Eastertide

Yesterday was Easter Sunday, the beginning of the season of the church calendar called Eastertide. Lent has ended, and the days of lament and sorrow leading toward Easter have been replaced with 50 days of celebration.

If you aren't familiar with the church calendar, you might be wondering how these 50 days of celebration became a tradition.  

In early church history, there was a long debate about when Easter should occur on the calendar. Some wanted to select a date that would always fall on a Sunday, while others wanted to continue celebrating in conjunction with Passover and the feast dates outlined in Scripture.  

Eventually, the Council of Nicea decided in AD 325 that Easter would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the Paschal moon, which is the first full moon after the spring equinox. Since then, this is how the date for Easter is determined.  

This means that most years, Easter and Passover fall at two different times, even though in Scripture when we read about Holy Week, it is happening during Passover, which is significant to the narrative. For instance, we've just celebrated Easter this year, but Passover won't occur until April 22 - April 30. 

In Scripture and now, Passover is followed by 50 days that lead to the celebration of Shavuot, which means weeks. During the weeks that passed between Passover and Shavuot, the Jews would prepare their crops for harvest and get ready to bring their first fruit offerings to Jerusalem. The end of these 50 days would be celebrated with a wave offering, where people would wave the first fruits of their yearly harvest before God at the temple.  

In the Old Testament, 50 days after the first Passover, God met Moses in the wilderness and gave the Israelites instructions for their lives and tools to point them back to God year after year. In the New Testament, 50 days after the Passover, which occurred during Holy Week, God sent the Holy Spirit to dwell with us.  

Today, the season of Easter continues to last for seven weeks - 50 days from Easter Sunday until Pentecost.  

I have mixed feelings about the Council of Nicea's decision to align Easter to a particular Sunday. I appreciate that there is a church calendar with annual seasons to point us to Jesus. I also find myself drawn to the feasts and festivals outlined by God, which not only pointed toward Jesus but were also observed by him. In separating Easter from Passover, I think we lose some understanding of the symbolism of these ancient traditions. Maybe we'll talk more about this in the coming weeks. 

But for now, I welcome celebration in this season.

What would it look like for you to spend the next 50 days in celebration? You might be celebrating big things like birthdays, graduations, new houses, weddings, or school ending, but most of your next 50 days will likely be quite ordinary. 

What are the ordinary parts of your day that you could choose to celebrate? 


~ Melissa