By MICHAEL F. DWYER
PITTSFORD—Christmas falls every year on December 25. To determine the dates of Passover and Easter for 2024, most of us would have to consult a calendar. As moveable feasts, the central celebrations of Judaism and Christianity follow a lunar calendar different from our typical chronology.
The Jewish New Year begins with Rosh Hashanah celebrations in late September or early October. Each of the twelve lunar months starts with a new moon. Passover, which can last up to eight days, begins on the full moon of the seventh month, named Nissan. In the Christian story, Jesus went to Jerusalem to share a Passover meal with his disciples, then came his death and resurrection. In the early centuries of Christianity, the followers of Jesus used a similar calculation to establish their remembrance of Jesus rising from the dead. In the year 325, the Council of Nicaea, convened by Emperor Constantine, established that Easter must be celebrated on the first Sunday on or following the vernal equinox. Thus, Easter could happen as early as March 22 or as late as April 25. A reminder that the Greek and Russian Orthodox world still adheres to the ancient Julian calendar and celebrates Easter with great solemnity a week later than other Christians.
How we name holidays may also reflect how we observe them. Easter comes from the Anglo-Saxon word, “eastre,” which means springtime. In that context comes a range of associations not explicitly religious: daffodils, lilies, Easter bunnies, peeps, chocolate eggs, along with new Sunday-best clothes and dress shoes.
My earliest Easter memory, from age three-and-a-half, reaches back to Sunday, April 14, 1963. Having seen magazine photos of John-John Kennedy similarly attired, I loved wearing my new Buster Brown suit. Our neighbors had given me a stuffed toy dog, whom I named Pierre after their French poodle. My mother, whose hat-wearing days would only extend only a few more years beyond this date, carried her new St. Joseph Missal with its changes to the Latin Mass following Vatican II. Note her folded gloves. Behind us, the hardy forsythia bush always harbingered spring. I remember receiving three Easter baskets, one of which held a beautiful sugar-crystal egg, too pretty to crack and eat. Of course, there are memories of a special Easter Sunday dinner, usually ham in my extended family.
In Romance languages, the word for Easter (Paques in French, Pascua in Spanish, Pasqua in Italian) derives from the Hebrew word Pesach, “Passover.” Rituals of Passover vividly recall the liberation of the Jewish people from bondage in Egypt. In ancient times, the Seder meal included the sacrifice of a lamb, cooked and eaten with unleavened bread. The story from Exodus is retold. Christians believe that Jesus became the sacrifice, and his resurrection a victory over sin and death. The apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians: “For Christ, our paschal lamb has been sacrificed. Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival…with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Several Easter hymns underscore Easter’s connection to Passover as this one with words that originated with John of Damascus in the 8th century:
Come, ye faithful, raise the strain of triumphant gladness!
God had brought hid Israel into joy from sadness:
Loosed from Pharaoh’s bitter yoke Jacob’s sons and daughters
led them with unmoistened foot through the Red Sea waters.
Now the queen of seasons, bright with the day of splendor,
With the royal feast of feasts, comes its joys to render;
Comes to glad Jerusalem, who with true affection
welcomes in unwearied strains Jesus’s resurrection.
Having celebrated Easter from the pews or choir stalls in many churches over the last sixty years —dramatic Easter Vigils, sunrise services, choral performances— I now have the privilege of leading a congregation in worship on this most sacred of days, all part of my lifelong journey of faith. Passover and Easter have, at their core, ritual and remembrance of extraordinary events that lift us up from earthly strife. History abounds with fractures of intolerance and alienation among people who profess to follow a religious creed. As violence continues to be done and said in God’s name, we must continue to seek broader understanding, to develop compassion, to practice kindness, to promote justice, and to care for one another and our world. Hate has no place in any faith. These moveable feasts of Passover and Easter transcend time. May they serve to remind us that ancient celebrations are not end points but starting points that continue to reveal the love of God for all of creation.
Michael Dwyer is Pastor of the Pittsford Congregational Church.
