Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone! Easter Sunday is the culmination of the Christian Easter festivities, marking the end of Holy Week and the Easter story as told below:

Palm Sunday:

Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, with the people welcoming him by spreading their cloaks on the floor and waving palm branches whilst shouting ‘Hosanna’ as he walked past.

Holy Monday to Wednesday

Jesus visited the Temple and found it full of people selling things like a market. He was so angry he drove over their tables and forced them out. He shouted “This is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.”

Maundy Thursday

Some of the officials of Jerusalem didn’t like Jesus, and wanted him gone. So they got one of Jesus’ 12 disciples, Judas Iscariot, and gave him thirty silver coins to lead them to Jesus when he was away from the crowds. Jesus knew Judas was going to betray him, and arranged a meal for all of his disciples, later known as the last supper. Here is where he spoke to his disciples about how he was going to be betrayed and killed. He broke bread up and gave them win to represent his body and his blood, he also washed their feet. Aftetr this he went to the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed to God. The soldiers came and Judas identified Jesus by kissing him, and Jesus was arrested and taken to the Roman emperor Pontius Pilate for a trial. Pontius didn’t want to crucify Jesus, and sent him to King Herod. But he didn’t answer Herod’s questions, so he sent him back to Pilate. Pilate asked the crowd gathered outside if they wanted to release Jesus or a criminal Barabbas, and they replied Barabbas and demanded Jesus be crucified.

Good Friday

Jesus was crucified on this day, having had a crown of thorns placed upon his head and made to carry a heavy wooden cross up to a hill called Calvary. There he was hung on a cross between two criminals to die. He died after about 6 hours on the cross, with each gospel having its own version of his last words and supernatural events that followed. His body was taken down and wrapped in linen and placed in a tomb, with a heavy rock rolled across the front of the tomb to close it, and two soldiers left to guard him.

Easter Sunday

Mary Magdalene and others went to visit him but found the rock had been moved across. There are various accounts then that two angels appeared and said that ‘Jesus had risen’, or that Mary met him and thought he was a gardener. After this date Jesus appeared at various places on various dates to the disciples until the day of his Ascension into heaven 40 days after his resurrection.