Easter is confusing

[TheArtfulDogger]

I really don't get why Easter moves around so much, I get the prescribed reason that Jesus rose from the dead on the first Sunday following the feast of Passover.

With Christians coming up with another way of determining the date. They decided that Easter would be celebrated on the first Sunday after (never on) the Paschal full moon.

Theory all well and good but if you look at the year 0 you can work out which date Jesus was supposed to have risen on, and surely that date should be fixed as Easter going forward. After all Christmas Day (the supposed birth of Jesus) doesn't change based on lunar cycles and is always fixed on the same date every year, so why is the date he died and rose again so flexible ... All very confusing and illogical

As for other things that confuse me over Easter

Rabbits delivering eggs (the pagan symbol of rebirth and Spring) and the fact they are now chocolate (the western idea of commercialism and selling a "product" to the masses) really doesn't gel well with Jesus dying for our sins... Hot cross buns I kind of get but the rest is just confusing and detracts from the real message of Easter (however chocolate eggs good)

Yours, a very confused

[healey]

The pagan element is much more sensible if you have to explain it to to a three year old child.

The idea of eggs and rebirth, no problem. The ressurection of a guy who was tortured to death by neing nailed to a cross through his hands and feet, not so easy. Christianity is grim.

[nxjen]

I've cheerfully gone along with the idea that Christians appropriated the pagan festival of Eostre for the Christian festival of Easter that accounts for its funny little ways and seeming contradictions. But now I've read this Guardian article that has put paid to that idea. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/apr/23/easter-pagan-roots Thanks Guardian.

[Alan Medic]

Why do people wish each other Happy Easter? What do they mean? Happy what exactly?

One woman of Indian origin asks another English woman at work the other day, "Is Sunday a Public Holiday?". Reply was "Yeah, it's just like Christmas".

[red devil]

healey Wrote:

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> The pagan element is much more sensible if you have to explain it to to a three year old child.

> The idea of eggs and rebirth, no problem.

Until they ask you what came first, the chicken or the egg?...

[maxxi]

TheArtfulDogger Wrote:

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> I really don't get why Easter moves around so

> much, I get the prescribed reason that Jesus rose

> from the dead on the first Sunday following the

> feast of Passover.

> With Christians coming up with another way of

> determining the date. They decided that Easter

> would be celebrated on the first Sunday after

> (never on) the Paschal full moon.

>

> Theory all well and good but if you look at the

> year 0 you can work out which date Jesus was

> supposed to have risen on, and surely that date

> should be fixed as Easter going forward. After all

> Christmas Day (the supposed birth of Jesus)

> doesn't change based on lunar cycles and is always

> fixed on the same date every year, so why is the

> date he died and rose again so flexible ... All

> very confusing and illogical

Christmas is the Church's big day - a chance to cram folk into draughty halls on a (sometime) weekday - double-bubble.

When they asked for another such mid-week fixture the powers that be (that weren't benefiting from the church's wealth) said "If you want another sing-fest you have it own your own day, i.e. Sunday. Always. We'll bung in a Friday and Monday off work cause people love a long weekend but that's your lot. Oh, and we can't have all that presents stuff twice a year so let's stick to chocolate.*"

*see the great "Whitsun?! You're havin' a laugh!" conference of 1826.

[uncleglen]

The advantage of being around these days is that you can pick and choose the aspects of 'religion' that you want to observe..you only need to be a proper adherent is if you want a place in a 'faith' school for your offspring