Easter Sunday Special - Resurrection and The Divine Comedy

Easter Sunday Special – Resurrection and The Divine Comedy

    

Easter is celebrated across the world on a Sunday preceded by Good Friday.    Easter commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from his tomb after his crucifixion.  The Christians in the world believe in Jesus Christ’s resurrection and that is what differentiates Christianity from all other religions of human race.  

On Easter day Jesus resurrected from the tomb and rose to the heaven leaving aside witnesses to record the same.
 

The third day after crucifixion, the Jews searched his tomb and by seeing that two witnesses asked them, Why do you seek the living one among the dead?  Meaning that Jesus had resurrected and had eternal life.
 

Easter is preceded by forty days of fasting.  Easter eggs also known as Paschal eggs are decorated eggs that are often given to celebrate Easter or Spring-time.

The resurrection symbolizes a bird coming out of its egg shells and the relevance of Easter Eggs.  The decorated colorful eggs made from different substances including sugarcoated and chocolates are used during Easter celebrations.  The oldest tradition is to use dyed and painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs or plastic eggs filled with such as jelly beans.  The eggs, in general, were a traditional symbol of fertility or rebirth.  Jesus is the only God who had resurrected after death.  The message of Easter is Love, Peace, Happiness and Joyful celebrations.

Easter is celebrated worldwide on a Sunday preceded by holy week and it is an International holiday.
 

Maundy Thursday is the fifth day of Holy Week.  On Maundy Thursday, Jesus had last supper, the mystical supper with his apostles and instituted Holy Eucharist (Holy Mass) with bread and wine symbolizing his body and blood.

When we discuss about resurrection it reminds me of the Greek mythical bird Phoenix which symbolizes renewal and resurrection.

The Phoenix is a legendary bird that is colorful and vibrant.  It has a crest of feathers on its head.  It is a mythical bird of great beauty.  The Phoenix has a life span of 1400 years before it is reborn for another life.  History recorded that it is larger than an Ostrich in size.   The Phoenix symbolizes resurrection and renewal.  The Phoenix was adopted as a symbol in early Christianity.

A Phoenix is long lived bird that cyclically regenerated or reborn.

In Christian theology, Jesus is sometimes referred to as a redeemer.  This refers to the salvation he is believed to have accomplished, and is based on the metaphor of redemption, or buying back.  The Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro is a famous landmark.

     

                                              
 

Easter is an occasion to exchange the greetings of an eternal life.  The one who believe in Jesus Christ is redeemed to enjoy eternity.

     

  

The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri (May 14, 1265-September 13, 1321), who is popularly known as just “Dante”.

The Divine Comedy in Italian is “Divina Comedia”.

“My desire and will were moved

  Already like a wheel revolving

  Uniformly by the Love that

  Move the sun and the other stars”.

                                   -           Dante.

Dante took twelve years to write this epic poem.

The Divine Comedy begins in a shadowed forest on Good Friday on 1300.  It proceeds on a journey that in its intense recreation of the depths and heights of human experience, has become the key with which Western civilization has sought to unlock the mystery of its own identity.

He first saw the woman when he was nine years old and she was few months younger and became the poetic love of his life.  In fact, his lady love Beatrice married another man and died when Dante was just 25 years old.  So their relationship existed mainly in Dante’s imagination, but she nonetheless plays an extremely important role in his poetry.  Dante attributed all heavenly virtues on her soul and imagined, in his masterpiece “The Divine Comedy”, that she was his guardian angel who alternately berated and encouraged him on his search for salvation.

Dante Alighieri’s other works are –

-          Inferno (Divine Comedy #1)

-          Purgatorio (Divine Comedy #2)

-          Paradiso (Divine Comedy #3)

-          Vita Nuova

-          The portable Dante

-          La Vida Nuova

-          De Monarchia

-          Convivo

-          De Vulgari Eloquentia

-          Rime

-          Tutte Le Opere

-          Dante etc.

Dante is one of the greatest poet in Italian language.  Dante was born in Florence in 1265. Dante had his share of Bohemian escapades and finally died in the city of Ravenna in 1321.

WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY EASTER.