EASTER is one of the most important festivals in the Christian calendar - a time of darkness as the crucifixion of Christ is remembered on Good Friday and a time of celebration with the resurrection three days later.

So what have bunnies and bonnets got to do with it?

Like many religious festivals, early Christians were very good at hijacking Pagan celebrations and turning them to their own advantage.

By overlaying the Christian calendar onto dates dear to the Pagan heart, the festivals became confused until the Christian celebration took dominance.

Many a convert was acquired through such stealth.

Take the name of Easter.

This time of year was associated with Eostre, a Pagan fertility goddess, whose symbol was the hare.

Possibly the hare became translated into the rabbit, itself a symbol of productivity but a cuter, cuddlier variation for commercial companies to get their teeth into.

Easter bunnies are of course the layers of brightly coloured Easter eggs, usually chocolate, in a strange twist on nature.

Big business has also latched onto Easter eggs, which usually enter the shops on Boxing Day.

Eggs predate the Christian Easter celebration as a symbol of Spring, rebirth and new life - think fluffy Easter chicks and baby lambs.

The Romans and Egyptians saw them as a symbol of life after death.

Again early Christians saw an eye to the main chance and adopted the idea for the Easter celebration.

Painted eggs, particularly popular in Europe, were often given at Eastertime.

Kings wrapped them in gold leaf, some cultures painted them red to symbolise the blood of Christ, others paint them brightly to decorate hearth and home at Eastertime.

The most famous and expensive eggs were made by goldsmith Peter Carl Fabergé for the Russian Czar Alexander.

The first was a small gold egg within a platinum outer shell.

Inside the egg itself was a golden chicken and a jewelled replica of the Russian crown. So delighted was the Czarina that annual Easter commissions were made to Fabergé for many years.

The Hot Cross Bun also had its origins in pre-Christian times as a simple wheat cake.

Later the cakes were made on Good Friday and a cross inlaid on top in icing or sweetened dough to symbolise the cross of the crucifixion.

Like all high days and holidays, Easter demanded best bib and tucker.

Traditionally, people would splash out on a new item of clothing.

More often than not, with a church visit on Easter Sunday de rigeur, a new hat was top of most people's lists or some new ribbons, frippery or adornment to add to tart up something older, hence the Easter bonnet.

Whatever their origins, Easter traditions - from tiny tots in homemade titfers to congregations observing the Way of the Cross - keep Journal photographers occupied in the weeks leading up to Easter and over the weekend itself.

Here we offer a selection of images of Easter past and present.