EASTER

Easter, also called Pascha in Greek and Latin, or Resurrection Sunday in Christianity, is a festival and holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day after his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary around 30 A.D. It is the culmination of the passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance.

Easter is one of the most important festivals in the Christian calendar and is commemorated as the day when Jesus is said to have risen post-crucifixion. Easter traditions vary across the Christian world. Traditionally, the chancel area (the area around the altar) of the church is decorated on this day and special prayer ceremonies take place to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus. Special hymns and songs fill the churches, and other customs have become associated with Easter, including Easter egg hunts, Easter parades, Easter cards, Easter bunnies, Easter bonnets, Easter foods, and spring daffodils.

In preparation for this day, many Christians around the world observe some or all of the special days associated with it, beginning with Shrove Tuesday (also known as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras) and Ash Wednesday, followed by the forty days of abstinence or fasting known as Lent. This period concludes with Holy Week (Palm Sunday and Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday), Triduum – Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Saturday – with the last day being Easter Sunday.

Shrove Tuesday; Pre-Lenten confession and celebration

Shrove Tuesday is the first Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and became the last day for celebrating and feasting before the 40-day Lenten period of fasting. It takes its name from the word “shrive,” or to confess. On Shrove Tuesday, Christians confess their sins and ask God for forgiveness after the evening prayer, ushering in the advent of Lent.

Ironically, for many people around the world Shrove Tuesday has evolved into a day of extravagant indulgence, but for devout worshippers the focus remains on confession of one’s sins, repentance, and prayer. There are no instructions in the Bible or from Jesus to observe this day.

Ash Wednesday; A universal day of penitence marked by ashes

Shrove Tuesday is followed by Ash Wednesday. In preparation for this service, the priest makes blessed Holy Ashes by burning palm crosses from the previous year’s Palm Day service. The ashes are mixed with Holy water to make a paste. When worshippers go to church on Ash Wednesday, the priest dips his thumb in the ash paste and marks the sign of a cross on each worshipper’s forehead. The marking on the forehead with ash marks their commitment to Jesus Christ and God and is a symbol of repentance for the wrong things Christians think they have done in the past year. For Christians, ashes are a symbol of remorse for their wrongdoings, which they want to be rid of forever. It is also a reminder to them that “we all come from ashes, and to ashes, we all will return.”

The observation of Ash Wednesday in the Roman Catholic Church includes fasting, abstinence from meat, and repentance, a day of contemplation of one’s transgressions. Some have linked this holy day to sorrowful repentance by sprinkling oneself with ashes as mentioned in the Old Testament:

(And Tamar put ashes on her head, and rent her garment of diver’s colors that was on her, and laid her hand on her head, and went on crying) – 2 Samuel 13:19

(Also referenced: Isaiah 59:5)

However, these references cannot be used to justify the practice of creating a new day called Ash Wednesday. The Old Testament clearly illustrates how early Christians grieved sorrowfully by covering themselves in ashes, or by wearing handmade garments of sackcloth covered in ashes, not by having a little Holy Ash cross marked on their forehead by a priest or minister.

Lent – A season of prayer, penance and self-discipline

The word “Lent” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lencten, which means spring, referring to the lengthening days in spring. Christians observe Lent by fasting and by trying to abstain from sin and vice. The Church instructs Christians to seek penance by being remorseful for their sins and turning to God.

It is of interest to note that Lent was not observed by the church in the first century. Scholars dispute whether Lent was first mentioned in the Council of Nicaea. dispute whether Lent was first mentioned in the Council of Nicaea in (325 A.D), when Emperor Constantine officially recognized the church as the Roman Empire’s state religion. According to the Encyclopedia of the early church, “Lent is mentioned for the first time in 334 A.D, by Athanasius,” Any other forms of Christianity that held doctrines different from the Roman Church were considered to be enemies of the state. In 360 A.D., the Council of Laodicea officially commanded that Lent be observed, and by the end of the fourth century, the 40-day fast was observed everywhere, not only by those who were to be baptized but all Christians preparing themselves for Easter.

There is absolutely no reference to Lent in the Old or New Testaments, nor any reference to Jews or Christians observing an annual fasting period of 40 days before the Passover. Those who practice it justify its observation by linking the repentance and fasting of forty days, with references relating to the number forty.

According to the New Testament, Jesus^as never observed Lenten fasting, neither did he command or teach his apostles to do so. However, Christians believe that the duration of Lent can be identified with Jesus^as time spent in the wilderness. [Luke 4:1–13]

Holy Week

The Holy Week marks the final days of Jesus^as before Easter Sunday. Holy Week observances began in Jerusalem in the earliest days of the Church, when devout Christians travelled to Jerusalem to re-enact events of the week prior to Jesus^as crucifixion.

It consists of Palm Sunday, Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. The final three days are part of the Easter or Paschal Triduum. The Easter Vigil is the high point of the Easter Triduum, which St. Augustine called “Mother of all Holy Vigils.”

EASTER DAY

Easter is the oldest Christian holiday and the most important day of the church year. All the Christian movable feasts and the entire liturgical year of worship are arranged around Easter, which is followed by a fifty-day Easter season (Eastertide), which extends to the Pentecost.

On Easter day, Christians celebrate and rejoice in Jesus^as sacrifice of his life to free mankind from sin. It is widely believed amongst the Christian world that Jesus^as was the sacrificial lamb offered at the Passover as mentioned in [Exodus 12:13–14]. According to the biblical account of this first Passover, the Israelites marked their doors with the blood of a lamb to prevent the Angel of Death killing their first born; their doors were therefore literally “passed over.” Jewish temples began to sacrifice lambs ritually to mark the Passover. It was only the blood of the slain lamb that protected each Israelite home, while Egypt suffered the plague of death, the Israelites were spared death by obeying God’s command and by faith in His promise to protect them. Following this, the Jews celebrated the Passover meal in remembrance of God’s Mercy. In keeping with the tradition of the Old Testament Jewish laws, which Jesus^as devoutly followed, he also observed the Passover.

From the Biblical accounts of the New Testament, it is determined that Jesus^as was put on the cross when he was observing the feast of the Passover (Matthew 26:17–19, Mark 14:12–16). But Jesus^as did not predict or indicate that this would happen. So where does the concept of Jesus^as atoning for the sins of mankind as the paschal or sacrificial Lamb originate? It emerged from the Christians celebrating the death of Jesus^as with a Paschal meal (Eucharist), on the lunar date of the Jewish Passover [1 Corinthians 5:7–8]. These verses prove that it was Paul’s teaching to replace the Old Testament Passover, His New Testament concept of the Passover allowed Christ to supersede the paschal lamb.

According to the New Testament accounts of the evangelists, the resurrection should have been celebrated on the first Sunday after the Jewish Passover. However, controversy surrounded the determination of the date of Easter from the 2nd Century to the 8th century. After centuries of debate, the Council of Nicaea finally fixed the date of Easter to 325 A.D, i.e., to fall on the first Sunday after the full moon, on or after the vernal equinox (March 21). This means that Easter can be observed anywhere between March 22 and April 25. The Council was also responsible for separating the celebration of Easter from the Jewish Passover, probably because over the years Easter did not fall on a Sunday in accordance with the Jewish Passover, (the Sunday after the spring equinox rather than the biblically directed 14 Nisan in the Jewish Calendar), and the Church wanted to keep the observance of Easter day on a Sunday in line with the biblical account of Jesus^as resurrection on a Sunday. Not only was a new date selected for the celebration of Passover but a new theme was introduced – Easter replaced Passover – and an official day was designated to commemorate the Resurrection.

Easter is a word used in Germanic languages to denote the festival of the vernal equinox. The word Easter is not found anywhere in the Old or New Testament, except for one reference in the King James Bible (Acts 12:4). The original word should have been ‘Passover’ (Paschal) not ‘Easter.’ The word Paschal, used to describe many things associated with Easter, itself derives from Pascha, the Greek/Latin transliteration of Pesach, the Hebrew word for Passover.

As the observation of Easter is not instructed in the Bible, then where did Easter originate?

Scholars agree that the name Easter has its roots in Paganism. It is never used in original scriptures, and its exact origin remains uncertain; according to Bede, it is connected with an Anglo-Saxon spring goddess. The word “Easter” is supposed to be derived from “Ēostre” or “Eastre.” Ēostre was the deity of both the dawn and spring, and “the pagan symbol of fertility.” At her festival in April, sacred fires were lighted on the hills especially in the Nordic lands. (During this same season, the ancient Romans observed the Feast of the Vernal Equinox).

Conclusion

There is no celebration of any Christian holidays in the New Testament. Easter was not observed by the early followers of Jesus^as, nor by those who believed that they should follow the command of the Bible rather than that of men. The one important verse that strikes many Christians is: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt. 12:40). Many Christians accept that this was the one sign that Jesus^as gave as proof that he was the Messiah, that he would be in the grave exactly three days and three nights. They take this verse as evidence that Jesus^as was resurrected.

Regarding this, Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih IV^rh has said; We proved from the Bible that God saved him from the ignoble death upon the cross. Long before that incident, Jesus^as promised that no sign would be shown unto the people other than the sign of Jonah. So, before we determine what happened to Jesus^as, we must understand what happened to Jonah. We are only pointing out that Jesus^as when he pointed out that the like of what happened to Jonah would also happen to him, he could only have meant that what everyone understood to have occurred in the case of Jonah would occur in his case.

Of course, we have our reservations regarding this view. The story of Jonah, as told to us in the Qur’an, does not mention anywhere that it was for three days and nights that Jonah suffered his trials in the belly of the fish. However, we return to a case in point and try to bring to light the actual similarities that were predicted by Jesus Christ between Jonah and himself. Those similarities spoke clearly of spending three days and nights in extremely precarious circumstances and a miraculous revival from near death, and not of coming back to life from the dead. The same, Jesus^as claimed would happen in his case. If correctly understood and applied, the resurrection of Jesus^as cannot mean the return of his soul to the same human body it had deserted at the moment of death. The term ‘resurrection’ only means the creation of a new astral body or sidereal body.

St. Paul believed in the resurrection of not only Jesus^as but the resurrection in general of all those who die and are deemed fit by God to be given a new existence and a new form of life. This is a general phenomenon that has to be accepted; otherwise, there would be no significance to either religion or Christianity.

For further explanation of Jesus’s survival from death on the cross, please see Jesus in India, a book by the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (^as).