Someone asked me yesterday why I don’t celebrate Easter. When I was young and attended the Baptist church it was celebrated as the resurrection of Jesus but we also dyed and hid eggs. At Easter I would also get a new dress, shiney new white patent shoes, and sometimes a straw hat, Then when my children were little, we dyed and hid eggs and did those easter bunny things. That tradition as faded away as they grew older and their childhood faded too.
About 20 years ago, I began to attending a Messianic congregation and learned the significance of Passover as related to the death and resurrection. There they celebrated Resurrection Sunday. Which is the Sunday following Passover which interestingly enough falls in the same week this year.
Like Christmas, I feel Easter is a man-created day of celebration. In addition, the dates were set to closely following the winter solstice and spring equinox days which some believe where chosen satisfy the pagan beliefs as a substitute for their holidays they had celebrated at the same time.
The date for Easter was established by the Nicene Counsel in 325 AD. It is has no connection with the biblical time frame of the resurrection, i.e., Messiah held the last supper at a meal around the Passover time and he was represented as the sacrifice to redeem us from sin and bondage by his blood — just as a lamb was sacrificed and its blood placed on the doorpost to save the first born of the Hebrew people from death as the angel of death passed over their houses that were marked with the “blood of the lamb.”
See reference from Britannica below;
“Fixing the date on which the Resurrection of Jesus was to be observed and celebrated triggered a major controversy in early in which an Eastern and a Western position can be distinguished. The dispute, known as the Paschal controversies, was not definitively resolved until the 8th century. In Asia Minor, Christians observed the day of the Crucifixion on the same day that Jews celebrated the Passover offering—that is, on the 14th day of the first full moon of spring, 14 Nisan (see Jewish calendar). The Resurrection, then, was observed two days later, on 16 Nisan, regardless of the day of the week. In the West the Resurrection of Jesus was celebrated on the first day of the week, Sunday, when Jesus had risen from the dead. Consequently, Easter was always celebrated on the first Sunday after the 14th day of the month of Nisan. Increasingly, the churches opted for the Sunday celebration, and the Quartodecimans (“14th day” proponents) remained a minority. The Council of Nicaea in 325 decreed that Easter should be observed on the first Sunday following the first full moonafter the spring equinox (March 21). Easter, therefore, can fall on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25.”
So in the end, I celebrate nothing religious on days that were designated by men. It is just my own personal thing. I don’t judge or criticize or place any significance to anyone who revers this holiday or Christmas. It is my own personal conviction and belief.
There is more but I won’t jump down that bunny trail. So Happy Resurrection Day and however we celebrate or recognize it, we should do it with a sincere and thankful heart.
The entire Britannica article here:
Emyloom ~ Words Woven Within My Heart 