one of his closest followers, Judas left the Passover table and betrayed him to authorities, Jesus was put on trial. The trial didn’t take long, and on a Friday Jesus was hung on the cross and died. According to New Testament records, he rose from the dead on Sunday. Unlike the other instances of people rising from the dead, no holy person alive was credited with raising Jesus from the dead.
Jesus identified himself as the resurrection.
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.”
John 11:25
We’ve always been too busy cooking or eating to take pictures of our family Easter meals, so I relied on AI to help me illustrate this post. But AI struggled to create an illustration with every request. Each picture had eggs, and most had bunnies as well. One option was to add a cross to the picture. I did that. Microsoft AI produced an insensitive picture of a huge striped egg attached to a cross.
To get this rendition of Jesus’ resurrection, I cropped out the eggs and shepherds in Lightroom Classic. There was even a bunny or two in the foreground of one of the resurrection picture choices.
Other Easter Quotes
Some of these quotes you may agree with, and some you may not, depending on your personal beliefs.
“Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul..”
Victor Hugo
“The very first Easter taught us this: that life never ends and love never dies.”
Kate McGahan
“The great gift of Easter is hope.”
Basil Hume
“Easter is the demonstration of God that life is essentially spiritual and timeless.”
Charles M. Crowe
“Easter is the only time when it’s perfectly safe to put all of your eggs in one basket.”
Evan Esar
What I remember as a child are times around the table and wearing gloves and hats to church. I don’t have pictures from those days, but I do have a few pictures to share of people preparing tables and fun times around a table.
Kiwanis Key Club Learning How to Set a Fancy Table
LAPC this week is all about people. See Tina Schell’s post for inspiration. While this isn’t strictly about Easter, it is about high school students learning the etiquette of setting a formal table. For me Easter was one of the few times where we used a formal table setting.
What do you believe? How is Easter special to you?
Special Times With Family and Friends Around a Table
What I loved about these pictures even though it wasn’t an Easter celebration:
- I had recently met my mother’s cousin Hal.
- He loved to host parties with friends.
- His friends were mostly students at the nearby university in Delaware .
- They were from all over the world.
- They loved to talk. As a teacher, these pictures show total engagement, which is what you want from students.
Links (in bold) and Comments
This list is my way to thank people who have commented with or without a link to their WQ posts. If you wrote a WQ post, your link will be in bold. Otherwise, I’ll link to a recent post on your blog. I love that you read and respond to my posts. 🌸💐🌹Links are here to help you get acquainted with each other❣ Look for new links and new friends each week.
- A Fresh Cup of Coffee
- Everyday Gyaan
- Keep It Alive
- Loving Life
- Photographia’s
- Pictures Imperfect – Easter post
- Pictures Imperfect – Vernal Equinox post
- Pictures Imperfect – Ides of March post
- Raj
- Retirementally Challenged
- Second Wind Leisure
- Still Restless Jo
- The Showers of Blessings
- The Skeptic’s Kaddish I missed David on last week’s link. His daughter’s poem here is fun.
- This That and The Other Thing
- Two Trails One Road
- Unique Times with Cindy
See it first on In Linkz. Click the link below to showcase your post or to read other posts. Try it, you’ll like it. It did not show up on my phone, so you probably have to use a computer to link.
Upcoming and Ongoing on Always Write
I will be taking a break from WQ for the month of April. I have taken on a new duty as a board member of our contentious Home Owner’s Association in hopes that I can be a little bit of oil to help ease feelings and move business along.
Story Chat will continue as scheduled. I will participate in Challenges as I have time.
- WQ 2024 Page
- WQ 164: Actions Inspire: Settling Our Debts This March
- WQ 163: The Inspiring World of Animals
- WQ 162: The Possessions We Love to Keep: Photos
- SC Page
- SC #11 “Of Houses and Homes by Trent McDonald
- “Home Ship Home,” by a new Story Chat author, Amanda Forestwood
- Museum Challenge: Bunny on a Stick, Thursday Doors
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
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