Uncovering The Truth Behind Easter

TL;DR – As Christians, we need to be vigilant in our focused celebration of ‘Resurrection Sunday’ (colloquially known as ‘Easter’) and the ‘Holy Week’ leading up to that day because of the other non-Christian influences, e.g. capitalism and paganism, battle to turn our focus away from Jesus Christ.

Have no fear, for there are two weapons at your disposal. Firstly, focusing on Jesus Christ as our Lord & Savior and secondly, knowing the truth which happens to also help with the first point. I want to share the truth with you. What you and God decide to do with this information is between you two.

My memory is not the greatest, but I want to say that at least since I have been a father, I have prayed that my family and I focus on the right aspects of Easter and Christmas. This year, I wanted to take it a step further and research the Easter holiday as a whole. I wanted to understand how the Christian aspect relates to Judaism and how paganism and capitalism made it into the mix.

Christianity

‘Holy Week’ consists of four major days.

‘Palm Sunday’ – Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.
‘Holy Thursday’ – Commemorating Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples by practicing communion.
‘Good Friday’ – Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, was crucified and buried.
‘Resurrection Sunday’ (‘Easter’) – After 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth, He is risen!
‘Easter’ is not a set date. It is the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after the Spring Equinox, which occurs between March and April.

As Christians, we often reference something Jesus said in ‘The Book of John’. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.“

Judaism

In ~30 A.D., Jesus and His disciples were celebrating some very important Jewish holidays. As I have been researching the Bible this year, I am starting to understand the differences in dates. The Gregorian calendar we use is quite different from the Hebrew one. As a few examples, the Hebrew calendar is based on lunar, not solar. A day starts at twilight, instead in the middle of the night at 12 a.m. So, with this calendar, my Tuesday night is actually the beginning of the Hebrews’ Wednesday (not considering prime meridian).

10th of Nisan – This is the time that the Passover sacrificial lambs are selected. Christianity’s ‘Palm Sunday’.
14th of Nisan – Preparation Day for Passover: sacrificed lamb & ‘Passover’ meal. (Part of Christianity’s ‘Holy Thursday’ & ‘Good Friday’.)
15th – 22nd of Nisan: ‘The Feast of Unleavened Bread’.
15th of Nisan: A Sabbath High Day (specific to the holiday week).
16th of Nisan: regular Saturday Sabbath.
17th of Nisan – ‘Feast of Firstfruits’. (Christianity’s, Resurrection Sunday.)

Similar to Easter, ‘Passover’ does not have a set date either because it is in accordance with the first full moon in the Hebrew calendar month, Nisan (which mostly overlaps April).

Paganism

Paganism is any religious belief other than Judaism or Christianity & is often (not always) polytheistic (multiple gods) in nature. Paganism can be anything that Satan manipulates in defiance to God with an ultimate goal of separating as many as God’s children away from God by the coming apocalypse.

Easter’s etymology is traced back to the word ‘Eostre’ in ancient times (predating Christianity). Eostre is the pagan fertility goddess of humans and crops and the goddess of Spring. The symbols used as representation are rabbits and eggs, representing fertility and new life, respectively. Pastel colors are also heavily used. Eostre was often depicted carrying a basket cradled in her arm. The celebration and feast of Eostre was done the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after the Spring Equinox.

How did Christian’s ‘Resurrection Sunday’ end up being recognized sooner than when it originally occurred on the Jew’s ‘Feast of Firstfriuts’?

Remember Roman Emperor Constantine the Great from “Christians, I Have A Challenge For Us”? After his conversion to Christianity from paganism, he knew the pagans would not stop their celebrations, so he decided to incorporate Christianity into pagan traditions and holidays to make “conversion easier”. The First Council of Nicaea (including Constantine), in 325 A.D., decided that ‘Resurrection Sunday’ should be incorporated into ‘Easter’ and follow its celebration.

Around 595 A.D., Pope Gregory sent 40 missionary monks on a journey to England, led by Benedictine Augustine, to convert the pagan inhabitants to Christianity. Like the Council of Nicaea, the missionaries were to superimpose the Christian ceremonies and philosophies onto the existing pagan festivals and beliefs; easing the transition. Augustine started this, but it took place over several centuries as the Christian traditions gradually became associated with the 40+ pagan dates per year.

In my opinion, the Christian leaders and individuals might have very well had good intentions with these efforts; however, I believe the enemy deceived them, so that it would deceive future Christians.

The history of the Easter bunny dates back to the 1700s, from German immigrants to America who brought the idea of a hare laying eggs and rewarding good children. The idea expanded to include chocolate and other gifts, which leads into the capitalism part.

Capitalism

April 2017 statistics:

“According to the National Retail Federation, last Easter was estimated to have cost $18.4 billion altogether, more than the $18.2 from Valentine’s Day.”
“According to WalletHub, about 1.5 billion Peeps are sold each Easter.”
“According to WalletHub, about $2.4 billion made last year from Easter candy alone.”

I think what the years in between that statistic and today have uncovered is that the majority of ‘regular’ Americans are really starting to, if not already, hate capitalism as it is in America today. All that money on things like rabbit imagery, plastic eggs, baskets, manufactured candy, decorations, pictures with an adult dressed as a bunny, etc. With Christian imagery in ‘mainstream’ shopping totally removed. The capitalistic greed takes over the holiday.

Key Holidays & Dates

Fat Tuesday: Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Lent: Wednesday, February 14, 2024 – Thursday, March 28, 2024
Ash Wednesday: Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Spring Equinox: Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Holy Week: Sunday, March 24, 2024 – Sunday, March 31, 2024
Palm Sunday: Sunday, March 24, 2024
March’s full moon: Monday, March 25, 2024
Holy Thursday: Thursday, March 28, 2024.
Good Friday: Friday, March 29, 2024
Easter / Resurrection Sunday: Sunday, March 31, 2024
Passover: Sunday, April 21, 2024 (Jewish calendar: 14th of Nisan).
The Feast of Unleavened Bread: Monday, April 22, 2024 to April 30, 2024 (15th – 22nd of Nisan).
April’s full moon: Tuesday, April 23, 2024.
Feast of Firstfruits: April 24, 2024 (16th day of Nisan).

Let’s look at the dates of how it occurred in Jesus’ time. The verses in Luke that corroborate this will be found below.

10th of Nisan: Passover sacrificial lambs are selected and Jesus entered Jerusalem. (‘Palm Sunday’.)
14th of Nisan – Preparation Day for Passover (‘Holy Thursday’ & ‘Good Friday’): sacrificed lamb, Last Supper, crucifixion, and buried (remember the Jewish day starts at twilight).
15th – 22nd of Nisan: The Feast of Unleavened Bread.
15th of Nisan: A Sabbath High Day (specific to the holiday week).
16th of Nisan: regular Saturday Sabbath.
17th of Nisan – Feast of Firstfruits (‘Resurrection Day’).

The Truth

There is a lot more research that could be done between 30 AD and today, but I feel like I have uncovered the truth I needed. I still need to pray with God about it and discuss with the family, but here are my initial thoughts:

We continue to focus the majority of our attention on Jesus.
Continue to be thankful to God, creator of the Universe, for sending His only Son to die on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead offering eternal life.
Even though the dates don’t align, we will still celebrate Easter with our Christian brothers and sisters, as always.
We will continue the Easter egg hunt tradition because the way that the extended family executes it, it is more about fellowship than anything. Though, I am not sure if that will change in the future.
I need to do more research because, with my immediate family, I want to begin to also celebrate the Jewish Passover week and incorporate Christian Holy Week as a part of it. (So, I guess we will be celebrating the resurrection twice!)

God bless and thank you for your time,

Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Volume 15 Issue 08 (70)

Book, Chapter,

Verse, Title

John 3:16-18 (ESV),

‘For God So Loved the World’

ESV Verse

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.

Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.“

Annotation

God so loved the world: This verse presents a concise summary of the gospel message, tying the events of Jesus’ death to God’s love for the world He created. The statement is remarkable in its depiction of divine care for the entire world—not just His chosen people, Israel.

only Son: The Greek term used here is monogenēs, meaning “one of a kind.”

His Son: John prefers to refer to Jesus as the “Son” and God as the “Father”. Jesus’ reflection and representation of the Father is complete. As one sent by God, Jesus fully represented Him on earth.

whoever does not believe: Rejection of Jesus results in condemnation. The NT ultimately roots all salvation in faith in Christ. There is no other way to achieve right standing with God.

Verses Cross-

Referenced

John 14:9–10; Romans 4:1–24; Hebrews 11:13, 26

Going back to Jesus’ time, He was crucified on the ‘Preparation Day for the Passover’, 14th of Nisan, during the day, so the latter half of the Jewish day. We know this because the following five (5) verses all occurred on the same day.

Luke 22:7 (ESV): “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.“
Luke 22:54 (ESV): “Then they seized Him and led Him away, bringing Him into the high priest’s house, and Peter was following at a distance.”
Luke 23:44 (ESV): “It was now about the sixth hour…”
Luke 23:46 (ESV): “Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit My spirit!” And having said this He breathed His last.“
Luke 23:53 (ESV): “Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid Him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid.”

He was in the tomb for 3 days and 3 nights, being raised on the Sunday (17th of Nisan) following ‘Preparation Day for the Passover’ lining up with the next two (2) verses.

Luke 24:1-3 (ESV): “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.”
Luke 24:6 (ESV): “He is not here, but has risen.”