Checking the calendar you may (or may not) have noticed that this year Easter comes before Passover? Really! I'm not kidding. It's the most idiotic thing I've ever seen. I remember it also happening a few years ago and I thought, "What idiot came up with that?"
For the sake of those who may not see the stupidity of this, let me give you a little background on these holy days and we can reason together.
Summary of Passover Week:
For the sake of those who may not see the stupidity of this, let me give you a little background on these holy days and we can reason together.
Summary of Passover Week:
- Matthew 26:2 tells that Passover (also called the Feast of Unleavened Bread) was about to begin and that during the week Jesus would be handed over to be crucified.
- The disciples prepared to have the Passover meal with Jesus (Luke 22:7-20), what we have come to call The Last Supper.
- That same evening, Jesus was arrested (John 18:1-12) and later was crucified (John 19). The day Jesus was crucified is what is known today as Good Friday.
- Three days after they had placed Jesus' body in the tomb, He was resurrected (Mark 16:1-8). Easter is the celebration of Christ's resurrection.
The order of events, then, is: Passover, The Last Supper, Good Friday, and Easter. So, again, I will ask the question: Who decided that, every few years, Easter should be before Passover? It makes no historical sense! That's because it isn't based on history, but the lunar cycle.
Now, I could try to go into all of it, but after doing some research it gave me such a headache that I just decided to let you look it up for yourself. You can read about how Easter Sunday date is determined and about the difference between the Gregorian and Julian calendars. And more information can be found relating to the Hebrew Calendar.
Have fun with that.
4 comments:
I mused that it may be possible that those in charge of the Christian church at the time this decision was made wanted Easter to be separate from Passover, so they did what they did to keep the two unrelated. Of course, if no one wrote it down, or heard about it to write it down, then that little bit of history would be lost.
Of course, that is only a possibility as opposed to anything I know.
It is bizarre, and having looked into how the date for Easter is determined at different times, I'm going to pass on looking again. 'Cuz I'm all about avoiding headaches, and that gives me one, too.
I do think that it is a loss to the Church, on various levels, that the link between Passover and Easter has been largely lost/forgotten. I could go off on a convoluted historical discourse as to why that is the way it is, but I'll restrain myself.
I have several friends who are Eastern Orthodox Christians, and their celebration of Pascha (the Orthodox name for Easter) seems to follow Passover much more closely. So from time to time, and this year is one of those, we Western Christians will be getting into Holy Week while our Eastern brethren are just getting started with Lent. . .
Eh, this is what happens when semi-intelligent people gets too much power and try to make a decision or two .... doesn't matter if much of the world follows what they set out, it's still nonsensical. And somehow strangely amusing in a cynical sort of way.
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