Today is April 7th. Exactly, we are already in the fourth month of 2017. How time flies by. This month is a very important month for Christians all around the world. Why is that you may ask? It is Easter. But why are going on Easter egg hunts and eating lots of chocolate important? Over the years, the true meaning of Easter has started to deteriorate and eventually, it will be completely disregarded.

For Christians, Easter is a time to celebrate the death of their saviour, Jesus Christ. Now this might seem quite strange, to be celebrating the passing of a man. Nevertheless, Jesus’ death was far from ordinary as he overcame death and resurrected. Jesus is the son of God and to Christians, they believe that,  "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, for that whoever believe in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life”. This simply means that they believe that God let his son be killed to save the lives of others. I know what you are thinking; why did our lives need to be saved in the first place? To answer this question, we travel 6,000 years back to the time of Adam and Eve. Now, to those who have no idea about the concept of Adam and Eve to Christians, they were the first man and woman on earth, created by God, who committed the first sin due to the fact that they ate fruit from the forbidden Tree of Life. According to Christianity, we are all descendants of Adam and Eve therefore because they sinned first, we are all inherently sinful. Our punishment for sin was originally death but as God sacrificed his son, we are free of sin, to an extent. Easter is a time for followers of Christ to reflect on this vital event that rescued them from eternal death; it is a time for them to celebrate their omnibenevolent God and rejoice in the fact that they have a second chance in life.

The true significance of Easter can easily become lost amid the gigantic piles of chocolate eggs in the shops. Even results from UK polls show that numerous amounts of people do not even the story of Easter. Sanjana Chanda (aged 15) quoted: “Nowadays when you ask little children about Easter, they mention things such as chocolate eggs and Easter bunnies but most children do not actually know the religious importance of Easter. I think that efforts are being made to educate the younger generation that Easter is not just about chocolate but I think that Easter’s meaning is still not as prevalent as it was in the past.”

Now I am not saying that we should discard the chocolate eggs because I mean, who doesn’t love a huge chocolate egg once in a while? Instead, we should simply try to know, maybe even understand the story of Easter and respect those who believe it. You would not attend a party if you did not know what you were celebrating? So why should we do it now?