The other, of course, is the birth of the Saviour, celebrated at Christmas.

Both festivals have elements drawn from outside Christianity.

Christ's birth date is unknown, but history shows his birth became associated with our December 25 in the fourth century AD in Rome: the date coincided with their celebration of the end of winter and the birth date of a Roman sun god, Sol Invictus.

Christ's final days on earth came during the Jewish festival of Passover, which is timed by a lunar, rather than solar, calendar.

All these centuries later, Easter is still set by lunar calculations, making it, literally, a moveable feast.

The English word Easter can also be traced to a German goddess Eostre or Ostara, as noted by the early church historian, the Venerable Bede.

As holy as it is to Christians, Easter's main role in modern secular life has devolved to become a four-day long weekend symbolised, in this part of the world, by snaking lines of traffic heading up and down our highways, and by holiday towns banking their biggest seasonal tourism takings outside of Christmas.

This year, coronavirus clampdowns have sidelined all of that, and Australians have shown themselves generally ready to obey the restrictions that quickly played a major role in suppressing infection rates.

Police have already used their powers this week to warn - and occasionally fine - people disobeying social distancing and "stay at home" laws.

For Easter, senior police say cameras and number plate detection technology will be deployed on the roads, while travellers at holiday destinations such as caravan parks will be given a chance to pack up and go home, or be fined if they don't.

This is not the time to relax harsh limits on movement.

As gut-wrenching as these decisions have been, they have saved lives. Since March 24, when US President Donald Trump boasted America would be open again by Easter, our case numbers have tripled, while America's have multiplied by eight.

Even so, a slowing of new cases here and in many other countries provides some hope of a resurrecting light at the end of this tunnel.

For practising Christians, an online Easter service is unlikely to match the majesty and solemnity of a massed congregation, but the Easter message of a new dawn of hope will remain the same.

And religious or not, all of us should give thanks to those at the front line of the epidemic whose interactions with the sick and dying put them at a greater risk than the rest of us of contracting the contagion they are helping to stop.

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