【英語お役立ちコラム】4/12はイースター(Easter)です！イースターの由来や歴史をチェック！

原田英語マン

4/12はEasterです。イースター（復活祭）は、十字架に掛けられたキリストが3日後に蘇（よみがえ）ったという、”キリストの復活”をお祝いする日です。同時に、復活祭は春の自然の蘇りを祝う日でもあります。シンボルは多産で有名な『ウサギ』と生命の始まりを意味する『卵』です。”Easter”の語源は、アングロ・サクソンの女神に由来します。この祭りは春分の日に行われていたのです。
復活祭には、家族が集いご馳走を食べます。子供にとって最も楽しみなのは、なんといっても卵狩（エッグ・ハント）と卵転がし(エッグロール)です。子どもたちは、あちらこちらに隠された美しく染められたゆで卵（プラスチックなどで作られている場合が多い）を探したり、卵の殻を割らずに坂の上から転がして遊びます。

みなさんは、ウサギが非常に縁起のいい動物であるということをご存じですか？欧米では、ウサギの足をかたどったキーホルダーがお守りとして人気あります！その理由をご説明しましょう。紀元前600年以前の西ヨーロッパでは、精霊が動物の体の中に宿ると信じられ、人間自身もある種の聖なる動物の子孫だと考えられていました。そして、ウサギは
◎地下に穴を掘って暮らしている⇒動物の体に宿ると言われている地下の霊と交流している
◎ウサギは非常に多産である⇒霊がウサギを健康と繁栄と豊穣のシンボルにさせている
という理由から、”ウサギ＝縁起物”と位置づけられたのです。そして、ウサギの足(rabbit foot)は小さくて簡単にしなびることから、この部分を人々がお守りとして持ち歩くようになったのです！

話題のオンライン学習プラットホームのKahoot!（カフート）で、イースターのトリビアクイズに挑戦しよう！下のリンクをクリックして、Nickname（何でもOK)をタイプしてからクイズを始めてください！※はじめてKahoot!を利用する人は、こちらのページで使い方を詳しく説明しています。

https://kahoot.it/challenge/0154104?challenge-id=512dfd2a-35de-4d79-b9ca-2df7a5540598_1586326060100

※上のリンクを押しても問題にたどり着けない場合、
https://kahoot.it/
に行き、Game PINという場所に、数字で

0154104

とタイプし、ニックネーム（何でもOK)を入力し、OK,go!をクリックしてください！

アレックスママ

Well, this year we may have some people over. See, Alex has this girlfriend (another one) in his kung fu class. Their family might come over. Usually the night before Easter we color the hard-boiled eggs. I get up early in the morning and hide the eggs plus some hollow plastic eggs (filled with coins and Easter candy) all over the backyard and the trail ends at his Easter basket (filled with Easter toys and more Easter candy and the traditional chocolate bunny). Then I use the eggs to make egg salad sandwiches. This year I was going to roast a chicken but with other people over I might go buy a turkey instead…or at least a larger chicken or maybe a couple of chickens? And egg-salad sandwiches, some corn on the cob, I’ll make some bread, some green beans with a dijon mustard sauce, and some carrot cake for dessert. I think a lot of people do ham but I just cannot stand the taste. Javier hates it too but Alex likes it. Silly kid. But for Easter Alex usually just eats so much chocolate that he throws up. Hahahaha

プラスチックでできたタマゴに色づけするアレックス

ガールフレンドと一緒にエッグ・ハンティング！

こんなにたくさんタマゴをゲットしたんだよ！

♪アレックス君が歌う”Here comes Peter Cottontail”

ちなみに、アレックス君が歌っているのはこのパート！

INTRODUCTION

The greatest festival of the Christian church commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a movable feast; that is, it is not always held on the same date. In AD 325 the church council of Nicaea decided that it should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox of March 21. Easter can come as early as March 22 or as late as April 25.

LENT

Connected with the observance of Easter are the 40-day penitential season of Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday and concluding at midnight on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday. In many churches Easter is preceded by a season of prayer, abstinence, and fasting. This is observed in memory of the 40 days’ fast of Christ in the desert. In Eastern Orthodox churches Lent is 50 days. In Western Christendom Lent is observed for six weeks and four days.

Lent may be preceded by a carnival season. The origin of the word carnival is probably from the Latin carne vale, meaning flesh (meat), farewell. Elaborate pageants often close this season on Shrove Tuesday, the day before the beginning of Lent. This day is also called by its French name, Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday).

Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, gets its name from the practice, mainly in the Roman Catholic church, of putting ashes on the foreheads of the faithful to remind them that man is but dust.

OTHER IMPORTANT DAYS

Palm Sunday, one week before Easter, celebrates the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Holy Week begins on this day. Holy Thursday, or Maundy Thursday, is in memory of the Last Supper of Christ with his disciples. Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion.

SYMBOLS

Many Easter customs come from the Old World. The white lily, the symbol of the resurrection, is the special Easter flower. Rabbits and colored eggs have come from pagan antiquity as symbols of new life. The Easter rabbit, a symbol of fertility, and in colored easter eggs, originally painted with bright colors to represent the sunlight of spring, and used in Easter-egg rolling contests or given as gifts. Easter Monday egg rolling, a custom of European origin, has become a tradition on the lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. During the Octave of Easter in early Christian times, the newly baptized wore white garments, white being the liturgical color of Easter and signifying light, purity, and joy.

ORIGIN OF THE NAME

The name Easter comes from Eostre, an ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess, originally of the dawn. In pagan times an annual spring festival was held in her honor. Some Easter customs have come from this and other pre-Christian spring festivals. Others come from the Passover feast of the Jews, observed in memory of their deliverance from Egypt. The word paschal comes from a Latin word that means belonging to Passover or to Easter. Formerly, Easter and the Passover were closely associated.

The resurrection of Jesus took place during the Passover. Christians of the Eastern church initially celebrated both holidays together. But the Passover can fall on any day of the week, and Christians of the Western church preferred to celebrate Easter on Sunday the day of the resurrection.