celebration is the hiding of the Easter eggs and cookies in the garden. The adults are said to have as much pleasure in hiding the eggs as the children have in finding them.
Another custom associated with Easter in Germany is the " Easter fire. 2 For the fire, all Christmas trees are collected and burned in a special place, making a huge fire, this way cleaning the last signs of the winter and getting ready for the spring. Quite German, it is both pleasant and practical.
            Christian Festivals and celebrations have a great effect on the entire world.  This is because Christianity is the largest religion in the world.  Therefore celebrations in a place like the United Kingdom, and the United States, where there is a cosmopolitan community, every member of this community will be affected.  For example, non-Christian children in schools, and non-Christian employees at work, who also have to celebrate with the Christian community in which they live.  So these people will be affected because of their religion.  Jews have also been persecuted throughout the ages; one of the factors leading to this is because they were blamed for  causing Our Lord Jesus' death.  They have been persecuted most recently in Nazi Germany during the
' Holocaust '.  Prejudice should not be a way of behaviour for Christians, and the persecution of Jews was not only morally wrong, but the Bible tells us it is wrong.  Christianity is about Love, for God is Love.  Jesus also said asked God to forgive the Jews for persecuting him.  St. Paul takes this further in his letter to the Galatians where he says in chapter 3 ' There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male or female.  For you are all one in Christ Jesus.'  When any Christian thinks of celebrations such as Christmas and Easter, the first thing that is usually on their minds are presents, parties and feasts.  In the world we live in today, people forget that the real meaning of the occasions are the celebration of our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ.  In fact, recently, a television crew for BBC News interviewed members of the public for their opinion about Christmas.  One woman replied and said, " What has Christmas got to do with religion?  The Churches should keep their noses out of what doesn't concern them".  People also always seem to prefer to take the word 'Christ'  out of 'Christmas' and replace it with ' X 'so it makes
' Xmas '.  Wealth and poverty are also points to be discussed during such occasions.  At this time people give presents to others and also send presents and money to less fortunate people.  But at the same time, some people only expect presents.  There is a massive amount of poverty all around the world, and at the same time there are more millionaires and billionaires than ever.  Two thousand years ago, we see in the bible that people were more equal when it came to money, and the early Church, as we see in Acts chapter 4, said ' All the believers were one in heart and mind.  No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. '  It also says, ' There were no needy persons among them.  For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need'.  This shows how poverty was not a problem 2000 years ago.
Overall Easter is celebrated in most of the world's countries. It is a time when the whole family gets together and celebrate Easter, presents are exchanged and Jesus' resurrection brings happiness even 2000 years after it happened.
           
           
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Various magazine and newspaper articles, interviews and Internet websites were useful in obtaining some of the information in this coursework.
I also used:
The Lion Encyclopedia of the Bible
Introducing the New Testament    John Drane
The Lion Handbook to the Bible
Christianity: a World Faith
The Lion Book of Christian Thought