Our BetterMost Community > The Holiday Forum
All things Easter, Spring Solstice, Passover, or Ostara
Jeff Wrangler:
Feels like we're pushing it this year. ;D Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon that happens on or after March 21. Full moon is this coming Saturday. Easter is the next day.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on April 10, 2022, 08:32:33 pm ---Feels like we're pushing it this year. ;D Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon that happens on or after March 21. Full moon is this coming Saturday. Easter is the next day.
--- End quote ---
??? Is that a bad juxtaposition, or just cutting it close? I didn't realize Easter and Passover were that closely timed around moon cycles, although I guess that makes perfect sense.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on April 10, 2022, 10:15:03 pm --- ??? Is that a bad juxtaposition, or just cutting it close? I didn't realize Easter and Passover were that closely timed around moon cycles, although I guess that makes perfect sense.
--- End quote ---
Just cutting it close--and sort of a joke, too. I just don't remember Easter falling so close to the full moon. I'm sure it has.
I guess I should look up to see if I can find how the date of Passover is set. P and E aren't always this close, although, basing Easter on the Bible stories, you'd think they should be. I don't know how Eastern Orthodox Easter is calculated, either; I don't think it's ever the same day as Western Christianity celebrates it, but I only vaguely know why--some ancient theological difference, though I don't know what that was either!
Jeff Wrangler:
Well, here's sort of an answer to my own question:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/04/why-dont-easter-and-passover-always-line/587572/
But note: Pay no attention to the dates (e.g., April 19 and April 21) mentioned in the text. They will only confuse you because the article was published three years ago, so the dates given applied in 2019, not this year.
I wouldn't pay much mind to his comment on Easter brunch, either. I think brunch is a kind of urban thing. Other people have an Easter dinner.
serious crayons:
We do brunch and never use the word "dinner" to describe any meal that's not late in the day (and never use the word "supper" at all). But then, I'm fairly urban.
If I'd guessed carelessly, I would have thought that Easter's timing is tied, like Christmas and Halloween are, to ancient pagan holidays. But of course it can't be, because it is tied to Passover which, Judaism being non-evangelical, does not have that relationship to pagan European traditions.
Our symbols of Easter -- eggs, chicks, rabbits -- are most likely European in origin, though.
Although come to think of it, don't most cultures acknowledge the rebirth of nature in spring? In which case, Easter's timing -- based on an episode that may not actually have occurred right after Last Supper -- might have been designated by the ancients.
Just looked it up; Jerusalem is slightly farther from the equator than New Orleans. New Orleans doesn't have a particularly dramatic spring, so it's not as big a deal there as in Europe, so maybe the New Testament's authors didn't make that rebirth connection.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version