on October 31, 2009 by Admin in Uncategorized, Comments Off

The Story Of Easter A Compelling Look At How We Evolved As A Civilization

When examining Easter the history it’s important to understand all the elements that make up the holiday religious, linguistic, and elements of pagan rituals. Click over here for more info on best hair dryer .

Easter the history includes the etymology of the word Easter which goes back to the Greek Pascha, meaning Passover, the Hebrew holiday. Both Easter and Passover are partially traditions that have to do with new life. In Christianity Easter is a remembrance of the death and resurrection of Christ, while for Jews Passover recalls a time when Jewish first born children were spared while the first born of every Egyptian was killed to convince Pharaoh to free the Jews. Remember too that Jesus was a Jew, and he celebrated passover with the last supper. English uses a different word for the holiday name, derived from Eostre in Old English, the name of a Germanic Month, although most romantic languages like Italian and Spanish still use a word similar to Pascha, such as the Spanish La Pascua.

For Christians who celebrate Easter the history, there is an entire Easter season once called Eastertide. It used to be that the season was 40 days from Easter Sunday to the Ascension when God brought Jesus to heaven, but in the modern Christian calendar it has expanded 10 extra days to Pentecost when the holy spirit enlightened the apostles. Pentecost is linked to the Jewish Shavout, which celebrates the giving of the Ten Commandments 50 days after the beginning of the Exodus. You will find extra info on best hair dryer here.

There were many disputes as to the time and specific date for Easter. The Quartodeciman controversy was the last of these arguments. It all came down to whether Easter should be celebrated on Nisan 14 of the Hebrew Calendar, or on the following Sunday. Nisan 14 is the Hebrew Lord’s passover, the day people make preparations for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In Phyrgia (also called the Roman Province of Asia) Easter was celebrated on this day, while everywhere else it was the following Sunday. Nisan 14 could be any day of the week. When the dispute first began the Bishop of Phyrgia and the Bishop of Rome agreed to disagree, and let it stand. But one generation later all the Asia minor Bishops were excommunicated because they would not celebrate Easter the Sunday following Nisan 14. You should acquire heaps of complementary info relating to best hair dryer here.

There’s another element to the controversy in that Christians had to rely on Jews to set the date for Nisan 14, and thus for Easter whether or not it fell on that date or on the following Sunday. It was possible, depending on the decision of Jewish leaders, to have two Nisan 14’s within the span of less than a year.

The First Council of Nicaea separated Easter from the Hebrew calendar. Wikipedia has a very interesting entry for Easter the History and the date calculation of the holiday.

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