Easter gap filling

Read the following text about Easter customs. FilI in the gaps with the correct words.

Do you remember the date of last year's Easter? Do you know when we will celebrate it next year? Probably not, because Easter doesn't have a set date. It is a movable holiday. It falls between March 22nd and April 25th. Its history goes back to the pagan celebrations of the arrival of (1)……………. after a long winter.

The first day connected with Easter is (2) ………………, also known as Shrove Tuesday. On this day people eat pancakes and organise pancake competitions. One of them is a pancake (3) ……………………  where women with frying pans have to run fast and (4) ………………  pancakes at the same time. Pancake Day is the last chance for some fun before (5)……………….. begins. The first day of this forty-day period of (6)……………… and prayer in preparation for Easter Sunday is (7) ……………….. This name comes from a religious practice where priests put ash on people's foreheads to remind them that they too must become ash in the end.

The Sunday before Easter, (8) ……………… reminds us of the day when Christ rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and people greeted Him with palm leaves. On this day (9)……………… begins. It tells us of the last days before Christ's death: (10)………………… is the day of the Last Supper, while (11)…………………. is the day of Christ's death on the cross. The traditional food on this day is the (12)……………… - a sweet cake with a cross on top. Finally, on (13)……………………… we celebrate Christ's Resurrection.

There are a lot of Easter symbols. The most important one is, of course, an (14)………………. It is a symbol of new life. Some people (15)………………… eggs, others organise egg games. One such game is an 'egg hunt', where people hide chocolate eggs for children to find. When you play 'egg-knocking', you try to break somebody else's egg with yours. The eggs, of course, have to be hard-boiled!

Where do Easter eggs come from? The Easter (16) ………………….., also called the Easter Bunny, is the animal that hides Easter eggs. An old legend says that when children looked for Easter eggs they saw a rabbit and thought that it left eggs in their garden. Another Easter symbol is a (17)…………………….. , which reminds us of Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

Nowadays, people celebrate Easter with their families, they go to Easter parades, play egg games and enjoy the beginning of spring.