Easter - la pascuaThere are no Easter eggs, chocolate bunnies,jelly beans, or Easter bunnies visiting children in Hispanic countries for Easter.

In these Catholic/Christian countries, Easter is a much larger celebration than Christmas

Emperor Constantinecreated the official date for Easterat the Nicean Council in 325 A.D.

Easter Sunday follows the firstfull moon after the SpringEquinox (March 21)

Carnaval or Mardi Gras

This celebrationcomes before Easter.Believers binge on pleasures of the fleshbefore the Lenten season

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent.

• A Mass is celebrated wherein the believer is marked with a cross made of ashes on his/her forehead to show devotion to Christ and the beginning of the Lenten season.

Lent represents Christ’s 40 day fast in the wilderness

Believers give up something they really love as a show of devotion to Christ.

Semana Santa

• ‘Holy Week’ is the week before Easter.

Palm Sunday

• This is the Sunday before Easter. It represents the Sunday before Christ’s crucifixion when he triumphantly entered Jerusalem.

• The people cheered and placed palm fronds on the ground as he rode by.

Santo Jueves

• Holy Thursday marks the Passover of the Last Supper.

• At this solemn ceremony, Christ instituted the sacrament of the Holy Communion.

Good Friday

• On this day, Christ was crucified.• Catholic countries all over the world

celebrate this day with reenactments of Christ carrying the cross to his death.

• These parades and reenactments are also referred to as the ‘Passion of the Christ’.

La Pascua

• Easter celebrates the resurrection of Christ.

La Ascención

• Day of the Ascension is celebrated 40 days after Easter.

• This day marks Christ’s ascension into heaven.

Day of Pentecost

• This is 50 days after Easter and celebrates the Apostle’s receiving the blessed gift of the ‘Espíritu Santo’ or Holy Spirit.

A long Easter celebration

• This adds up to about 3 months of celebrating during the Easter season.