Question:
Dear Greg,
The
date for Christmas never changes. Why
does the date we celebrate Easter change each year?
Thank
you,
Lou
Answer: Dear Lou,
The
date for the birth of Christ was unknown (for that matter, an exact date still
is because the Bible doesn’t reveal it), so when the early Christians realized
that they wanted and needed to celebrate his birth they had no specific date for
guidance.
They
decided upon late December because it was a pagan festival and Christianity at
the time was in a battle with paganism (it still is, for that matter).
Christians felt, “what better way to do battle with paganism than to
deliberately schedule our celebration of the birth of Christ at the same
time?” That type of head-to-head
competitive scheduling is the same as that of network television.
One network realizes that the other network has a hit show with a large
market share of the audience watching on, for example, Wednesday nights at
The
good news is that Christianity won! December
25 was the date chosen, and it has been a staple in our culture and calendars
for many centuries. That date is a
lighthouse for Christians and non-Christians alike, pointing the way to Christ.
The
celebration of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior was an entirely different
circumstance. It was grounded in the
Jewish calendar because it was during that season of Passover that Jesus became
the Passover Lamb, fulfilling all of the demands of the old covenant.
Therefore,
because of Easter’s roots in the Hebrew calendar there was a controversy in
the early New Testament church. The
church at the very beginning was exclusively Jewish Christians—those who had
once been religious, racial and cultural Jews, but now were Christians.
As non-Jews (Gentiles) became Christians, the necessity to be culturally
connected to Judaism was challenged.
It
was finally decided that the annual celebration of Easter would be divorced from
the Hebrew calendar because the Jews at large did not accept Jesus Christ and
were not Christian. It was decided
that the date for Easter would be the first Sunday following the new moon that
occurs on or after March 21. The
date of Easter therefore varies between March 22 and April 25.
In
Christ,