Easter
Though not celebrated in many Christian countries in as lavish a manner as Christmas, Christians usually regard Easter as their most important festival. All parties acknowledge similarities of Easter to the Jewish passover, since to Christians this has strong theological significance, and many adjectives relating to Easter, such as paschal, and the name of Easter in non-English speaking countries, are etymologically derived from the Hebrew term for passover. The tenebrae, a service held by most, but not all, Christian groups, is clearly based on the idea of darkness covering the earth, though Christian apologists usually argue this is representative of Jesus being removed from the earth (due to impending death), not on the ominous foreshadowing of the passover portrayed in the bible.
Though one of the central tenets of Christianity is usually considered to be a belief that the Biblical events of Easter are based on similar (or exactly identical) actual historic events, more secular and non Christian scholars have argued that the Biblical description is a heavily contrived allegory simply using the passover as its template to appeal to Jewish sensibilities. Historic records indicate that Easter was not always celebrated in early Christianity, and Socrates Scholasticus (b. 380) argued that the observance of Easter by the church (which he believed should continue) was simply the perpetuation of local custom (most likely meaning the Jewish passover), and that neither Jesus nor his apostles enjoined the keeping of this (or any other) festival.
Read more about this topic: Christianised Calendar, Theories of The Christianisation of Feasts
Famous quotes containing the word easter:
“In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it,
You’ll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade.”
—Irving Berlin (1888–1989)
“Why wont they let a year die without bringing in a new one on the instant, cant they use birth control on time? I want an interregnum. The stupid years patter on with unrelenting feet, never stopping—rising to little monotonous peaks in our imaginations at festivals like New Year’s and Easter and Christmas—But, goodness, why need they do it?”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)