‘What Easter means to me’

Posted on: 14 April, 2022

Easter weekend is upon us. It’s a time for spending time with family and friends but, for those of a Christian faith, it’s so much more than that. Providing an insight is our events and communications manager, Hannah Peck, who, here, explains what Easter is, what it means to her and how she will be celebrating…

What is Easter?

Easter is the most important festival in the Christian calendar. It celebrates Jesus rising from the dead, three days after he was executed. His resurrection means that eternal life is granted to all who believe in Him.

What does Easter mean to you?

I absolutely love Easter time for many reasons. Obviously, the weather gets warmer, and that can only be a good thing; there’s a bank holiday so lots of time to spend with family and friends and, as someone with a deep Christian faith, I love the celebrations that come with remembering Jesus defeating death once and for all. The hope and joy that this brings me is indescribable (but I’ll try as otherwise this would be a very short write-up!).

As a Christian, I really do fully believe that Jesus was put to death on a cross and rose back to life after three days. There’s not time to write about why I believe this but I’m always open to talking about it. I’ve gone through a lot of rough times in my life, as have we all, so to be able to have faith in a God that would willingly become a human being and put himself through that suffering, all so that I didn’t have to, blows my mind.

It helps me when I go through suffering of my own and it brings me so much hope that my life in this world isn’t the end for me. There can be so much suffering, both personal and global, and I think I’d be pretty depressed if I thought that this was it. I’m able, however, to celebrate through suffering because I can look forward to hanging out with Jesus in heaven for eternity in a place that is rid of suffering once and for all.

It massively helped me cope when my Dad was diagnosed with cancer and died within six weeks. It helped him too as he was excited to go to heaven. He actually died around Easter time and to be able to celebrate his transition from this world to the next was something for which I will always be grateful (obviously there was a lot of pain and grief that came with it too).

How do you celebrate Easter?

Unlike Christmas, which is normally pretty manic and, dare I say it, a bit stressful, I find Easter a relaxing time. Occasionally my husband, toddler and I will be with wider family but normally it’s just us.

Easter celebrations at Hannah’s church

We go to church where there’s always a big celebration. There’s lots of upbeat music to worship to, the kids do fun activities in their groups and everyone gets given chocolate. Most years, my church will do baptisms on Easter Sunday (a symbol of someone committing to follow Jesus as their Saviour and friend by being immersed fully in water). There’s always lots of cheering and clapping. After church, we might invite friends back for a BBQ in the sun and spend the rest of the day as anyone else would – eating, drinking and chatting.