How was Easter celebrated in the early church?
The church of the book of Acts celebrated the last supper and his resurrection in memory of our Lord. The Catholic church does not celebrate Easter, but “La Pascua” or Holy Week also called the major week which is the Passover week.
Easter; however, is a Pagan celebration that was not originally celebrated by any Christian church. Easter relates to infiltration of Paganism among protestants in Western countries.
In early centuries the Easter was celebrated with utmost reverence and in great detail. The accounts of the Easter celebrations especially in the church of Jerusalem in 4th century AD are available from the great sermons of Cyril of Jerusalem and the Armenian lectionary. Some of the information regarding the celebrations is given below: a) Easter services were conducted during Easter Sunday night through the daybreak. The place of worship was the Church of Anastasis which stood at the Tomb of Christ. The worship started with a gospel reading from St. Mathew 27:62-66, which was a reference to the Jewish leaders’ request to the governor Pilate to seal the tomb of Christ that no one would steal Christ’s dead body. After the gospel reading would take place the reading of Psalm 88 considered as the prophetical oracles of the Christ’s entry into the Hades to preach the good news of salvation to the souls of the departed assembled there. Following this reading was the lighting of three candle
