It's The Moon's Fault!!!

The past several weeks have been very busy with preparation for our Easter services that occured yesterday. The not-so-surprising thing is that right about 12:00 noon I was ready to take a nap!

Shari is so thoughtful of others that her wheels were already turning. She had invited over a couple of families to share Easter dinner with our family. This is always a good thing, and it also means that we get a real fancy dinner..... we did and it was good. We had the traditional ham and scallopped potatoes and one of my favorites: asparugus -- yum yum! She was good though, no hollandaise sauce.

We had a great time visiting with Louis and Lori Howard and Gene and Marge Lawley. But during our conversation the question came up about why Christians call Easter - Easter, and why it happens on a different day of the month every year.

So here is my best "Seminary - Answer": Back in 325 AD, a group of clergy gathered as The Council of Nicea. One of their items on the agenda was to decide upon a fixed date for Easter. Up to this point Easter was celebrated at different times based on Gregorian and Julian (named for Julius Ceasar) calendars and sometimes not even falling on a Sunday.

The Council of Nicea decided upon the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox, March 21. Every three years the Date of Easter Sunday is celelbrated on the exact Sunday around the world because of Leap Year. 2007 is one of those years. This is why Easter can fall anywhere from March 22 to April 25.

It's the Moon's Fault!

With regard to the origins of Easter: Around a 1300 years ago there was a Christian monk Venerable Bede, wrote about the origins of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility named Ostara or Eostre. The obvious connections between fertility and Spring and even the fact that we use bunnies and eggs today comes from the idea that Rabbits reproduce so quickly.

The King James Version of the Bible does use the word Easter, but we have to keep in mind that this is a "translation" The Bible was not originally penned in King James English, but Hebrew and Greek.

So we as Christians, equipped with the understanding that our highest holiday in the Church finds it's nomenclature in pagan roots, are faced with a choice; We can celebrate this day as a rite of Spring and fertility and boiling eggs and eating choclate bunnies and buying new dresses, or we can use this occassion to celebrate the Risen and one true Living God who was raised from death victoriously over the grave and is alive today seated at the right hand of God!

Easter is Resurection Sunday in the Church!

Happy Easter! He is Risen and He is Alive!

John