By HH Mohrmen
Whether it is the festival of Passover or Easter or any other traditional spring festival which one finds in abundance in the hills, the fact is that spring is a unique season because it promises a new beginning; hence the arrival of the season is celebrated by all faith traditions in various ways and forms.
In the Jewish tradition Passover, or Pesach is an important festival. It is celebrated to commemorate the liberation of the children of Israel’s from slavery in the hands of the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt. The freedom they attained under the leadership of Moses was recorded in the book of Exodus and Pesach or Passover was celebrated every year for thousands of year to commemorate the day the tribe attained freedom from oppression.
By tradition Jews celebrate Passover on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan and in some cases the celebration lasts for a week or so. Passover normally begins after dusk of the 14th of Nisan which is close to the month of March in the modern calendar and ends at dusk of the 15th day of the month of the same month according to Jewish calendar.
According to the book of the Exodus, God was actively involved in the liberation of the Children of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. He caused ten plagues upon the ancient Egyptians and the tenth and worst of all was the death of the Egyptian first-born which compelled the Pharaoh to release his Israelite slaves from bondage.
According to the Torah the holy book of the Jews (which Christians call the Old Testament) when God decided to inflict the last and the final plague on the Egyptians, he instructed every Israelite to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a slaughtered lamb and, upon seeing this, the spirit would know and pass over these homes and thereby save the first-born of Israelite while killing only the first born of the Egyptians. The tradition of a sacrificial lamb owes its origin to the history of the liberation of the children of Israel from the hands of the Pharaoh and the English name Passover was given to the festival from the episode when the spirit passed over the Israelites’ homes and saved their first born from death.
In the book of Exodus, it is said that when the Pharaoh freed the Israelites, they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread dough to rise (leaven). To celebrate the occasion, the Jews therefore do not eat leavened bread. It is also for that reason that Passover was called the feast of unleavened bread in the Torah or the Old Testament. The traditional flat unleavened bread eaten during Passover is called Matzo.
It was also believed that Jesus went to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover where he was arrested and crucified. Hence for the Christians, the death of Jesus which culminated with the prime Jewish festival is no coincidence- it has symbolic overtures. The gospel writers derived meaning and symbolism from what has happened on that fateful Pesach and came up with their own interpretation of the trial and the eventful death as narrated in their gospels.
But there is inconsistency in the record of the incident made by the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) and the Gospel of John as to the date of the Passover and the day Jesus was crucified. In the synoptic Gospels, Jesus offers the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb (Mark 14:12; Matt. 26:17, Luke 22:7). That would mean Jesus celebrated the feast on Thursday, the fourteenth of Nisan. This was the day of preparation for the Passover when the lambs were slain and the meal prepared to be eaten in the evening according to Ex. 12:6. However, John tells us that Jesus was crucified on the day of preparation in John 19:31. That would be the next day which is Friday, of the same month of Nisan according to the Jewish calendar. But whatever the case maybe, Jesus was celebrating the most important Jewish festival the Pesach or as it is known in English the Passover. His followers saw in what has happened a new symbolism and interpreted the messages according to their own understanding of the signs.
Pesach is somewhat linked with Easter not only because the early Christians celebrated Easter on the same day as the Jews celebrate Pesach, but the two festivals also share many similar rituals and traditions. How and when Easter was first celebrated to commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is a question that may not find answers, but Easter also has its own origin.
Easter or Eostre is the festival in the northern hemisphere which celebrates spring and fertility; it has its origin in the Pagan tradition and Easter egg and Easter bunnies used as part of the celebration is a remnant of the ancient fertility tradition practiced by Pagans in Europe. In Christianity, Easter is celebrated to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to fulfill the prophesy in the Old Testament. In the early Christian period Easter was celebrated on the same day the Jews celebrate Passover. In some cases it was celebrated at different times of the year. It was only in the reign of Emperor Constantine that the days for celebration of the festival was fixed once and for all. It was in the first council of Nicaea in the year 325 CE that a decision was made to celebrate Easter as a moveable feast. The meaning of moveable feast is that the festival does not have a specific date in the calendar. The Council of Nicaea convened by the emperor apart from settling other issues and come up with the Nicaean creed. It also established the date of Easter and determined that Easter is to be celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon or the Paschal Full Moon following the March equinox. March or Spring equinox is on 21 March and the Sunday after the first full moon after the 21st March could vary from one year to another. That is why we have the date Easter is celebrated changes every year from 22 March to 25 April.
The tradition of organized faith acquiring the characteristics of ancient pagan festivals is not rare. Christians apart from using Easter to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection, also adapts Mexican celebration of the death as All Souls day and one of the five pillars of Islam- the Hajj also has a pagan origin. Hajj was a tradition practiced by the pagans in the area before Muhammad received the final seal from God.
But coming back to spring and festivals, irrespective of the kind of festival one celebrates be it, the Pesach, Easter, Shadsuk Mynsiem, Chadsukra, Nohsakyriat, Bihu or other festival, Spring is that time of the year when the entire creation comes back to life and experiences its annual resurrection. It is also the time for the whole creation to celebrate freedom to go out to the World. And while we celebrate our freedom let us not forget that others too have their own freedom. Hence while we exercise our freedom let us not trample or curtail on others’ freedom. Spring is also a festival of trying to give back to the community or the wider world. Let us therefore try to give back as much as we take from the community and the world at large.