After a long cold winter of dead trees and grass there is nothing quite like seeing the days get longer and warmer. the grass and trees are coming back to life with new green growth and beautiful new smelling flowers everywhere, along with butterflies and bees flying everywhere and new baby animals being born the whole Earth seems to be coming back to life in a glorious fresh rebirth.
Officially marking the end of cold winter and beginning one of the most joyous and most noticeable seasons (besides fall) in the northern hemisphere:
Spring!
This new fresh season means it’s time to begin planting many different plants, and the freedom to enjoy many activities that could not be done easily (or possibly at all) in winter. For those in many western nations (and especially Christians) the spring season means the beginning of a wonderful spring holiday that celebrates the very spirit of spring:
this holiday is called Easter
Easter is a colorful and joyful holiday celebrating the spring season with bright colors, cute spring animals, bright eggs, and delicious candy and a great feast. And to make the celebration even more wonderful, it’s also celebrating the anniversary of when Jesus was resurrected back to life on the third day (this is why Easter is also known as Resurrection Sunday). Often, this is honored with Easter sunrise services honoring Jesus’s resurrection at that time of day and preaching the gospel of Jesus’s resurrection.
For this reason, Easter is a wonderful time to wear beautiful bright clothes and be joyful. Because the Easter holiday is also paired with palm Sunday and good Friday: palm Sunday honoring when Jesus came into Jerusalem right before his death and good Friday honoring when Jesus actually died; this week leading up to the greatest event in human history is one of the most holiest times (and possibly it is most greatest time of the year [even higher than Christmas] for other western countries: especially Eastern European countries) on the Christian Calendar: it is the Holy week of Jesus’s sacrifice/the gospel itself!
But As millions worldwide get ready to dye and color Easter eggs, buy Easter candy, cook an Easter dinner, and get their Sunday best to go to a sunrise Easter service to hear the gospel; maybe as a Christian living in the western world you should be prepared to ask another important question you may never have thought of:
“What is this colorful Easter holiday really all about? What is all this really celebrating?”
So, should you be celebrating Easter?
At first this might seem like a very strange question for a Christian to ask; Many Christians would answer this question with:
“Of course! it’s about celebrating Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the grave and his sacrifice for us as well! What else would Easter be celebrating?”
And this is a good point many Christians would point out about Easter: the day is said to be all about honoring Jesus Christ’s resurrection and also by extension his sacrifice (the gospel story), and this is further confirmed with how much Easter (and the other holidays associated with it like Palm Sunday, good Friday, and Lent) is associated with Christianity to the point of being considered the greatest holiday of all Christianity! And not only all this, but Easter is about three days away from the date of when Jesus had the last supper (Passover meal) and was killed (that is good Friday): thus, this must be the date when he was resurrected: confirming Easter has to be the date (and real reason) for Easter.
Considering all this, how much more Christian can a holiday get?
So, it seems, at first, pointless to even question what Easter celebrates because to Christians it’s so obvious that Easter is dedicated originally to Jesus’s resurrection, BUT let’s not just stop there; let’s read what the bible has to say about knowing for sure about a matter before we come to an ultimate conclusion about it:
In 1 Thessalonians 5:21 Paul says to the church to:
“Test [prove] all things; hold fast what is good”
Did you hear that? As Christians it is our job to look at all things and prove the truth of them even if we think we know the truth (or reason) very well. And our holydays are no different they fit in the category of all things! With that in mind let’s unbiasedly examine the nature of Easter and what it really celebrates.
Testing Easter:
Easter seems to be a true Christian holiday
If we can look past the easter bunnies, colorful easter eggs, chocolate candies, and the spring celebration we can see what Easter Sunday was originally all about: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ! If you look way back to when Easter was made a holiday it was originally made to honor Jesus's resurrection by the ancient Roman catholic church at least around 150 A.D. (if not a little before this date), like today, it was always on a Sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox and most likely was celebrated with a special service (possibly even in the morning) with a gospel message concerning the resurrection most likely and probably a feast (a special Sunday dinner).
The celebration of Easter seems to be soo old it's even mentioned as being celebrated in the Bible!
Acts 12:4 (KJV)
“And when he [Herod] had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.”
And despite all the colorful eggs, images of rabbits and bunnies, and even colorful easter baskets all around, the great celebration of the resurrection of Christ can still be seen in sunrise church services, the preaching of the gospel, and even in minor holidays surrounding Easter (Good Friday and Palm Sunday).
Still despite the way Easter Eggs and the Easter bunny is popularized in modern Easter along with Easter baskets with all types of chocolates and candies, many still know what the original meaning of Easter is: many still honor Christ’s holy resurrection, by having sunrise services to honor when Jesus was resurrected on the first day and going to church to hear the gospel story and have Sunday dinner to honor this wonderful event!
Even the record of his death and resurrection recorded at the end of the gospels are often called ‘the Easter story’.
So, it seems while Easter is a Christian holiday celebrating the greatest miraculous event in human history, the celebration of Jesus resurrection/the gospel story is still only 50% of the whole “Easter story” the other? Well, the other 50% is about the Easter bunny/other Easter legends, colorful eggs, Easter baskets full of goodies, and ultimately the spring season and nature.
But If the Roman church did create Easter long ago to honor Jesus/God and them alone then what in the world does a magical egg laying bunny that delivers baskets with candy in them and hides multi-colored eggs have to do with Jesus’s resurrection? And is Easter really the day Jesus Christ was resurrected? And if it’s not then why was Easter chosen? And even more importantly, what does the Bible have to say about celebrating Jesus’s Resurrection?
So, the very first thing we should ask is:
When exactly did Easter become a holiday celebrating Jesus’s resurrection?
What about Easter in the Bible? Did it start in ancient Judea?
Since Easter is mentioned as being celebrated in the Bible in Acts does this mean Easter began to be celebrated in ancient Judea right after Jesus’s resurrection?
Why, at very first notice, it may seem like this is the case; considering everything it begins to not make much sense:
Why would Jews (including the leaders) who were mostly anti-Christ (against Jesus) celebrate a brand-new holiday dedicated to honoring his resurrection they didn’t even believe in? (and the whole reason Peter was being locked up for supposed holiday!)
that’s insanity!
No, this holiday does not refer to Easter: The word translated 'Easter' here is the Greek word “Πάσχα” (Pah'sch-ah), and it has only one meaning: It always means Passover [1].
Acts 12:4 (NIV)
“After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.”
Therefore, this holiday is not Easter, as the western world knows it, but rather the ancient holiday of Passover, and this makes sense:
This holiday here is Passover: a traditional Jewish holiday celebrated by loyal Jews for 100’s of years at this point. Therefore, there is no true mention of Easter in the Bible, not one, except in this passage which can be correctly translated as the Passover festival, keep this in mind.
So, when did Easter become a holiday if not in the Bible? What are its origins? Who made it a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ? And what do multi-colored eggs and bunnies/other things have to do with the resurrection?
The connection between Easter and Passover:
Passover was originally celebrated by the church
Speaking of the Passover, it might be surprising to many modern Christians today that the early church originally celebrated the Passover on the 14th day of the 1st month on God's calendar (also known as the Luni-solar [sun and moon] calendar) (coming soon). yet instead of just meaning God delivering Isreal from Egyptian slavery like it did to the Jews it was made fuller by Jesus's death that also happened around/on the Passover (it fulfilled the Passover) (coming soon) [2].
This happened until the Roman church tried to change the date of Passover to their version of Passover: one of The BIGGEST issues of the Early church concerning sacred holidays (that is Christians from 2nd century 100's A.D. to at least the 4th century 300's A.D.) was the date on when to observe Passover. The church in Rome began to observe the Passover on a different date than the other churches still following God’s holy calendar. As the Roman church gained power more churches changed the date of their Passover to the Roman version of Passover, but churches in the East rightfully refused to change the date of the Passover because they claimed this is how the apostles taught them to celebrate the Passover: not a man-made date the Romans made up to suit their desires as bishop Polycarp says to his message to the pope at the time concerning this:
“We…observe the exact day [of passover]; neither adding, nor taking away….Philip, one of the twelve apostles…and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord…and Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr; and Thraseas, bishop and martyr from Eumenia…the bishop and martyr Sagaris…the blessed Papirius, or Melito…All these observed the fourteenth day of the Passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith.”[3]
Sadly, eventually the Roman church’s growing power won; eventually all the eastern churches accepted the universal date of the new Passover and thus all the churches in the known world celebrated this new date of the Passover the Roman way[4].
There are many things wrong with this; while celebrating Passover was a good thing; God commanded it be observed on the 14th evening of Abib/Nisan (and apparently it was also commanded by the apostles for Christians to observe it in the new covenant) it was human’s authority that changed it from God’s mandated calendar for his people to the Julian/Gregorian human made calendar on Sunday morning to be observed[5].
However, even with this unauthorized man-made calendar change, this still does not explain why the actual celebration of Easter itself is so different from the original Passover celebration:
If Easter was originally supposed to be the Passover celebration with just a date change, then why does Easter look almost nothing like Passover? Why is Easter traditionally celebrated/observed in the morning/the daytime while Passover is traditionally celebrated/observed in the evening/dusk? Where is the traditional Passover meal on Easter (also called cedar: this would include the lamb shank [bone],bitter herbs and unleavened bread)? Instead, traditional Easter dinners (which vary by country but usually include): ham (which God NEVER commanded to be eatened on Passover nor at any other time!) leavened (that means risen: the exact opposite of unleavened!) breads like hot cross buns, and especially eggs. Besides the eggs what does all this other food have to do with Passover? Though pretty, what do brightly colored eggs/decorations, chicks, and the Easter bunny, along with the tradition of finding hidden Easter eggs and receiving a ‘Easter basket’ with chocolates and all kinds of goodies from the Easter bunny in the morning have to do with celebrating the Passover/Jesus resurrection? And ,especially, how did the very name of Passover get changed to such a weird sounding word ‘Easter’ that seems to have nothing to do with the word Passover?
Where did Easter, as it's known now, come from?
How did Passover get changed to Easter?
Possible Roman Changes made to the original Passover celebration
As stated before, the Roman church originally celebrated the Passover celebration: however, when the date was changed there might have been much more that was changed than just the date of celebrating Passover: there might have been some different customs also introduced to the Passover celebration at this time as well.
The church in Rome might have seems to begin to form their own Passover traditions however these traditions were not from the Bible but rather seem to have been from the popular pagan practices in Rome at the time: such as sunrise services in the morning to worship the sun and possibly even the service in the morning can from this practice. The church at Rome at least came up with the concept of morning sunrise service worship (instead of the Biblical evening service worship) and the idea of Jesus’s resurrection being glorified (instead of his sacrificial death as what is truly to be honored on the Passover).
If this is the case (and it just might be), then what the Roman church did wrong was not only unlawfully change the date of Passover but also change the whole meaning and how they chose to celebrate it the way they wanted to: in this way they might have created a new holiday different from the original Passover but with the same name: which leads to another question:
Where did the name 'Easter' come from?
finding a deeper answer to where Easter truly came from
While today the holiday is now known as 'Easter' instead of Passover this is only in the English (and also German) language: While it true for English speaker’s word for the holiday is Easter, it should also be noted many other languages still call this holiday ‘Passover’ [6]: But for some reason this is not true for English (and German) names; so why do English speaker call this holiday 'Easter' (and Germans call it 'Ostern') ?
The word origin for Easter/ Ostern is a bit of a mystery, however, notice the word Easter has the word ‘East’ in it (the same is true for the German word for east: Osten).
What does this direction have to do with Passover? While not the reason to celebrate the Passover, Jesus was said to have rose from the grave on the morning much like the the sun rises in the east in the morning. this might have been the reason Easter was named; after all, if something is coming/hails from the east it considered eastern or ‘eastwardly’.
one of the few records of the origin of the name confirms the connection to the rising sun and the name (and present holiday) of Easter:
the Anglo-Saxon historian Bede; tells why the word Easter replaced the name of Passover; and he also confirms something else:
“...a goddess...named Eostre,in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month [of the roman Passover]. Now they designate that Paschal season (Roman Passover) by her name, calling the joys of the new rite (of the roman Passover) by the time-honored name of the old observance (of the old holiday celebrating Eostre).” [7]
Eostre was the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and birth; and her festival seems to have been celebrated in the modern Gregorian month of March: associated with the spring equinox/spring season [8]. If this is true (and there's no reason why Bede: a well-educated Anglo-Saxon himself, would lie or be misinformed about this), Bede reveals not only where the name comes from but why exactly Easter is now so different from the original Passover:
Whatever changes the Roman church made to the original Passover the church celebrated, were eventually added onto when the Anglo-Saxons (and most likely other Germanic nations) invaded and destroyed the western Roman empire and became Christians themselves.
Now why would pagans see it appropriate to name the Roman Passover from a name from their own pagan God that had her own holiday around the same time? If this was the true Passover the church original celebrated it would be pretty strange to rename this holiday after one of your false demonic gods you were repenting of, unless this wasn't the true Passover the church originally celebrated and the roman church had already perverted it by somehow mixing their own paganism with God's Passover. This seems to further prove the Romans did this to the Passover when they changed the date, since once the Anglo-Saxons (among other Germanic nations) became Christians they felt right at home renaming Passover after their own god and her celebration: but like the Romans seem to have done this wasn't the only thing they changed about this holiday:
So, it seems they combine their pagan spring celebration to the Roman Passover already in existence to make a new holiday called Easter: in other words, the English/Germanic Easter/Ostern is a partial continuation of the ancient pagan festival of Eostre .
Easter: a mix of paganism and Passover
Instead of giving up their spring holidays they just exchanged it for the Roman Passover (even renaming it after their old holiday!): they exchanged their false goddess for Jesus. True to the new name, the Germanic nations also seem to have introduced many new practices into Easter (along with what the Romans might have introduced):and over the time of about 900 years these new Easter elements evolved into modern traditional Easter celebrations.
This explains why colored/dyed eggs, the easter bunny, sunrise services, Easter baskets, and spring baby animals are a part of celebrating Jesus's resurrection: it's because they have nothing to do with Jesus's resurrection because they were originally from elements of different pagan spring holidays originally having nothing to do with Jesus.
So, while at first glance, it might seem like Easter is as Christian as a holiday can get, however from looking at the full story of Easter, we can see that Easter is really a perverted and paganized Passover: a compromise to somewhat keep it but in a more familiar way ancient Europeans wanted to keep it.
Final conclusion
So, considering all this; Should Christians celebrate Easter?
Or put in a different way: Is taking God's holy holiday of Passover used to honor his son's great sacrifice then unrightfully changing the date ,and even more, changing the reason and way it is celebrated without God's authority and then even letting pagans rename it after their false goddess and introduce more pagan derived ways of celebrating it to worship God, okay?
The greatest question needed to be asked here is this: How does God (and Jesus) feel about Christians celebrating Easter if all this is true?
Well, When God instructed Isreal right before they conquered the Canaanite nations; he describes exactly how he feels about using formerly pagan things (any rituals/sacred objects) used to now worship him:
Deuteronomy 12:30-31
“ and after they have been destroyed...be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, 'How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.' You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates."
God clearly says here that he DOES NOT want to be worshiped like other pagan nations (like Canaanite nations) worship their gods and even says that he hates how they worship their gods!
God later warns his people to not try to learn (borrow) the religious rituals (that he calls 'practices') of the pagan nations around them because they were all pointless:
Jeremiah 10:1-3
“Do not learn the ways of the nations...For the practices of the peoples are worthless;..."
However, some Christians might say to all this "Well all that's the Old Testament (Covenant) that was for Jews, we're Christians under the New Covenant therefore that doesn't apply to us"
If you as a Christian are thinking this; while it might be true that some things were fulfilled in the new covenant, it's also true that God does not change his nature:
Think about this for a second: Why would he be completely against being worship using formerly pagan rituals and even go so far as to tell his people to not even purposefully learn about these vain rituals and then turn around in the New Covenant and tell his people it's now okay to learn these rituals and honor him with them?
Does this make sense? No! God is not a constantly changing God; He does not change: so why would he change how he feels about what he's talked about above?
And Jesus does confirm this is the case in the New Testament (Covenant):
Jesus thinks the same way his father does; and he proves he hates when human traditions take the place of God's commands in worshiping him:
In speaking to the Pharisees in rejecting some of God’s original commandments and mixing it with their pagan Babylonian traditions, he states the same thing as God states above:
Mark 7:6-8
“Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites as it is written:
(Isaiah 29:13)
‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’
You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
Jesus says he sees them as hypocrites and even says (which God really says through Isaiah) they worship God in vain because of this! The same problem could very well be applied to the case of Christians worshiping Jesus's resurrection through Easter:
Since Easter is a mixture of human authority and pagan traditions at the expense of God's command on how to honor Passover; Jesus, the one being honored on this day, would most liked say the same thing about Christians celebrating Easter to honor his resurrection: there're hypocrites and are worship him (and God) in vain!
Even Paul, the apostle to the (often originally pagan) gentiles, warned them to not even associate with the pagans they live with (let alone even learn about their rituals/ways to worship their gods):
2 Corinthians 6:14-16
"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God."
So, concerning these commands, nothing has changed in the new covenant!
Yet (as covered above) all this is exactly what Christians have done!
They purposely changed God's ordained Passover he gave to the church to celebrate through his apostles to the way and date they desired it to be, and even worse, let pagans name it after their false god and used their customs of honoring their gods in it. And now Christians choose this tradition of Easter over God's word on the subject to worship Jesus in a way he most likely does not approve of!
So, considering all God (and Jesus) have to say on the subject, they most likely do not approve of Easter being used to celebrate Jesus's resurrection. In fact they most likely would hate it and see Christians who use Easter to celebrate his resurrection as hypocrites worshiping him in vain!
So, no; according to this conclusion Christians should not celebrate Easter!
While all this might sound extremely harsh and shocking to say about Easter (and the Christians celebrating Easter) this is how God seems to view the tradition of Easter.
Easter might be one of the most shocking and toughest things for a Christian to give up/be against: because it's considered so holy, beloved, and it's so against the way of the (western) world: but according to this, it's the right thing to do. We as Christians are to try to seek out the will of Jesus/God and try to obey it: as stated before, that might be very hard and come with persecution: sadly, your Christian family might get angry at your decision and this conclusion. It might be hard! But we will either follow and obey what God seems to be telling us through his word and worship him how he tells us to, or we will be like the hypocritical pharisees and disobey/rebel and worship God the way we want to in vain:
The choice is yours
Sources:
[1]
[A]
Biblehub Acts 12:4 interlinear Greek
Website:
https://biblehub.com/text/acts/12-4.htm
[B]
Strong’s Greek Concordance #3957--”πάσχα”(pas'-khah)--the feast of Passover, the Passover lamb, by Biblehub
Website:
https://biblehub.com/greek/3957.htm
[2]
“There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers….The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festival... [of Passover], though in a new spirit,...Thus the Passover, with a new conception added to it of Christ as the true Paschal (passover) Lamb and the first fruits from the dead, continued to be observed,...”
From the Internet archive “Encyclopædia Britannica 11th and 12th Editions” by Encyclopædia Britannica on 1922 volume 8 “Easter” variant pg 828
Website:
[3]
from "Epistle (letter) to Victor and the Roman Church concerning the Day of keeping the Passover" by Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus on 130-196 A.D. from "Historical Jesus Theories: Early Christian Writings" by Kirby Peter on January 17 2024
Website:
https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/polycrates.html
[4]
"We have also gratifying information to communicate...on the subject of the most holy feast of Passover...all the brethren in the East who have previously kept this festival when the Jews did will conform from now on to the Romans and to us and to all who from the earliest time have observed our period of celebrating Easter. Rejoicing therefore in these conclusions and in the general unanimity and peace, as well as in the extirpation of all heresy,..."
From “Christian history for everyman Decoding Nicea: The Appendices” “Appendix H: The Letter of the Council of Nicea to Alexandria and Egypt” by Paul Pavao
Website:
https://www.christian-history.org/ibwl-appendices-for-web.html#Creeds
[5]
[A]
“St. Athanasius calls Easter "the Great Sunday" and the Eastern Churches call Holy Week "the Great Week." The mystery of the Resurrection, in which Christ crushed death, permeates with its powerful energy our old time, until all is subjected to him.”
"CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: SECOND EDITION" #1169
Website:
http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/1169.htm
[B]
“...the Roman Church celebrated Easter on Sunday—the weekday of Jesus's resurrection.”
Wikipedia “Pope Anicetus”
Website:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Anicetus
[6]
French: Pâques (pack-uh)
Portugese: Páscoa (pashuh-queh)
Spanish: Pascua (passuh-quah)
Italian: Pasqua(pasuh-quah)
Dutch: Pasen (pah-sin)
Finnish: Pääsiäinen (pahsee-anin)
All comes from Latin ‘pascha ’ (pahshuh-cah) and Greek ‘Πάσχα’ (pahshuh-cah) which means Passover
[A]
From Bing translator of “Easter”
Website:
[B]
Wikipedia “Easter”
Website:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter
[7]
from Pg 54 chapter 15. "THE ENGLISH MONTHS" from “The Reckoning of time” (original Latin: De Ratione Temporum) by Bede the Venerable on 725 A.D. in Northumbria from Internet Archives translated by Faith Wallis Liverpool University Press 1999 A.D. Senate House, Abercromby Square Liverpool, L69 3BX
Website:
[8]
Elizabethan Era History of Britain from Roman times to Restoration era “Anglo Saxon Gods and Goddesses facts” by Prasad Mahabal – M.A. in History
Website:
[9]
[A]
"Whilst the solemn celebration of the death of Jesus Christ is only about two millennia old, it owes a debt of gratitude to Germanic paganism,"
The Viking herald “The surprising pagan origins of Easter” by Jonathan Williamson on April 4, 2023
Website:
https://thevikingherald.com/article/the-surprising-pagan-origins-of-easter/481
[B]
"Easter, like Christmas, has accumulated a great many traditions, some of which have little to do with the Christian celebration of the Resurrection but derive from folk (Pagan) customs."
from Brittanica "Liturgical observances: Easter" by Hans J. Hillerbrand on July 20 1998
Website:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Easter-holiday/Liturgical-observances