Showing posts with label easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label easter. Show all posts

Sunday 5 April 2020

Catholics facing a totally different Holy Week

For Pope Francis at the Vatican, and for Catholics worldwide from churches large and small, this will be an Easter like none other, like for real Christians this week shall be one of isolation whilst otherwise so busy with meeting and sharing the Good News.

The joyous message of Christ’s resurrection will be delivered to empty pews in the Christian world.
Bible students all over the world, who normally gather on 14 Nisan to have their Memorial Meal shall not be able to gather in this time of lockdown.
Also the Jews shall not be able to invite friends and poor people to their seder and shall have to celebrate the Passover meal on their own.

For the Catholics and many protestants, the world seems to come to a stand still, having no mass or worship services in public any more. Some protestant churches already spoke of a devil (Satan) making sure there would come an end to people serving and worshipping God.

Worries about the coronavirus outbreak have triggered widespread cancellations of Holy Week processions and in-person services. Many priests and pastors will preach on TV or online, tailoring sermons to account for the pandemic.
Many extended families will reunite via Face Time and Zoom rather than around a communal table laden with a Pesach Memorial Meal on Wednesday the 8th of April or an Easter feast on April 12.

Pope Francis, the first pontiff from Latin America, will be celebrating Mass for Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday and Easter in a near-empty St. Peter’s Basilica, instead of in the huge square outside filled with Catholic faithful.

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Find also to read:
  1. Making deeper cuts than some terrorist attacks of the near past
  2.  The unseen enemy
  3. Coronavirus on March 11 declared a global pandemic on March 31 affecting more than 177 countries
  4. Europe in Chaos for a Pandemic
  5. No idea yet for 14 Nisan or April the 8th in 2020 Corona crisis time
  6. Only a few days left before 14 Nisan
  7. Even in Corona time You are called on to have the seder
  8. A meal as a mitzvah so that every generation would remember
  9. A night different from all other nights and days to remember
  10. First time since Nazi time no public gathering
  11. Hosting a Virtual Seder During a Pandemic
  12. Love in the Time of Corona
  13. Christian Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic

Wednesday 28 February 2018

Celebrations pointing to events of ultimate meaning

Although other holidays sometimes get more attention, Passover and Easter/Pascha are truly the most important times of remembrance and reflection in the corresponding Jewish and Christian faiths. These celebrations point to events of ultimate meaning and call for observers not only to reflect but to prepare.

The name “Easter” is not biblical, so we better let us get that out of the way first, because the Divine Creator wants us to worship Him properly and has given us orders and a set of feasts we should celebrate. We do not to use other day and certainly not days which are connected with false gods.

Easter bunnies and Easter-eggs have nothing to do with Jesus and most of all also nothing to do with God. Easter/Estra “ostara” or “eostre“ comes from the goddess of fertility Eostra, Estra or Esdra and Ishtar the pagan Babylonian and Assyrian deity of fertility and sexuality, later adopted by the Romans, and formally introduced into Christianity by Emperor Constantine. The goddess of fertility was celebrated with elements that showed the fertility and that’s why there are “Easter eggs”, to represent new life.  Instead of the eggs, let’s focus on the real new life.

Little lambs may also present new life, but here the lambs have come in the picture by the event of warning for the Peple of Israel, who had to stroke the blood of the lambs on their doorposts to make sure the wrath of god would not come in their house.

Those who loved the only one God where asked to select lambs and to bring them in the house on the 10th of Nisan for inspection and to slaughter it the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan to roast it, and have it for dinner. When the animal would be stricken in the neck to kill it and to let the blood run out of it, it had to be collected and applied to the wooden doorposts of their houses, using a hyssop branch to apply the blood.  That evening all lovers of God had to stay indoors until God had finished smiting all the firstborn males of any household where there was no lamb’s blood applied, causing the Destroyer to Pass Over those houses.  This is the reason for the name of “Passover”.  That blood was absolutely necessary for the protection of the household.

According to the famous historian, Josephus, the day that Jeshua (Jesus Christ) was put on the stake, there were 250,000 lambs brought into the temple to be sacrificed.  At the conclusion of all the sacrifices, the high priest yelled out “It is finished.”  According to the historical record, it was 3:00 pm.  At that precise moment, Jeshua also yelled out “It is finished”, and died.

After the Egyptian shedding of blood the Pharaoh at last gave in to let the Israelites leave Egypt. Three days the Israelites travelled to the Sea of Reeds, being led to their escape on the third day. And when we look at Christ he was laid in a tomb for three days, and on the third day, he arose from the dead.  In fact, he was seen alive by thousands of eyewitnesses over the next forty days.

When the Exodus happened, God told Moses that the Israelites were to commemorate this Passover event every year, for all generations, and that includes our generation.  We are supposed to commemorate this event — that we are protected from the Destroyer by the blood of the sacrificed Lamb!
Scripture also says that anyone who is not an Israelite, but is a follower of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, must gather together on this day to commemorate the event of Passover.  In fact, this is so important to the heart of God that He commanded that anyone who misses Passover on Nisan 14 must have their commemorative gathering one month later, on the 14th of the next month!

Jesus and his disciples also came together in the upper-room to celebrate Passover. It was there that Jesus took the bread and broke it as a sign of the new covenant and asked his friends to remember that moment. Each follower of Jesus therefore should also remember that special moment and have such memorial meal.

Not all of us may have their own Christian community which celebrate on the by god given days. But today there are more Biblestudents around  and more groups can be found who know about the days of God.

Image result for pesachI strongly encourage any one of you who is reading this article to attend a Passover gathering near you, to enjoy the blessings of God that come from participating in this holy celebration.
If you are unable to attend someone else’s hosted gathering, then be sure to gather together as a family, with friends, in your own home, and read the Passover story that begins with Exodus 12.

The Bible does not call Passover a “feast of the Jews” — it is called a “feast of the LORD.” GOD is the host of the party. Be sure to attend HIS party!

This year, Nisan 14 falls on Friday evening, March 30.  If you don’t have a group to celebrate with, consider joining the co-meeting of the Belgian Christadelphians, Belgian Biblestudents and International Biblestudents, their gathering in Mons showing their unity as members of the Body of Christ.
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Find to read:
  1. 9 Adar and bickering or loving followers of the Torah preparing for Pesach
  2. Preparing for 14 Nisan
  3. Days of Nisan, Pesach, Pasach, Pascha and Easter
  4. Most important weekend of the year 2016
  5. 14-15 Nisan and Easter
  6. Peter Cottontail and a Bunny laying Eastereggs
  7. Making sure we express kedusha for 14-16 Nisan
  8. The flood, floods and mythic flood stories 2 Mythic theme 1 God or gods warning
  9. After darkness a moment of life renewal
  10. Objects around the birth and death of Jesus
  11. After the Sabbath after Passover, the resurrection of Jesus Christ
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In Dutch 

  1. Neem afstand van heidense vastenperiodes
  2. 13 Adar opening naar 14 Nisan
  3. Vrijdag 3 april 2015 een dag voor verenigde samenkomst ter herinnering
  4. Belangrijkste weekend van het jaar 2016
  5. Zeven Feesten van God de belangrijkste feesten van de hele Bijbel
  6. Fragiliteit en actie #14 Plagen van God
  7. Verwaarloosde geboortedag en sterfplaats 1 Rabbijn Jeshua en Romeinse weerstand
  8. 2017 Nisan 10, uitkijkend naar 14 Nisan
  9. Messiaans Pesach 2017 en verharde harten
  10. Na de sabbat na Pesach, de verrijzenis van Jezus Christus

Monday 27 March 2017

Most important day in Christian year

The Resurrection of Christ
The Resurrection of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What is the most important day in the Christian year
Ask the average person in the United States and chances are you will hear
Christmas.
But in the early centuries of the church, first they remembered the Last Supper and the gathering for the remembrance of the exodus out of Egypt. In later years several Christians started to put the accent on the day of the resurrection, finding that more important than the Egyptian exodus.

Some may think that
From its earliest days, the church annually celebrated the anniversary of Jesus' resurrection, often calling the holiday the Christian Passover. (The Greek name for Passover was Pasch, so Easter is sometimes called Paschal; Easter is an English word... Read More
but that was not at all the case. Eostre feast or Easter was the pagan Spring festival, very popular in the West of Israel, and the Roman Empire.

The real followers of rabbi Jeshua, very well knew that God had ordered to yearly remember the exodus of God's people out of Egypt. They kept to the same Jewish remembrance day as the Jews, for years, until there came division by those who agreed to go with the Roman requirement to integrate the Roman pagan gods in their religion, starting the trinitarian Catholic Church.

Though not all members of "the Way", like the Jewish sect was often called, agreed to accept that human doctrine of a three-headed god and to let their holy days to coincide with the Greek-Roman pagan festivals. The true Christians kept celebrating the by God given holidays, which where the Jewish religious holidays and festivals.

Today nothing should be different. We too should celebrate those special or set apart (holy) days which where ordered by God for man to remember or to keep special in their heart.
as such the 14th to 22th Nisan should be a special time, where on the 14th of Nisan we take more time to remember what Christ Jesus has done for mankind.

Coming April the 10th it shall be that special remembrance day when real Christians come together to think about the Gift which is given to mankind., the Grace of Salvation, which is given for free, but which each individual has to accept and take the responsibility for himself or herself concerning the faith in Jesus, the Way to God.

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Please read also
  1. 1691 years ago on June the 20th in 325
  2. Altered to fit a Trinity
  3. Who Celebrates Easter as Religious Holiday
  4. High Holidays not only for Israel
  5. Eostre, Easter, White god, chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies and metaphorical resurrection
  6. 14-15 Nisan and Easter
  7. Seven days of Passover
  8. Peter Cottontail and a Bunny laying Eastereggs
  9. Fraternal week-end at Easter in Paris
  10. Risen With Him
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Additional reading

  1. Spring playing hide and seek
  2. Family happiness and little things we do
  3. Christian values, traditions, real or false stories, pure and upright belief
  4. Looking for answers on the question Is there a God #2 Pantheon of gods and celebrations
  5. Who Gets to Say What the Bible Says?
  6. Being Religious and Spiritual 8 Spiritual, Mystic and not or well religious
  7. Necessity of a revelation of creation 2 Organisation of a system of things
  8. Holidays, holy days and traditions
  9. Seven Bible Feasts of JHWH
  10. Easter holiday, fun and rejoicing
  11. Entrance of a king to question our position #1 Coming in the Name of the Lord
  12. Entrance of a king to question our position #2 Who do we want to see and to be
  13. A Messiah to die
  14. Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ
  15. The Weekend that changed the world
  16. Pesach and a lot of brokenness in the world
  17. 14 Nisan a day to remember #4 A Lamb slain
  18. Welcome to Easter 2014
  19. Easter: Origins in a pagan Christ
  20. Exodus 9: Liar Liar
  21. Hanukkahgiving or Thanksgivvukah
  22. Irminsul, dies natalis solis invicti, birthday of light, Christmas and Saturnalia
  23. Christmas in Ancient Rome (AKA Saturnalia)
  24. Different approach in organisation of services #1
  25. Why we do not keep to a Sabbath or a Sunday or Lord’s Day #3 Days to be kept holy or set apart
  26. For ever changed by spiritual experience
  27. White Privilege Conference (WPC) wanting to keep the press out for obvious reasons
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Monday 20 June 2016

1691 years ago on June the 20th in 325

1691 years ago, on June the 20th in 325, the Roman Emperor Constantine I got the clergy into his hands and got them to accept the Roman Greek idea of multiple headed gods. Zeus had to be the upper god and rabbi Jeshua was allowed to be his equal when his name became changed to "Issou" or "Hail Zeus" today in english "Jesus".

At the First Council of Nicaea, which was the first ecumenical council of the Church, the disagreements arising from within the Church of Alexandria over the nature of the Son in his relationship to the Father was so called solved by making him part of a godhead, existing further of  a God the Father and a God the Holy Spirit.

Also for the 14th of Nisan was decided to take the pagan celebration of Estra/Eostra as the mid year festival for fertility, instead of celebrating it in the first month of the year (Nisan) on the day Jeshua with his fellow Jews prepared for the remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt.

Nicea.jpg

Sunday 20 April 2014

Who Celebrates Easter as Religious Holiday

The 2010 study by the Barna Group which explored Americans’ definition of the Easter holiday. (See: Eostre, Easter, White god, chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies and metaphorical resurrection)

They asked a nationwide, representative sample of American adults how they would describe what Easter means to them, personally.
English: Icon of the Resurrection
Icon of the Resurrection (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


Interestingly, those who articulate a resurrection-related concept of Easter are no more likely than other religiously oriented Americans to indicate that they will invite friends to worship with them on Easter.

The types of Americans who were most likely to express some type of theistic religious connection with Easter were evangelicals (93%), attenders of large churches (86% among those whose congregation has 500-plus adult attenders), born again Christians (81%), and weekly churchgoers (77%).
Republicans (77%) and Democrats (71%) were more likely than were independents (59%) and non-registered citizens (51%) to say Easter has religious meaning for them.

In terms of age, members of the Boomer generation (73%, ages 45 to 63) were among the most likely to describe Easter as a religious holiday for them, compared with two-thirds of Elders (66% of those ages 64-plus) and Busters (66%, ages 26 to 44). The youngest adult generation, the Mosaics (ages 18 to 25), were the least likely age segment to say Easter is a religious holiday (58%), reflecting the increasingly secular mindset of young adults.

Other population segments describing Easter with a non-religious bent were faith groups other than Christianity (just 31% said Easter’s meaning is religious), atheists and agnostics (36%), and unchurched adults (46%).

Those who identify Easter explicitly as a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus were most likely to be evangelicals (73%), large church attenders (60%), born again Christians (55%), active churchgoers (54%), upscale adults (54%), and Protestants (51%).

Showing a perceptual gap between political conservatives and liberals, those on the political “right” were nearly twice as likely as those on the political “left” to say that Easter is a celebration of the resurrection (53% versus 29%, respectively).

In terms of the audience that most Christian churches attempt to attract on Easter weekend – non-churchgoing adults – the research shows that while 46% of unchurched adults view the meaning of Easter to be religious, while just 25% connect the holiday to Jesus’ return to life.

As for denominational affiliation, most Catholics said they celebrate Easter as a religious holiday (65%).Still, just one-third of Catholics listed the resurrection as the meaning of the holiday (37%). In comparison, Protestants were more likely than Catholics both to view Easter as a religious holiday and to connect the occasion to Jesus’ awakening from death (78% and 51%, respectively).



Most Americans Consider Easter a Religious Holiday, But Fewer Correctly Identify its Meaning


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Please, also find to read:

Welcome to Easter 2014
Easter: Origins in a pagan Christ
Eostre, Easter, White god, chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies and metaphorical resurrection
High Holidays not only for Israel 
14-15 Nisan and Easter 
Ishtar the fertility goddess or Altered to fit a Trinity 
Peter Cottontail and a Bunny laying Eastereggs

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Saturday 19 April 2014

Eostre, Easter, White god, chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies and metaphorical resurrection

Tomorrow many Christians celebrate Easter Sunday as the day to remember the Resurrection of some one they consider to be also God, though God according to the Holy Scriptures is a  Spirit Who can not die.


RESURRECTION
The Cross and Resurrection (Photo credit: Luz Adriana Villa A.)
As Easter approaches, many Christians struggle with how to understand the Resurrection. How literally must one take the Gospel story of Jesus’ triumph to be called a Christian? Can one understand the Resurrection as a metaphor — perhaps not even believe it happened at all — and still claim to be a Christian? And what do they want ot understand under being a Christian, because for many it does not exactly mean to be a "follower of Christ" but means more to be a follower of a trinitarian doctrine.

For the Americans who answered to the survey only 2 percent identified it as the most important holiday of their faith. For Christ Jesus 14 Nisan and 15 Nisan were two very important days, but most Christians do not even know what does days are and for what reason Jesus came together where.


Jesus Resurrection 1778
Jesus Resurrection 1778 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Having a society becoming more religiously diverse, the U.S.A. nation’s population has had to grapple with how to define its holidays and celebrations at the 2010 Barna poll which showed that only 42 percent of Americans said the meaning of Easter was Jesus’ resurrection. The results indicated that most Americans consider Easter to be a religious holiday, but fewer identify the resurrection of Jesus as the underlying meaning. The study also explored the degree to which Americans are likely to invite an unchurched friend or family member to attend worship service on Easter weekend.
“More people have problems with Easter because it requires believing that Jesus rose from the dead,” 
said the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author of the new book, “Jesus: A Pilgrimage.”
“But believing in the Resurrection is essential. It shows that nothing is impossible with God. In fact, Easter without the Resurrection is utterly meaningless. And the Christian faith without Easter is no faith at all.”
It is strange to hear it from a a reverend who takes Jesus to be God, but than should know that death can not have any grip on God. Jesus who had his “last supper” before the festival of Passover, was taken hostage that night and tortured before he was impaled. On the wooden stake Jesus really died.

Among the Jews crucifixion was an anathema. (See Deuteronomy 21:22–23: “If a man is guilty of a capital offense and is put to death, and you impale him on a stake, you must not let his corpse remain on the stake overnight, but must bury him the same day. For an impaled body is an affront to God: you shall not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.”)

They wanted to humiliate and frighten Jesus and his followers, and by putting Jesus on a stake in front of all to see, he had to be an example for those who thought they could speak against Pharisees and priests and against the ones in charge of the Empire.
Christian iconography usually shows the nails piercing the palms of Jesus’ hands on a horizontal beam. Nailing the palms of the hands is impossible, because the weight of the slumping body would have torn the palms in a very short time. The victim would have fallen from the cross while still alive.

In a 2011/2012 research on sediment disturbances bring in its study of cores and seismic activity near the Dead Sea (International Geology Review + Discovery News suggested: * + ** ) scientific data relating to the event described in Matthew 27. Those sediment disturbances can be combined with Biblical, astronomical and calendrical information to give a precise date of the crucifixion: Friday, April 3rd, 33 C.E.

Geologists Jefferson B. Williams, Markus J. Schwab and A. Brauer examined disturbances in sediment depositions to identify two earthquakes: one large earthquake in 31 B.C.E., and another, smaller quake between 26 and 36 C.E. In the abstract of their paper, the authors write,
“Plausible candidates include the earthquake reported in the Gospel of Matthew, an earthquake that occurred sometime before or after the crucifixion and was in effect ‘borrowed’ by the author of the Gospel of Matthew, and a local earthquake between 26 and 36 AD that was sufficiently energetic to deform the sediments at Ein Gedi but not energetic enough to produce a still extant and extra-biblical historical record. If the last possibility is true, this would mean that the report of an earthquake in the Gospel of Matthew is a type of allegory.”
This quake, occurring during Jesus’ crucifixion, would have been too minor to be described by non-Biblical histories, but major enough to terrify the surrounding centurions.
Matthew explicitly reports strong seismic activity as the occasions of both the storm on the Sea of Galilee Jesus stilled in 8:24 (seismos megas) and the moving of the stone sealing Jesus’ tomb and in 28:2 (seismos . . . megas). In 27:51, he reports that the earth was shaken (he gE eseisthE) and stones split, but does not use the adjective “great” as in the other references.

The soldiers at the stake were confronted with the death of that Jewish rabbi, son of Miriam (Mary) and Joseph from the tribe of king David. They had seen the water coming out of his body and no doubt were convinced he was really death.

Those who know god can not die and as such also would not be able to stand up from the dead, would love to have others to believe the resurrection or that Jesus literally rose from the dead, should be taken only symbolically.

New York University professor Scott Korb, 37, a non-practicing Catholic, who once wanted to become a priest, says:
“The miracle of a bodily resurrection is something I rejected without moving away from its basic idea.”
“What I mean is that we can reach the lowest points of our lives, of going deep into a place that feels like death, and then find our way out again — that’s the story the Resurrection now tells me. And at Easter, this is expressed in community, and at its best, through the compassion of others.” 
That change — from a literal to a metaphorical approach — has given the story more power, he said.
“There is only one story to be told of a single man who dies and then rises,” Korb said. “But if we think about the metaphor of the Resurrection, that allows us to return to the story year after year and find new meaning in it.”
Reg Rivett, 27, finds the repetition of the Easter story a big problem. A youth minister at an evangelical house church near Edmonton, Canada, he said his belief that Jesus literally rose from the dead is central to his Christian identity and faith. Nonetheless, he still has conflicting feelings about how the Resurrection story is used in some circles.
“You hear about it year after year or at the end of every youth event — ‘This is why Jesus came and why he died,’” he said. “We tack it on to the end of everything and that is not what it should be. It’s like we’ve taken something that is very sacred and made it very common.”
That leads to some internal conflict on Easter Sunday, even as he goes to church with his family and joins them for a big meal.
“It becomes something I need to do and I do it out of respect for others,” he said.
To restore the Resurrection and the Easter story to its appropriate place, Rivett said, the church should “build” toward it throughout the year — place it in its context within the whole biblical saga.
“It is another story about Jesus, another piece of the whole Bible, but at the same time it is such a significant piece,” he said. “Neglecting it completely would be wrong, but over-saturation is wrong, too. It is hard to find a balance.”
Today we do find an over-saturation of the Easter tradition in the shops, where from the beginning of March they are already selling Easter eggs. Several Christians strangely never oppose such fertility symbols, and enjoy fantasising telling their kids about bells coming from Rome and throwing the eggs all over the garden, and hiding eggs all over in the house.Not many Christians seem to oppose those  symbols of fertility “handed down from the ancient ceremonial and symbolism of European and Middle Eastern pagan spring festivals.

According to Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, the hunt for Easter eggs, supposedly brought by the Easter rabbit,
 “"is not mere child’s play, but the vestige of a fertility rite."” Some cultures believed that the decorated Easter egg “"could magically bring happiness, prosperity, health, and protection."”  (Traditional Festivals).
The name Easter, used in many lands, is not found in the Bible. The book  Medieval Holidays and Festivals tells us that 
“the holiday is named after the pagan Goddess of the Dawn and of Spring, Eostre.”
Eostre or Eastre (hence Easter) goddess of fertility, according to the legend, opened the portals of Valhalla to receive Baldur, called the White God, because of his purity and also the Sun God, because his brow supplied light to mankind,”(The American Book of Days)

Like many European pagan customs the Church in its early days adopted the old pagan customs and gave a Christian meaning to them so that they could give the people something in which they beleived already for ages. They also knew people would not put away their traditions so easely and than would not convert to Catholicism.

The festival of Eostre was in celebration of the renewal of life in the spring and marked for many people who lived from the land, the sign that they could go back onto the fields to bring in assurance for their livelyhood. Without a good harvest they could not survive. Therefore it was felt important to do good to the gods so that they would be blessed.

for the Catholic church it was easy to make it a celebration of the resurrection from the dead of Jesus, whose gospel they preached, because they presented Jesus as the new life and the bringer of light and life for all.

This adoption explains how in certain lands the Easter customs, such as Easter eggs, the Easter rabbit, and hot cross buns, came about. Concerning the custom of making hot cross buns,
 “with their shiny brown tops marked by a . . . cross,”
 the book Easter and Its Customs states:
 “The cross was a pagan symbol long before it acquired everlasting significance from the events of the first Good Friday, and bread and cakes were sometimes marked with it in pre-Christian times.”
Nowhere in Scripture do we find mention of these things, nor is there any evidence that the early disciples of Jesus gave them any credence. In fact, the apostle Peter tells us to
 “form a longing for the unadulterated milk belonging to the word, that through it [we] may grow to salvation.” (1 Peter 2:2)

So why did the churches of Christendom adopt such obviously pagan symbols into their beliefs and practices? and why do people keep to those traditions of hiding eggs, eating Easter bread or cross buns?

Why when lots of people do not accept a taking out of the dead as a possible event, do they keep telling stories to their children of Easter bunnies and egg throwing bells.

For sure many do not put much accent on the real person they say they are celebrating. Not much is known about his ransom offer and on who he really was and on what he really did.

Christians should come to see the importance of following the teachings of Christ Jesus and on knowing the man Jesus about Whom God said 'This is my beloved son'.

Let us remember that that son of God really gave his life, died, and was taken out of the dead after three days in hell (the grave).

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Thursday 30 January 2014

Fraternal week-end at Easter in Paris

The 14 Nisan gathering for the Memorial service is this year on the 14th of April. Because not all brethren and sisters can make it on a week day, we also invite them to come together at our usual meeting place for the 'Easter' celebration, at the Quaker house in Paris on the Sunday.

Each year there is a fraternal week-end at Easter in Paris, France. This year the relevant dates are 18 – 21 April. We stay together in a modest hotel, do the readings together and have 2 formal meetings where we are joined by some of our members who live in France and Belgium. The ability to speak/understand French is useful but not at all essential.

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Sunday 31 March 2013

14-15 Nisan and Easter

Today many people in the western world celebrate Easter with luscious chocolate eggs, fragrant hot cross buns and newborn chicks, Easter bunnies, yellow ribbons, and have a lot of decoration that have more to do with fertility rites and nature coming back to life instead of picturing the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

The Feast of Easter itself is a moveable celebration, and can fall anywhere between 22 March and 25 April.
But the date in which the faithful celebrate Christ's resurrection has been surrounded in controversy from early Christian times

Lutz Doering, a reader in New Testament and an expert in calendars and festivals from the University of Durham, confirms: "According to the New Testament, Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday. However, it is unclear on what day or date the earliest Christians celebrated Easter."
The Resurrection of Christ (Kinnaird Resurrection)
The Resurrection of Christ (Kinnaird Resurrection) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


In history can be found many examples of the first Christians celebrating on 14 Nisan the death and resurrection of Christ. After Jesus’ sacrifice, the apostle Paul assured the early Christian community at Corinth that they have been saved “for Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
Various Christian communities followed the “14 Nisan” rule and just asked their local Jews when Passover started, but after controversies in the second and third centuries, many Christians ended up settling the matter at the Council of Nicaea in 325.

Dr Doering explains that there is evidence that, in the middle of the 2nd Century, some Christians celebrated Easter on 14th of the Jewish month of Nisan - that is, on the preparationnight for the Jewish Passover. They were hence known as Quartodecimans, from the Latin word for '14'.
This group saw Easter as a "Christian form of Passover, celebrated at the same time as Jewish neighbours would get ready for the Pesach meal" like we all still should do, remembering the first Passover and the second Passover.

Those in favour of the Roman leaders and not wanting to go against their will, preferred to celebrate on the Sunday after Passover, not to have as such a connection with the Jews and being more in accord with the heathen feasts of the seasons, having the celebration of Spring.

So several Christian churches started to coincide their celebration with the traditional feasts of Springtime and basically tried and created their own “Christian Nisan” — figure out the full moon after the spring equinox — but also add on an extra rule, which is that Easter should fall on a Sunday, though originally the Passover feast was always on a different day.

The problem also was that full moon is not everywhere at the same moment. So it was easier to take the first  Sunday after the full moon after the spring equinox, so that everywhere in the world could be celebrated the same event on the same day. In principle, that still means that Western Easter should fall within Passover, but since Hillel II’s reforms in the 4th century, the Jewish calculations for Nisan are based on a formula and not on astronomy — see Gauss’s formula for the date of Pesach. Thus, in 2008, Western Easter fell on March 23, while Passover didn’t start until April 20.

But there is also a problem with the name the festival is be known today as well.

Normally God did ask to remember the Passover for ever. Jesus also celebrated it as a good faithful  believer. The Exodus was to be taken at heart and to be remembered for ever. At first the followers of Jesus, mostly Jews, kept to their Jewish feasts and so the group of 'The Way' like the followers were called, celebrated the Passover on the same date as the Jewish community. The day before the actual seder meal the Christians also came together to remember the Last supper of their master, rabbi Jeshua (Jesus Christ).

But the name in the English-speaking world is something else again. The word “easter” is probably a modified version of either “ostara” or “eostre“, which is a Pagan festival, based around the March equinox. It was the celebration of the goddess of fertility Eostra, Estra or Esdra and Ishtar the pagan Babylonian and Assyrian deity of fertility and sexuality, later adopted by the Romans, and formally introduced into Christianity by Emperor Constantine. Also the cross, the sign of Tamuz, the god of evil was taken over to become a symbol of bringing Jesus to his end. Jesus was namely impaled on a wooden stake, which was not in the form as it is known today and certainly should never be adored

not at all obvious why Christians should differ as to the date of Easter. "We can observe the spring equinox using astronomy. We can observe the full moon using astronomy (though that might differ by a day or two depending on where one is in the world). And everyone has the same Sunday. So why should there be any (significant) difference?"

According to her:


The answer is that “Sunday” really does mean “Sunday,” but “full moon” doesn’t necessarily mean “full moon,” and “spring equinox” doesn’t necessarily mean “spring equinox.” The equinox rule is the biggest factor in the East-West date divergence. For purposes of calculating Easter, we use March 21 instead of the true date of the equinox, which could be March 19 or March 20. (The complexities behind “full moon” will be in a later post.) So we immediately see how the Western and Eastern churches can differ: March 21 is considered to fall on a different day depending on your calendar, and March 21 in the Julian calendar is what we in the West would call April 3.
Sometimes there’s no full moon between March 21 and April 3, so the relevant full moon for Easter-computation purposes is the same. For instance, in 2011, there were full moons on March 19 and April 18, so both calendars celebrated Easter on (Gregorian) April 24, the Sunday after (Gregorian) April 18. But sometimes there is a full moon between March 21 and April 3, so the relevant full moons will be about a month off. For instance, in 1997, the full moons were March 24 and April 27, so the Western churches celebrated Easter on March 30, the Sunday after March 24, while the Eastern churches celebrated Easter on April 27 itself (which happened to be a Sunday).




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Please do find more about this:

  1. Impaled until death overtook him
  2. Swedish theologian finds historical proof Jesus did not die on a cross
  3. Why 20 Nations Are Defending the Crucifix in Europe
  4. Easter: Why is it so early this year?
  5. Orthodox Easter: What’s up with that? + Orthodox Easter: What’s up with that? — Part 2
  6. 14 Nisan a day to remember #1 Inception
  7. 14 Nisan a day to remember #2 Time of Jesus
  8. 14 Nisan a day to remember #3 Before the Passover-feast
  9. 14 Nisan a day to remember #4 A Lamb slain
  10. 14 Nisan a day to remember #5 The Day to celebrate
  11. A Holy week in remembrance of the Blood of life
  12. High Holidays not only for Israel
  13. Festival of Freedom and persecutions
  14. Jesus begotten Son of God #2 Christmas and pagan rites
  15. A Great Gift commemorated
  16. Proclaiming shalom, bringing good news of good things, announcing salvation

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