My fiance was telling me this is holy week, sounding like my mom in past years. But I told her there's nothing holy about this week. Oh oh! I asked her if she knew what holiday was being celebrated the day Jesus was taken into custody and the next day crucified? She didn't know, so I explained it was the Jewish Passover - thus the Last Supper. Which is the "14th day of the first full moon of spring" 1
The Jewish Passover this year falls on Monday 22, April (also Earth Day). Now one thing to know is the days in the Old Testament start at twilight and end at twilight the next day. Thus at twilight Jesus and his Apostles were having the "last supper" so wonderfully memorialized by Leonardo Davinci's painting so named. Jesus had told them what his fate/betrayal would be that night and then adjourned to the garden for prayer following the Passover Dinner; where He was betrayed by one of his Aposles, Judas, apprehended, by the guards of the Pharisees (a religious sect that was running the temple complex at the time), the following day interrogated, then tortured with 39 lashes, culminating in His crucifixion, and death just as the day was ending, right as twilight was coming.
Therefore if a Christian really wants to follow correctly, they would mourne starting at the twilight of the 22nd, and continue into the next day of the 23rd until twilight for the arrest, torture and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Then celebrate the Resurrection at twilight Thursday the 25th and continue until twilight Friday the 26th.
To write this article, I did some research and I was surprised to find out that in the early days, Christians went by this method: the passover or the "14th day of the first full moon of spring".
"In the West the Resurrection of Jesus was celebrated on the first day of the week, Sunday, when Jesus had risen from the dead. Consequently, Easter was always celebrated on the first Sunday after the 14th day of the month of Nisan. In Asia Minor, Christians observed the day of the Crucifixion on the same day that Jews celebrated the Passover offering—that is, on the 14th day of the first full moon of spring, 14 Nisan (see Jewish calendar). The Resurrection, then, was observed two days later,"1 (This would be the correct way as I mentioned above.) But that didn't last long.
However all that changed: "The Council of Nicaea in 325 AD decreed that Easter should be observed on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox (March 21). Easter, therefore, can fall on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25." Not only was that method wrong, but also a Pagan method for their Spring Equinox Celebrations. In fact the word "Easter" can only be traced to Pagan origins.5
On the Other hand, "Eastern Orthodox churches use a slightly different calculation based on the Julian rather than the Gregorian calendar (which is 13 days ahead of the former), with the result that the Orthodox Easter celebration usually occurs later than that celebrated by Protestants and Roman Catholics. Moreover, the Orthodox tradition prohibits Easter from being celebrated before or at the same time as Passover."1 Unfortunately this is same Pagan timeline method but using a different kind of calendar. But at least they got the word "Pascha" right.4
Think about mankind's bad attributes. Thus, I think it was about greed/money, and some of the Council of Nicaea either practicing both religions, or neither but mammon worship. The more in the congregation, the more money. "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."7 Guess who said that?
"In the Christian calendar, Easter follows Lent, the period of 40 days (not counting Sundays) before Easter, which traditionally is observed by acts of penance and fasting. Easter is immediately preceded by Holy Week, which includes Maundy Thursday, the commemoration of Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples; Good Friday, the day of his Crucifixion; and Holy Saturday, the transition between Crucifixion and Resurrection. Liturgically, Easter comes after the Great Vigil, which was originally observed sometime between sunset on Easter Saturday and sunrise on Easter Sunday. Later it would be celebrated in Western churches on Saturday evening, then on Saturday afternoon, and finally on Sunday morning." Lent is a Pagan practice and not Biblical by any means. In fact, the Bible speaks against it in the Book of Isaiah. 6 My poor Greek mom still tortures herself with this terrible punishment thinking she's pleasing God, instead Queen Samiramis (The Queen of Babylon).
There are at least 2 Roman historians that wrote about Jesus: Tacitus, wrote in his writing Annals: “Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.” And Josephus who wrote about Jesus in his "Antiquities of the Jews, which is commonly referred to as the Testimonium Flavianum." But seems altered to include "Christ" after Jesus. And that can be verified when looking at an Arabic version of Josephus' writing, which does not contain "Christ" after Jesus.2
In conclusion,one has to be more into the scriptures to understand the significance of this issue, and it's because the Passover, a young lamb, was always a sacrifice for the sins of the people; and since it had been prophesied in the old testament that Jesus was going to be the final Passover for the remission of sins3, no date was recorded; but instead basing His crucifixion on the first day of Passover and resurrection celebration or Easter 2 days later. (He arose 3 days afterwards but because the days start at twilight it ends up translating to 2 days later when looking at it from a gentiles point of time.)
"The English word Easter, which parallels the German word Ostern, is of uncertain origin. One view, expounded by the Venerable Bede in the 8th century, was that it derived from Eostre, or Eostrae, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and fertility." 5 "Pascha (Greek: Πάσχα), also called Easter, is the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord. Pascha is a transliteration of the Greek word, which is itself a transliteration of the Aramaic pascha, from the Hebrew pesach meaning Passover." 4
(Title pic) The last supper, Wikimedia public domain
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leonardo_da_Vinci_(1452-1519)_-_The_Last_Supper_(1495-1498).jpg
(1) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Easter-holiday
(2) https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2022/11/18/top-ten-historical-references-to-jesus-outside-of-the-bible/
(3) https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2053&version=KJV
(4) https://orthodoxwiki.org/Pascha
(5) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Easter-holiday#:~:text=for%20this%20article-,The%20English%20word%20Easter%2C%20which%20parallels%20the%20German%20word%20Ostern,goddess%20of%20spring%20and%20fertility.
(6) https://onlysaviorjesus.com/2018/02/19/lent-should-christians-celebrate-it/
(7) https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Timothy%206%3A10&version=KJV
[ ] Brackets are used to correct the spelling of a person's quote or add more descriptive words to avoid English and Literature Teachers from having a heart attack, LoL.
By Chief Editor Angelo-Lk-Whatcom-Rider-Writer, Published: 3-30-24 Updated: 3-31-24
About The writer: I've lived in Bellingham since February, 2011, and love the beautiful trees & greenery producing all that oxygen, and of course, the lake, bay, hills and mountains too. I've also been in the lovely Anacortes area for part of that time, going back and forth, since moving here.
Educational/Professional Background: Economics & Political Science Degrees at UCF. Attended Graduate School of Economics at FSU, and have worked for the FL Labor Dept as well as consulted for the FL Labor Dept on behalf of the US Labor Dept. I've been happily working in my own businesses since 1993.