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Last night (Friday) was the first Passover Seder. Tomorrow is Easter in Western Christianity, Tuesday is my grandson’s birthday, and next Sunday is Orthodox (Greek)
Easter. So this post shall be an historical one, though as I'm only halfway through my book tour it could very well have degenerated into an hysterical one.
Passover or Pesach always takes place around the same time
as Easter or Paska because the holiday
of Passover, commemorating God’s liberation of the Jewish People from slavery
in Egypt, was the occasion for the Last Supper.
In fact, before the year 325 Easter was calculated upon the lunar-based
Hebrew calendar and all one had to do to determine the date for Easter was to “ask
a Jew in your community” when Passover was celebrated.
All that changed in 325 when the First Ecumenical Synod
calculated the exact date of Easter from the more modern cycles of the
sun-based Julian calendar. That became
Christianity’s generally accepted method for calculating the date of Easter and
continued to be so for more than five hundred years after the Great Schism of
1052 separated the Church of the West to Rome and the Church of the East to
Constantinople (Istanbul).
Then, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII introduced what is known as
the Gregorian calendar for the express purpose of correctly calculating Easter,
something the Julian calendar was not believed to have achieved. Today, the Gregorian calendar is the world’s
officially accepted civil calendar (except in Greece’s 1500 year-old monastic
community of Mount Athos—see Prey on
Patmos), but there still is not agreement among the Christian world over
whether it correctly fixes the date of Easter.
Indeed, as recently as 1997 the World Council of Churches
proposed a method of using modern scientific knowledge for precisely
calculating Easter and replacing divergent practices. It was not adopted.
As for how Passover fits into all this, Julian calendar
Easter always falls on a Sunday after
the first day of the eight-day Passover holiday and generally within those
eight days, though at times more than a month later. Western Easter, relying on the Gregorian
calendar, also generally falls within Passover’s eight days, though three times
in every nineteen-year period it falls a month before Passover.
Yes, that’s why Easter is considered a moveable feast, as
opposed to Christmas that always occurs on the same date.
I guess you could say that, of all these celebratory
springtime occasions, the only certainty is that my grandson’s birthday
always falls on April 23rd. :)
Happy Birthday, Azi.
And a Happy Easter, Kalo
Paska, and Zissen Pesach to all.
Jeff—Saturday
My Upcoming Book Events:
Wednesday, April
24, 6:30 PM
Houston, TX
MURDER BY THE BOOK
Author Speaking and
Signing
Friday, April 26,
7:00 PM
Denver, CO
TATTERED COVER
(East Colfax)
Author Speaking and
Signing
Monday, April 29,
7:00 PM
Pittsburgh, PA
MYSTERY LOVERS
BOOKSHOP
Author Speaking and
Signing
Wednesday, May 1,
6:30 PM
New York, NY
MYSTERIOUS BOOKSHOP
Author Speaking and
Signing
Thursday, May 2,
7:00 PM
Naperville, IL
ANDERSON’S BOOKSHOP
Author Speaking and
Signing
Friday, May 3, 7:00
PM
Chicago, IL (Forest
Park)
CENTURIES & SLEUTHS BOOKSTORE
Author Speaking and
Signing
Saturday, May 4, 2
PM
Milwaukee, WI
BOSWELL BOOK
COMPANY
Author Speaking and
Signing
Thursday May 9,
5:00 PM
BRISTOL, UK
CRIMEFEST—Mercure
Bristol Grand Hotel
Panelist on “Nobody
Would Believe it if You Wrote it: Fake News, Post-Truth and Changing Words,”
with Fiona Erskine, William Shaw, Gilly Macmillan, moderated by Paul E.
Hardisty
Friday, May 10,
5:10 PM
BRISTOL, UK
CRIMEFEST—Mercure
Bristol Grand Hotel
Panelist on
“Sunshine Noir,” with Paul Hardisty, Barbara Nadel, Robert Wilson,
moderated by Michael Stanley
October 31-November
3
DALLAS, TX
BOUCHERCON
2019---Hyatt Regency Dallas
Panel Schedule Yet
to be Announced
Posts
Thanks! Great clarification!! Have a Happy week!
ReplyDeleteThanks J&J. Enjoy Paska in the Mani!
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