APDG ~ Easter - 4/17

Did any of you know that April 17th is Easter? Well yes it is.

Easter gives you the opportunity to .... you guessed it......go to church, have an Easter egg hunt, share a nice meal with family and so much more!

The Christian observance of Easter focuses on a single all-important event, Jesus Christ’s Resurrection from the tomb. The Resurrection is celebrated on Easter Sunday once a year, and is a movable holiday, which means that it is not celebrated on the same calendar date every year. According to Wikipedia, Easter Sunday falls on the first Sunday after the full moon that follows the northern hemisphere’s vernal equinox.

This was established by the First Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. There are several holidays that precede Easter Sunday in anticipation of the celebration of the Resurrection. These events, in addition to Easter Sunday, are sometimes referred to as the Easter Season, and include Mardi Gras (Carnival), Ash Wednesday and Lent, Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Easter is celebrated by Christians around the world to remember that Jesus died on the cross so that the sins of humanity would be forgiven. The accounts given in the Gospels of the New Testament provide details of the events that took place after the crucifixion.

Today’s celebrations of Easter can sometimes be a combination of pagan and Christian ideas. Although the two have very separate beginnings, they do share a few common traits, which many might consider coincidental. The pagan celebrations today generally involve the Easter bunny, Easter eggs and other Springtime creatures and themes. The name of the holiday, Easter, is actually derived from the name of a Spring goddess of Anglo-Saxon mythology named Eastre or Eoster.

The festivities for the goddess were held by the Anglo-Saxons in the month of April. This month was also referred to as Eostermonath. Like many other Springtime festivals throughout history, celebrations surrounding Eoster and Eostermonath revolved around rebirth and fertility, and the idea of things beginning anew. The strongest ties between the pagan and Christian celebrations probably lie in the timing.

Many sources indicate that it is highly probable that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and his Resurrection, occurred in the month of April. This is found in the Gospels and other books in the New Testament. The other common trait that the two separate celebrations have is rebirth. Springtime is a time of rebirth and Jesus’ Resurrection symbolizes rebirth to humanity. That the two occur during the same time of the year may, or may not be, purely coincidenta

Next onto our swap:

Post THREE (3) pictures and/or gifs to each of your THREE (3) partner’s profiles with the theme “Easter”. The pictures that you choose may be the SAME OR DIFFERENT between all of your partners. Please choose pictures that you think THEY will enjoy! Only people with well filled out profiles may participate in this swap. I will be checking the night before partners get assigned.

If you get 3 pictures from your partner on "Easter” you have to rate them a 5. The heart on the rating is for if you like what they sent. To leave a photo on someone's profile use this code ! [ ] ( Put image address here ) With NO spaces & paste the picture's link between the curved parentheses.

Practice on your own profile first to be sure it looks good because you can easily delete it there.

Pick images that are size 300 wide or smaller to be sure they fit. I go to Google images to get my pictures.

Hover over images to see their size because there will be some larger sizes there too. If you really like something click on it and go to the words SEARCH BY IMAGE and click on that. THEN go to the word SMALL and see if there is one 300 size. There are other tricks in the group thread; AN EASY way to get a small PIC from a BIG one;-)

You can find moving pictures at http://giphy.com/

Please write the TITLE OF THE SWAP ON YOUR PROFILE DECO MESSAGE too! This makes it easier for partners that are in a lot of these swaps to rate it.

Any problems, feel free to contact me.

I want to thank @anrtist for allowing me to borrow SOME of her wording.