美国重要节日：复活节

复活节(主复活日)是一个西方的重要节日，在每年春分月圆之后第一个星期日。基督徒认为，复活节象征着重生与希望，为纪念耶稣基督于公元30到33年之间被钉死在十字架之后第三天复活的日子。

As with almost all "Christian" holidays, Easter has been secularized and commercialized. The dichotomous nature of Easter and its symbols, however, is not necessarily a modern fabrication.

和其它基督教节日一样，复活节正慢慢“被世俗”和“被商业”。即便如此，复活节的这两个性质和它的标志并不是必然的“现代产物”。

The history of Easter 复活节的历史

Since its conception as a holy celebration in the second century, Easter has had its non-religious side. In fact, Easter was originally a pagan festival.

“复活节是神圣的庆典”的概念在公元200年已经形成，自那时起，复活节就站在了非宗教的一方。而事实上，最初的复活节是异教徒的节日。

The ancient Saxons celebrated the return of spring with an uproarious festival commemorating their goddess of offspring and of springtime, Eastre. When the second-century Christian missionaries encountered the tribes of the north with their pagan celebrations, they attempted to convert them to Christianity. They did so, however, in a clandestine manner.

古撒克逊人庆祝春至时非常热闹，因为这也纪念他们祖先和春天的“复活”。在公元200年，基督教的传教士并偶然来到这个拥有异教庆典的北方部落。这些传教士尝试让撒克逊人改信基督教，而他们使用的方法非常隐秘。

It would have been suicide for the very early Christian converts to celebrate their holy days with observances that did not coincide with celebrations that already existed. To save lives, the missionaries cleverly decided to spread their religious message slowly throughout the populations by allowing them to continue to celebrate pagan feasts, but to do so in a Christian manner.

早期的基督教人为了庆祝他们神圣的节日而在仪式中自杀，然而这些仪式并没有与以前的庆祝仪式相类似。为了拯救生命，传教士略施小计，在人群中慢慢散布神明的信息，谎称神明允许人们继续庆祝异教节日，但是要使用基督教的方式进行庆祝。

As it happened, the pagan festival of Eastre occurred at the same time of year as the Christian observance of the Resurrection of Christ. It made sense, therore, to alter the festival itself, to make it a Christian celebration as converts were slowly won over. The early name, Eastre, was eventually changed to its modern spelling, Easter.

就这样，复活节在同年出现了，而且被当作耶稣复活的基督教仪式。因此，这个节日就慢慢被改变，渐渐转变为基督教的一个节日。于是，人们渐渐皈依基督教。而复活节早期的名字Eastre，最后也被改成流传至今的拼法Easter。

The date of Easter 复活节的日期

Prior to A.D. 325, Easter was variously celebrated on different days of the week, including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In that year, the Council of Nicaea was convened by emperor Constantine. It issued the Easter Rule which states that Easter shall be celebrated on the first Sunday that occurs after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. However, a caveat must be introduced here. The "full moon" in the rule is the ecclesiastical full moon, which is dined as the fourteenth day of a tabular lunation, where day 1 corresponds to the ecclesiastical New Moon. It does not always occur on the same date as the astronomical full moon. The ecclesiastical "vernal equinox" is always on March 21. Therore, Easter must be celebrated on a Sunday between the dates of March 22 and April 25.

在公元325年之前，复活节的庆祝时间可以是一周中不同的时间，而这些时间包括星期五、星期六和星期天。在那些年里，康斯坦丁大帝组建了尼西亚理事会。这个理事会制定了复活节的标准：复活节应该在第一个满月后或是春分后的第一个星期进行庆祝。在这里，我们要作一下解释。在规定中所指的“满月”是基督教的满月，而“满月”的时间定在阴历月份的第十四天，那么，这个月的1号就是基督教的“新月”。由于天文满月，复活节的日期不会是每年的同一天。另外，基督教的“春分”通常是3月21日。因此，复活节必须在3月22日-4月24日之间的其中一个星期天进行庆祝。