Easter Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

Trivia quiz questions with answers about Easter.

Easter Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

What is Easter?
A: Easter is a festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial after his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD.

In Latin and Greek, the Christian celebration was, and still is, called what?
A: Pascha.

The word originally denoted what?
A: The Jewish festival known in English as Passover, commemorating the Jewish Exodus from slavery in Egypt.

As early as the 50s of the 1st century, Paul, writing from Ephesus to the Christians in Corinth, applied the term to whom?
A: Christ.

In most of the non-English speaking world, the feast is known by names derived from what?
A: Greek and Latin Pascha.

Where is Pascha also a name by which Jesus himself is remembered?
A: In the Orthodox Church, especially in connection with his resurrection and with the season of its celebration.

Easter is linked to Passover and the Exodus from Egypt recorded in the Old Testament through what?
A: The Last Supper, sufferings, and crucifixion of Jesus that preceded the resurrection.

Direct evidence for a Christian festival of Pascha (Easter) begins to appear when?
A: In the mid-2nd century.

Perhaps the earliest extant primary source referring to Easter is a mid-2nd-century Paschal homily attributed to whom?
A: Melito of Sardis, which characterizes the celebration as a well-established one.

Evidence for what other annual Christian festival begins to appear at about the same time as evidence for the celebration of Easter?
A: The commemoration of martyrs.

The First Council of Nicaea (325) established what two rules?
A: Independence of the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity, which were the only rules for Easter explicitly laid down by the Council.

No details for the computation were specified; these were worked out in practice, a process that took how long?
A: Centuries and generated a number of controversies.

In particular, the Council did not decree that Easter must fall on what?
A: Sunday.

In Western Christianity, using the Gregorian calendar, Easter always falls on a what?
A: Sunday between 22 March and 25 April inclusive, within about seven days after the astronomical full moon.

Eastern Christianity bases its calculations on what calendar?
A: The Julian calendar.

By the later 3rd century some Christians began to express dissatisfaction with what custom?
A: The custom of relying on the Jewish community to determine the date of Easter.

What was the chief complaint?
A: That the Jewish communities sometimes erred in setting Passover to fall before the Northern Hemisphere spring equinox.

Because of this dissatisfaction with reliance on the Jewish calendar, some Christians began to experiment with what?
A: Independent computations.

How was this controversy between those who advocated independent computations, and those who wished to continue the custom of relying on the Jewish calendar formally resolved?
A: It was resolved by the First Council of Nicaea in 325.

What did the First Council of Nicaea do?
A: It endorsed changing to an independent computation by the Christian community in order to celebrate in common.

In Western Christianity, Easter is preceded by Lent, a period of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter, which begins when?
A: On Ash Wednesday and lasts forty days (not counting Sundays).

The week before Easter, is known as what?
A: Holy Week, which is very special in the Christian tradition.

The Sunday before Easter is what?
A: Palm Sunday, with the Wednesday before Easter being known as Spy Wednesday.

What are the last three days before Easter?
A: They are Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday (sometimes referred to as Silent Saturday).

Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday respectively commemorate what?
A: Jesus' entry in Jerusalem, the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.

Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are sometimes referred to as what?
A: The Easter Triduum (Latin for "Three Days").

When do many churches begin celebrating Easter?
A: Late in the evening of Holy Saturday at a service called the Easter Vigil.

The week beginning with Easter Sunday is called what?
A: Easter Week or the Octave of Easter, and each day is prefaced with "Easter.

Easter Saturday is therefore when?
A: The Saturday after Easter Sunday.

The day before Easter is properly called what?
A: Holy Saturday.

Eastertide, or Paschaltide, the season of Easter, begins on what day?
A: Easter Sunday and lasts until the day of Pentecost, seven weeks later.

The traditional, liturgical observation of Easter, as practiced among Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and some Anglicans begins when?
A: On the night of Holy Saturday with the Easter Vigil.

This, the most important liturgy of the year, begins in total what?
A: Darkness with the blessing of the Easter fire, the lighting of the large Paschal candle (symbolic of the Risen Christ) and the chanting of the Exultet or Easter Proclamation attributed to Saint Ambrose of Milan.

What comes after the service of light?
A: A number of readings from the Old Testament.

These tell what stories?
A: The stories of creation, the sacrifice of Isaac, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the foretold coming of the Messiah.

This part of the service climaxes with the singing of what?
A: The Gloria and the Alleluia and the proclamation of the Gospel of the resurrection.

Anciently, Easter was considered the ideal time for converts to do what?
A: To receive baptism and this practice continues within Roman Catholicism and the Anglican Communion.

Whether there are baptisms at this point or not, it is traditional for the congregation to do what?
A: Renew the vows of their baptismal faith.

This act is often sealed by what?
A: The sprinkling of the congregation with holy water from the font.

What does the Easter Vigil conclude with?
A: The celebration of the Eucharist (known in some traditions as Holy Communion).

Easter is the fundamental and most important festival of what two churches?
A: The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches:

In addition to fasting, almsgiving, and prayer, Orthodox Christians cut down on all what?
A: Entertainment and non-essential worldly activities.

In Greece the traditional meal is mageiritsa, a hearty stew of what?
A: Chopped lamb liver and wild greens seasoned with egg-and-lemon sauce.

Traditionally, what are cracked together to celebrate the opening of the Tomb of Christ?
A: Easter eggs, hard-boiled eggs dyed bright red to symbolize the spilt Blood of Christ and the promise of eternal life.

Along with the celebration of Christmas and Advent, many Lenten and Easter traditions were altered or even abandoned altogether by various offshoots of the what?
A: The Protestant Reformation, as they were deemed "pagan" or "Popish”.

Some of the major Reformation Churches and movements (Lutheran, Methodist and Anglican for example), chose to do what?
A: Retain a large proportion of the observances of the established Church Year.

In Lutheran Churches, for example, not only were the days of Holy Week observed, but also Christmas, Easter and Pentecost were observed with what?
A: Three-day festivals (the day itself and the two following).

Other Protestant groups took a different attitude, with most Anabaptists, Quakers, Congregationalists and Presbyterian Puritans regarding such festivals as what?
A: An abomination.

Groups such as the Restored Church of God reject the celebration of Easter, seeing it as originating in a what?
A: A pagan spring festival taken over by the "Roman" Catholic Church.

Jehovah's Witnesses maintain a similar view, observing a yearly commemorative service of what?
A: The Last Supper and the subsequent execution of Christ on the evening of Nisan 14 (as they calculate the dates derived from the lunar Hebrew Calendar).

It is commonly referred to by many Witnesses as what?
A: Simply "The Memorial".

During the 17th and 18th centuries, Quakers were persecuted for what?
A: The non-observance of Holy Days.