Easter should be the most openly joyful time of celebration of the church year. Celebrated against the background of the shadows and darkness of Lent and Holy Week, this season truly becomes a living expression of the hope that God has brought into the world through the death and resurrection of Jesus. This hope of renewal and new life, both present and future is at the heart of the Good News that the church is commissioned to proclaim and live in the world.

Easter, like Passover, is a movable feast. The date of Easter is not fixed, but is determined by a system based on a lunar calendar adapted from a formula decided by the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring equinox. This usually occurs on March 21, which means the date of Easter can range between March 22 and April 25. Since Jewish Passover is calculated differently, the dates for Passover and Easter do not correspond.

Color used in worship is especially important during the season of Easter (see Colors of the Church Year). The changing colors of the sanctuary from the purple of Lent to the black of Good Friday provide visual symbols for the Lenten journey. For the Easter season, white symbolizes the hope of the resurrection, as well as the purity and newness that comes from victory over sin and death. The gold symbolizes the light of the world brought by the risen Christ that enlightens the world, as well as the exaltation of Jesus as Lord and King.

In the early church, the Easter Vigil concluded with the baptism of new converts, celebrating not only Jesus’ resurrection from death to life, but also the new life that God has brought to individual believers. Those baptized changed into new white clothes to symbolize their new life in Christ, which is the origin of the tradition of buying new clothes at Easter.

A traditional way of celebrating Easter among Protestant churches is the Easter musical or cantata, or a series of special music and song. But even with music at the heart of many Easter services, there are still other symbols and activities that can be equally important and creative in communicating the message of the resurrection.

The flower cross is an especially beautiful way to symbolize the new life that emerges from the death of Good Friday. There are many adaptations of this symbol, but they center on a very rough-cut wooden cross, often of cedar since it easily retains a rough texture. This cross is usually erected at the front of the sanctuary on Ash Wednesday or on Palm Sunday. Sometimes it is draped with the purple of Lent and a crown of thorns made of thorny vines, but is often left bare throughout Lent until Good Friday. On Good Friday, the cross is draped in black, the color of mourning for the death of Jesus.

Before the Easter Sunday service, the black drape is removed and the cross is covered with real flowers and the top draped in white. The entire cross is covered with the flowers and is placed prominently at the front of the church to greet worshippers as they enter the sanctuary on Easter Sunday.

The contrast between the starkly bare cross that worshippers have seen for 40 days and the living flowering cross of Easter Sunday dramatically and visually represents the new life that they are celebrating as they witness the very instrument of death and endings transformed into life and new beginnings.

The origin of the English name "Easter" is not certain, but many think that it derived from the Teutonic or Anglo-Saxon goddess of Spring, Eostre or Eastre.