Easter the History
Easter the history is a combination of religious traditions, pagan and secular celebrations, and language.
For the word aspect of Easter the history, the word Easter dates back to the Greek word Pascha which came from the Hebrew word for Passover. Easter and Passover are similar in that both, from the religious standpoint, celebrate life. The Christian Easter has to do with Jesus’ resurrection while the Hebrew Passover has to do with God sparing the children of the Jews while killing the first born of the Egyptians.
It’s also significant that Jesus and his apostles took the last supper as a Passover meal. Our English word, Easter, comes from the Old English name of a month in the Germanic Calendar, Eostre, which itself may come from the name of a goddess, Eostre, who often carried a basket filled with eggs.
Eastertide in Easter the history is the whole of the Easter season. It used to be that the season was 40 days from Easter Sunday to the Ascension when God brought Jesus to heaven, but in the modern Christian calendar it has expanded 10 extra days to Pentecost when the holy spirit enlightened the apostles. Pentecost is linked to the Jewish Shavout, which celebrates the giving of the Ten Commandments 50 days after the beginning of the Exodus.
Over time in the Christian church there were many disputes over the date that Easter should be celebrated. The Quartodeciman controversy was the last of these arguments. It was a dispute based on a difference of one week, whether to celebrate Easter on the Hebrew Nisan 14 or one week later. Nisan 14 is the Lord’s Passover, the day when Jews prepare for the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The Bishop of the Roman Province of Asia wanted the Easter celebration on Nisan 14, while the rest of the Christian world celebrated it on the following Sunday. Nisan 14 could be any day of the week. When the dispute first began the Bishop of Phyrgia and the Bishop of Rome agreed to disagree, and let it stand. But about 20 years after the initial dispute the Bishop of Rome kicked all the Asia Minor Bishops out of the church over the issue.
It was further complicated by having to rely on Jewish scholars to determine the date each year for Nisan 14, and thus when Easter happened. It was possible, depending on the decision of Jewish leaders, to have two Nisan 14′s within the span of less than a year. The First Council of Nicaea ended all the date disputes by ending the reliance on the Jewish calendar for Nisan 14.
Wikipedia has a very interesting entry for Easter the History and the date calculation of the holiday.
