The evolution of Easter

Easter has been heavily commercialised by the confectionary, greeting card and the clothing industry, yet Easter remains a sacred time and sacred day.

Mar 28, 2018

By Prof Joseph F. Kelly,
“If Christ has not been raised, (our) faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15:17). So said the apostle Paul, summing up the early belief that the Resurrection was the most important element of faith, which led to the belief that Easter, the feast of the Resurrection, was the most important liturgical event of the year.

Given the importance of the feast and the prominence of Paul, who could object to this?

Actually Easter turned out to be quite controversial for the early Christians.

Their initial problem was when to celebrate the feast. All four Gospels describe the Resurrection, and all Christians accept that it occurred on a Sunday. But the exact historical date was unknowable. (The same was true of the Nativity.) Therefore the Christian leaders decided to choose an appropriate date.

This sounds like a simple problem — just choose a widely acceptable date and use that. If only it were that simple!

Many Christians were ethnic Jews, and their main Church (or see) was Jerusalem. They thought that all Christians should use the Jewish reckoning since the Hebrew calendar was sacred. Some gentiles were willing to accept that, and for them Easter would then fall on the Sunday following the 14th of the Jewish lunar month of Nisan.

Some Christians tried that calendar, only to discover that the reckoning of the month Nisan was different in the major gentile bishoprics of Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria, which, to make things more complicated, were major theological centers, and both wanted to debate the matter — for decades!

But these two were Greek-speaking bishoprics. The Latin Christians had their own view, and they generally followed the lead of the See of Rome.

Not until 455 did the matter become settled when the bishop of Rome, Leo I the Great, decided to accept the Alexandrian method.

Still following Jewish biblical tradition, the Christians concluded that so major a feast deserved a period of preparation, and such a sacred preparation should include fasting.

Why? Because catechumens, those pagans who wished to become Christians, had to undergo a pre-baptismal fast for a period of 40 days, modelled after Jesus’ 40-day fast before his public ministry, as well as those of the Old Testament prophets Moses and Elijah. This practice became widespread in the fourth century.

This fast was the real thing! People observing it could eat only one meal per day, toward the evening. The choices of meals were very limited: no fish, no meat and not even eggs since they came from animals.

Yet the surviving evidence indicates that believers willingly took on these demands.

Attendance at church was also expected, at least in urban areas, and some of the famous episcopal orators, such as Sts. John Chrysostom and Augustine of Hippo, preached brilliant Easter sermons.

Inevitably things would change. By the Middle Ages, people were allowed to break the fast at 3:00 in the afternoon. This late break helped agricultural workers to get through the day and had the side effect of increasing attendance at evening services.

Lent retained its penitential character well up to the Second Vatican Council (1962- 1965) when the emphasis shifted to positive achievements pointing to the joy of Easter, for example, stressing the importance of charity and not just fasting.

Easter has been heavily commercialised by the confectionary, greeting card and the clothing industry, yet Easter remains a sacred time and sacred day. --CNS

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