[Faith-talk] Good Night Message for Easter Sunday, March 31 2013

[Paul]

Well folks, here we are near the close of Resurrection Day 2013.  I hope that your day went well, at least for those of us in the Americas.  As for the rest of you in other parts of the world, I hope that your Monday is going well.

Carole Christian Koch, a writer living in Pennsylvania, graces our screen readers, Braille displays, hearts and minds with her insightful article entitled "Easter, A Moveable Feast," rendered as follows:

The religious festivals of the Christian church are regulated by both the solar and the lunar year--the years are regulated by the sun and the months by the moon.  The fixed feasts, such as Christmas, fall on the same day every year.  The moveable feasts, such as Easter, vary from year to year in order to keep the festival in tune with the cycles of the moon.

Although Easter is a festival which commemorates the resurrection of Jesus, the origin of the name is unknown.  However, one explanation of the name Easter is found in the Teutonic feast of new life in spring, a celebration of the spring sun.  The German word Ostern and our English word Easter are derived from eoster, eastur or ostara, the season of new birth.  Another word, ost or east, is used for the place where the sun rises.

Most scholars have accepted the writings of the English historian the Venerable Bede (c. 735 A.D.) as to the origin of the word Easter.  Bede wrote that Eostre was the name of the Anglo-Saxon Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility whose festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox.

As Christian missionaries spread among the pagan peoples, they observed that these spring festivals coincided with their own commemoration of the resurrection.  In time, the missionaries were able to change the joy of the spring ceremonies of the rising sun and natures' rebirth to become the joy of the rising Son of God and the new life of the risen Jesus Christ.  Eventually, the Resurrection at Easter was celebrated throughout the world.

"Herod took Peter into custody .... he had him arrested and thrown into prison, with four squads of soldiers to guard him.  Herod intended to bring him before the people after the Passover" (Acts 12:3-4).  Scholars use this Scripture passage as the original association of Easter with the Jewish festival of Passover, celebrated every spring to commemorate when the early Israelites were freed from Egyptian slavery.

It was on the eve of a Passover celebration prior to Christ's crucifixion that Jesus and His disciples ate a Passover meal.  Various terms for this meal are found in Scripture:  the Lord's Supper, Communion and the Eucharist.  The Gentile Christian regarded the Lord's Supper as a new feature established by Jesus to commemorate the Resurrection.

Although the Resurrection was celebrated annually from a very early period, the days on which it was celebrated varied among different groups of Christians.  The Gentile Christians celebrated the Resurrection on the Sunday following Passover, which from year to year fell on different Sundays.  They recalled the morning after the Sabbath, "Now on the first day of the week (Sunday), Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away" (John 20:1).  She later saw the risen Jesus.

For the Jewish Christian, Easter fell on a different day of the week each year.  The Resurrection was celebrated after Passover, which was connected with the law of Moses.  "This month (Nisan, March-April) shall be for you the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year for you" (Exodus 12:2).  The feast of Passover was celebrated in the evening at sunset (Deuteronomy 16:6) on the 15th day of the agricultural feast of Azymes.

Controversies about the day to observe Easter continued between Eastern and Western churches for centuries.  Finally, in 325 A.D., Emperor Constantine of Rome called a council at the city of Nicea to settle the Easter date.

The Council of Nicea decided Easter would be observed in all churches on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox (when the sun crosses the equator, approximately March 22nd).  Thus, Easter can never fall before March 22nd or after April 25th.  If the full moon occurs on a Sunday, Easter is to be celebrated the following Sunday.  This method is still followed today.

Emperor Constantine also decreed the week to be seven days long, a practice begun by Moses.  The Council of Nicea also decided the Easter date would be calculated at Alexandria, a cultural and astronomical center of the world.

In 525 A.D., a monk, mathematician and astronomer, Dionysius Exigus, developed some of the astronomer Victorius' ideas and dated events from the birth of Christ.  Today, we still use B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, in the Year of our Lord) to designate the major eras of history.

Pope Gregory XIII reformed the Julian calendar, also referred to as Old style (by 1582 it was inaccurate by 10 days).  The Gregorian calendar is also called the New Style.  Thursday, October 4th, became Friday, October 15th, thus restoring the next equinox to the proper date and resolving Easter's date in the arrangement of the ecclesiastical year.  The Gregorian calendar, by which we now live, is so precise that the difference will increase by only .53 seconds every 100 years!

Still, it took times for other nations to adopt the Gregorian calendar.  Great Britain didn't do it until 1752.  The Roman Catholic nations adopted the calendar quickly, but Protestant England and America resisted.  Many Eastern churches still use the Julian calendar to date their holy days.

During the 20th century, reforms were proposed to have a common fixed date for Easter, like Christmas.  But for now, Easter will remain the joyous and moveable feast that it is.

Hope you enjoyed this article.  And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul