Mardi Gras / Carnival Season

Mardi Gras, French for "Fat Tuesday", is what we know as Shrove Tueday, or "Pancake Day" -for more on the different days of the Easter season see Traditional Church's Easter Calendar. Historically the fast during Lent, which starts the day after Shrove Tuesday, meant eating no "luxury" foods such as meat or dairy products -"Carnival" from the Latin "carnivale", loosely translates as "farewell to flesh"- so the day before this restrictive diet started people would feast and eat up all the eggs and meat. In New Orleans, the feast of the Epiphany (6th January) until midnight on Mardi Gras is a season of merriment, culminating in the biggest carnival. see . In South America, canival season is for four days ending in Mardi Gras.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Hot Cross Buns

The origin of hot cross buns date back to the fertility festivals when an ox was sacrificed. The ox's horns became a symbol for the feast and they were carved into the freshly leavened ritual bread. The word "buns" is derived from the Saxon word "boun" which means "sacred ox".The cross on hot cross buns became the cross of Jesus.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Hot Cross Buns

The origin of hot cross buns date back to the fertility festivals when an ox was sacrificed. The ox's horns became a symbol for the feast and they were carved into the freshly leavened ritual bread. The word "buns" is derived from the Saxon word "boun" which means "sacred ox".The cross on hot cross buns became the cross of Jesus.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Easter Parades and Easter Bonnets

Easter bonnets have been around since the Middle Ages when it was the custom to take a long walk after church on Easter Sunday, while wearing new clothes to symbolize the start of spring. The tradition grew to include a straw Easter bonnet adorned with ribbons and flowers. This led to the American custom of Easter parades all over the country, including the famous parade along Fifth Avenue in New York City (like in the 1948 Judy Garland movie "Easter Parade"!).

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Egg Rolling

In come countries, eg Germany and America, children roll eggs down hills on Easter morning, a game which has been connected to the rolling away of the rock from Jesus Christ's tomb when he was resurrected. British settlers brought this custom to the New World.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Easter Chicks

These emerge from the eggs the hare/rabbit brings! A pagan symbol of re-birth, Christianised as re-birth in Jesus or the chick breaking through the egg shell as a picture of Jesus emerging from the tomb.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Easter Bunny and Easter Egg Hunts

From the goddess with the hare's head, or hare companion, Eostre, hares and rabbits were associated with enviable prolific procreation as part of the worship of all things spring-time and fertile. The Easter Bunny is a hare/rabbit spirit that lays eggs in the grass, leading to the tradition of Easter egg hunts!! This concept has not had a Christian make-over!

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Easter Eggs

The Babylonian spring goddess Astarte is said to have fallen from heaven in an egg. It was thought that all life came from an egg, and so they were a symbol of the re-birth of spring. Read more about Easter Eggs. As Britain was converted to Christianity, Easter eggs were given a mental Christian make-over, to change them from representing fertility to representing the stone that was rolled away from the tomb where the body of Jesus was laid or the empty tomb if it was a hollow egg!

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

The Cross

The cross, or crucifix, is a Christian symbol of Easter time. Though the name from the earlier pre-Christian spring festival stuck, Easter Sunday is celebrated by Christians as the anniversary of the resurrection (coming back to life) of Jesus Christ, who three days earlier had been crucified (put to death on a cross). The cross is a symbol of Jesus Christ, his conquering of sin and death, and his love for us. Read more about Jesus

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Easter - Where did the name come from?

Many pagan cultures celebrated at this time of year to welcome the return of spring and the new plant life that grew and the animals that were born. The pagans worshipped gods of fertility and new life, such as the Druidic Ishtar, Egyptian Osiris, Babylonian Astarte (who sprung from an egg which fell from heaven), and the Saxon goddess of dawn called Eostre (often seen accompanied by a hare, or with a hare's head), from which we get the name "Easter".

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Back in the fourth century AD the church devised a whole Easter calendar to remember all the different events in the lead up to the crucifixion and resurrection, things like Pancake Day to eat up all your good food before fasting during the weeks of Lent.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

And that's what we celebrate on Easter Sunday!

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Christians believe that when Jesus died, he died for all our sins, and when he came back to life he showed he had conquered sin once and for all.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

These are things Jesus promises us today. In Old Testament days a lamb had to be killed as an offering to God to make up for people's sins. When Jesus was crucified he took the role of a sacrificial lamb, and the Bible says he was the last lamb that would need to be sacrificed.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Despite it's name, Christian "Easter" has much more to do with the Jewish Passover than pagan spring-time festivals. God instructed Jewish people to celebrate Passover to remember their escape from slavery in Egypt about 1200 years before Jesus. At that time God promised: I will get you out of the mess you've made; I will lead you to a freer life; I will treat you as my own children; and I will save you spiritually.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Easter Sunday is always the first Sunday after the full moon that directly follows the Spring Equinox.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

They didn't set a definite fixed yearly date for Easter, or stick to the old Jewish calendar. Instead they made-up their own formula to calculate the date to complicate matters further. Are you ready for this? Pay attention!

richmondparkchurch.org.\uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Later, about 350 years after the crucifixion of Jesus, an important meeting of church leaders met to decide whether Easter should be celebrated the day after Passover, even if it fell on a week day, or whether Easter Day should always be on a Sunday.

richmondparkchurch.org.\uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Later, about 350 years after the crucifixion of Jesus, an important meeting of church leaders met to decide whether Easter should be celebrated the day after Passover, even if it fell on a week day, or whether Easter Day should always be on a Sunday.

richmondparkchurch.org.\uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

The exact date of Passover shifts about a bit as it is calculated on the old Jewish calendar which was based on what the moon was doing, and this doesn't tie-in exactly with the modern calendar.

richmondparkchurch.org.\uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

We know that Jesus was killed at this time of year because the Bible and other historical records tell us he was crucified just before the Jewish festival called Passover.

richmondparkchurch.org.\uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

The pagans celebrated the arrival of spring, encouraging their gods to bless the re-birth of plants and animals at this time of year.

richmondparkchurch.org.\uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

This is also the origin of the Easter Bunny, and strangely, Easter Eggs (what? no chickens?!) - all life was thought to have originally come from an egg, and eggs were another favoured symbol of fertility. The "spirit" Easter Bunny/Hare was suppossed to lay its eggs in the grass, and people would go searching for them - the fore-runner of modern day Easter egg hunts.

richmondparkchurch.org.\uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Easter gets it's name from the Saxon goddess of spring called "Eostre". This goddess had a hare's head, which makes sense when you remember that pagan worship centred on nature and fertility, and hares and rabbits breed like....well, rabbits!

richmondparkchurch.org.\uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

What About Easter?

Easter is the spring-time holiday associated with chocolate eggs and bunny rabbits. For Christians it is also the anniversary and celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

What sort of church is this?

Richmond Park Church does not belong to any denomination; we are not C of E, Methodist or Baptist. This doesn't mean we are freakish and weird! We are not part of any denomination because we are trying to steer clear of ideas and beliefs that have crept in to Christianity over the hundreds of years since Jesus was resurrected, ideas and beliefs that take us away from the simplicity and guidelines of the Bible.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

The church is a great place to grow in your faith as it means at least once a week you are taking time out to:
(1) focus on worshipping (showing our respect and love for) God and getting to know him more intimately by singing praise songs to him, during which we can often sense God's presence with us, which is amazing;
(2) hear God's words taught from the Bible, learn the significance of those words and how they apply to our everyday lives;
(3) pray for other people and situations and receive prayer for yourself;
(4) develope the gifts and talents God has given you in a nurturing environment and support and encourage one another.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Giving your life to Jesus is just the start of your Christian journey; we all need to grow in our faith and understanding of God's ways and over the years we change for the better as our motivation and plans fall more and more into line with God's motivation and plans.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

You can be a Christian without going to church, but it makes life harder for you. God designed us to be inter-dependent, meaning we are at our best when we work together, rather than when we try to go it alone; we all have different strengths and weaknesses and can compliment and support one another. There are lots of things in life - stresses, problems, temptations - that try to lure Christians away from being true to their faith and God. If you belong to a church you've got your "church family" to encourage, look out for, and care for you; and they've got you on their team too.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK