Do protestants celebrate Easter?

[buzuxi02]

I'm interested in hearing from the former protestants who were baptists, prntecostals, evangelicals etc. Do these groups celebrate Pascha? And if so, why?

 

[ZaidaBoBaida]

Seriously dude are you trying to be offensive? Of course Protestants celebrate Easter. Why? Because our Lord's resurrection is something to celebrate. Why wouldn't Protestants celebrate Easter?

 

[~Anastasia~]

I have to admit that I'm a little perplexed by the question as well. Jehovah's Witnesses might not (I'm not sure). But in my former denominations that were Baptist, Evangelical, Pentecostal, (and others) - yes, we ALWAYS celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord. Sometimes there was resistance to calling it "Easter" (believing that to refer to a pagan goddess' name). Sometimes there were bunnies and hunts for hidden eggs, and sometimes those things were frowned on. There was nearly always a special service with lots of singing, and generally a presentation of the Gospel, Crucifixion, and Resurrection, focused mostly on the Resurrection. Music was usually hymns, or often a special program written just for the day. People tend to wear their best, try to buy something new to honor the day, and the church is generally packed since even those that don't go any other time will usually go for Easter. There are usually lots of flowers adorning the church. Very often there was a fellowship meal to follow.

If it's the word "Pascha" or the date the Orthodox observe that you are looking for, generally no one knew a thing about it.

Hope that answers your question.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

I'm confused by the question?

 

[GoingByzantine]

There are a few fringe groups that do not, and I have heard that some SDAs do not as well....otherwise, almost all do.

 

[buzuxi02]

Currently on this website there's a discussion on this, with many of the Sola scripture believers saying they dont. But it's a good question for those that do celebrate it. Why would they?
Seems like a waste of time. Why would they celebrate a holiday which originates from Rome and is completely and utterly nonsensical within the protestant tradition?. Its detached from any Lenten season, not based on any liturgical calendar, no requirements for fasting, no culmination of coherent gospel readings and Holy week services with an anticipation towards the Ressurection based on a liturgical cycle. How do they explain pastel colored easter eggs, why this feast day is not on a fixed date, why they feel the need to emphasize the Ressurection on this day in a complete vaccuum from the liturgical cycle of events which determines moveable and immoveable feast days.

The only thing it would seem to me is deep down inside they still yearn for their Mother Church in Rome on some subconscious level.

 

[ArmyMatt]

as a former Protestant I can say yes, I celebrated Easter every year.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Currently on this website there's a discussion on this, with many of the Sola scripture believers saying they dont. But it's a good question for those that do celebrate it. Why would they?
Seems like a waste of time. Why would they celebrate a holiday which originates from Rome and is completely and utterly nonsensical within the protestant tradition?. Its detached from any Lenten season, not based on any liturgical calendar, no requirements for fasting, no culmination of coherent gospel readings and Holy week services with an anticipation towards the Ressurection based on a liturgical cycle. How do they explain pastel colored easter eggs, why this feast day is not on a fixed date, why they feel the need to emphasize the Ressurection on this day in a complete vaccuum from the liturgical cycle of events which determines moveable and immoveable feast days.

The only thing it would seem to me is deep down inside they still yearn for their Mother Church in Rome on some subconscious level.

Well .... as a former Protestant ...

I certainly DO appreciate what Orthodoxy has given me and added to it. Yes, "Easter" in my former denominations is pale by comparison. But I have loved Christ since I was not much more than a toddler, and generally knew our salvation lay with Him. The Resurrection was the pivotal point of all of that. Of COURSE I celebrated it. At it wasn't because I longed for Rome ... I was deeply suspicious of any such thing.

I'm not defending, exactly, but if you've never been Protestant, maybe you can't appreciate what I'm saying. It was the highlight of the Christian year. Yes, there were debates about things like the name, eggs, and so on. But for me at least, there was no problem of not associating it with any liturgical cycle because I didn't know a thing ABOUT a liturgical cycle. As I said, it was pale in comparison with what I experience now with Pascha, and I grieve for the lack our Protestant brothers and sisters still suffer. But it certainly was not a waste of time.

I have no idea why they are saying on a sola scriptura debate that they don't, except that strange things come out of people's own interpretations of scripture. Especially if they begin to think that the Bible is a complete manual and anything not explicitly spelled out is actually prohibited. But there are so many problems with that approach - where to begin?

But yes, Easter was always very important to every denomination (and non-denomination) I was involved with. I can't imagine it NOT being.

 

[seashale76]

I'm a former Pentecostal. Easter was celebrated every year. They did a sunrise service and the appropriate songs out of the hymnal were sung. They even had communion (which was usually only done monthly). More people showed up to church than usual, wearing new outfits, and you'd see some women even wearing hats (which also wasn't usually done).

It was completely non-liturgical, but an effort was made to be more fancy than usual. There was more emphasis on the secular aspects such as Easter baskets, chocolate, bunnies, egg hunts, and the big family dinner. It's nowhere on the same level as Pascha, but it was observed.

Before I became Orthodox, (Western) Easter was my least favorite holiday.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

Easter took on a new dimension for me, like Anastasia said in her post. I think as a Catholic (and Anglican for 7 or 8 years) I saw things more in terms of Good Friday, the price Christ paid for me on the Cross. "It is accomplished" was my focus in terms of making a perfect sacrifice to please and satiate God, then Easter was a nice feel-good follow-up in which after the sacrificial oblation, Jesus came back to life.

As I explored the Fathers and looked more into Orthodoxy, the festal nature of the Eucharist took more root in me, and the paschal nature of Christ meant more. The Cross was more a means TO accomplish the Resurrection, not the Resurrection a nice follow-up happy ending. The whole POINT WAS the Resurrection.

Pascha is really the culmination of everything Christ did for us. As an Orthodox Christian now I see things through a different prism---each and every word and action we see the Lord say and do was all absolutely totally and utterly important and part of the journey to creating a Resurrection event so that baptism would imbibe all those words and deeds mystically into ALL OF US!

In other words, when Christ shed tears over Lazarus, that wasn't just some touching moment where I'm supposed to say "aww, isn't that sweet?" Jesus is sanctifying tears by shedding them and then infusing that moment into the Resurrection and my baptism/chrismation! When He healed, repaired, exorcised, loved, saved, helped, taught, it's all mystically a part of the entire matrix of Pascha. That Resurrection moment is part of our baptismal mysteries. We are chrismated into the tears, the healing, the Gospel, the beatitudes, the wedding at Cana, the wisdom, love, and insight, the depths of Christ's awesome glory.

For me, every single Divine Liturgy is part of this event. Pascha is the culmination of triumph, ransoming the human race, hallowing hell, defeating the enemy, and bringing us back to calibration as human beings.

Yes, I celebrated Easter for many years, but not with the full knowledge of what it meant, and it was more of an "empty tomb" experience because I would go to Mass at 7am long after the Lord had risen. I was a child of the empty tomb seeing things as Mary Magdalene, not as I should have seen them, watching Him rise in glory late at night in the darkness....

I see things much in reverse now. The Cross isn't the point. The Resurrection is. We mustn't overlook the Cross, downplay Christ's intense sufferings, or appreciate the awful price He paid, but we must also see that He wants us to bask the in the radiance of the end result---the Paschal glory.

 

[buzuxi02]

Let me take it further then. I'm obviously referring more to the non liturgical churches.
For example I see no reason for them to celebrate Christmas, atleast not on December 25th. Usually the Sola scripturalists will claim Christ was probably born in early autumn due to shepherds in the fields.

So why don't they celebrate in early fall? In Orthodoxy under the liturgical cycle certain things need to line up. It has to be 9 months after Anunciation, soon after, the events of John the Baptist must find their culmination etc.

If protestants have a problem with Dec 25 from their very own doctrine, why don't they just commemorate it in September or November? It makes absolutely no sense to me that they simply borrow dates randomly from other traditions in a complete vacuum. It would actually make more sense for them either not to commemorate anything at all, or create their own liturgical calendar more coherent with their own traditions.
One doesn't have to go any further than this website to see how conflicted they are everytime Easter and Christmas come around and have an inability to comprehend why they celebrate feast days which their very own self understanding lead them to conclude it's all romish superstition.

 

[ZaidaBoBaida]

Because some things are too firmly entrenched in tradition to change them, and December 25th is the day that most employers give people off from work. Similarly for Easter.

Personally, I'm loving that Western Easter and Pascha are on different days. That means I can go home and celebrate Easter with my family, but be here for Pascha.

 

[JoeP222w]

I'm interested in hearing from the former protestants who were baptists, prntecostals, evangelicals etc. Do these groups celebrate Pascha? And if so, why?

Christians celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Some people celebrate Passover, yes.

Why? To remember the Passover. Some may argue: but you are not Jews. 1, you don't have to be a Jew to celebrate Passover, because Passover is a celebration of God's grace and mercy. 2, Christians (former Gentiles) are grafted into the nation of Israel by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

Much of what is called "Judaism" today is far removed from Biblical Judaism. Just as there are many who claim themselves to be "Christians" but have no clue who Jesus Christ is, or His gospel message.

 

[ZaidaBoBaida]

I recently acquired the book Catechetical Talks by Daniel Sysoev. In it he says, ".... the most terrible sin is pride. To God even murder is not so terrible as pride, because a man can commit murder in a fit of passion and then repent, while pride, if a person remains proud bars repentance from the heart and destroys a person..."

I wasn't sure what I thought of that at first - pride worse than murder? Seriously? So, I started digging in the Bible for anywhere the word "pride" appeared. I know that over the last 26 years, I have read the Bible numerous times, but until now somehow these verses have never clicked for me: If anyone thinks they are somethin when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone without comparing themselves to someone else for each one should carry their own load. - Galatians 6:3-5

Paul is saying we should not compare ourselves to other people. One of the things that put me off Quakerism was a handful of arrogant and prideful people who were always saying things like, "I'm so glad we're not like...insertdenominationhere...." or, "Only we really have the Holy Spirit..."

So, instead of worrying about what Protestants do or do not do or why they do it - why not concentrate on what we're doing. What are we doing to prepare for Pascha? Do we live our lives in a way that truly reflects the reality of Jesus' resurrection?

 

[ArmyMatt]

Let me take it further then. I'm obviously referring more to the non liturgical churches.
For example I see no reason for them to celebrate Christmas, atleast not on December 25th. Usually the Sola scripturalists will claim Christ was probably born in early autumn due to shepherds in the fields.

So why don't they celebrate in early fall? In Orthodoxy under the liturgical cycle certain things need to line up. It has to be 9 months after Anunciation, soon after, the events of John the Baptist must find their culmination etc.

If protestants have a problem with Dec 25 from their very own doctrine, why don't they just commemorate it in September or November? It makes absolutely no sense to me that they simply borrow dates randomly from other traditions in a complete vacuum. It would actually make more sense for them either not to commemorate anything at all, or create their own liturgical calendar more coherent with their own traditions.
One doesn't have to go any further than this website to see how conflicted they are everytime Easter and Christmas come around and have an inability to comprehend why they celebrate feast days which their very own self understanding lead them to conclude it's all romish superstition.

I think I would say thank God that they do celebrate, if they don't get the why or can spell it out, maybe that would lead them to Orthodoxy. but thank God that they have at least something

 

[buzuxi02]

Christians celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Some people celebrate Passover, yes.

Why? To remember the Passover. Some may argue: but you are not Jews. 1, you don't have to be a Jew to celebrate Passover, because Passover is a celebration of God's grace and mercy. 2, Christians (former Gentiles) are grafted into the nation of Israel by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

But this still makes no sense as they commemorate based on the gregorian paschalion. If they observed the quartodeciman practise it would make sense. The Jewish passover will begin on April 22 this year, it was not observed in the final week of march. Following the methods of their own religious tradition, logic would have it that they would observe the jewish reckoning and then celebrate the resurection on the third day of the jewish passover, but they don't do that. They can even go to an Astronomical observatory and pinpoint the exact date passover fell on in 33 AD and establish a fixed anniversary date, but they dont.

So, instead of worrying about what Protestants do or do not do or why they do it - why not concentrate on what we're doing. What are we doing to prepare for Pascha? Do we live our lives in a way that truly reflects the reality of Jesus' resurrection?

One of the subforums has a discussion entitled "Should christians celebrate easter", its about 7 pages long. A parallel discussion within that thread also touches upon the dating of Christmas. For the low church protestants this is indeed a legitimate question to ask themselves. I assume if i go to the bible belt, I wont have to ask, "hey what day does your easter (or your Christmas) fall on this year"? I can safely assume if they do celebrate these feast days it will be based on the papal liturgical calendar. But why?????
I think its a legitimate question to ask, especially in the face that these people are quite conflicted over why they celebrate what they do. Its evident that bible-only believers have a problem with a December 25th Christmas associating it with pagan baggage. From their own reading of scripture they have concluded that Christ was not born in winter but in one of the warmer months. So why hasn't any protestant leader called to transfer Christmas to Labor Day, or if they want to give it symbolism transfer it to Rosh Hashana or maybe on Yom Kippur. It can be in the summer or whatever warmer month makes more sense to them.
After centuries of non liturgical protestants debating this point everytime these holidays approach and being conflicted over it, I as an Orthodox need to call their bluff and ask them: "why the heck do you continue to celebrate these days? Or at the very least why the heck haven't you devised your own calendars by now? What in the world are you waiting for????

 

[Abel Gkiouzelis]

I'm interested in hearing from the former protestants who were baptists, prntecostals, evangelicals etc. Do these groups celebrate Pascha? And if so, why?

There are a some Protestant groups that do not celebrate the Easter, Christmas etc.

I was born in the small Protestant sect called Worker Sect or "No Name Church" or "2x2 Church" (They have many names). This Protestant sect don't celebrate the Easter. Neither Christmas. But they don't accept Christ as God.

 

[~Anastasia~]

But this still makes no sense as they commemorate based on the gregorian paschalion. If they observed the quartodeciman practise it would make sense. The Jewish passover will begin on April 22 this year, it was not observed in the final week of march. Following the methods of their own religious tradition, logic would have it that they would observe the jewish reckoning and then celebrate the resurection on the third day of the jewish passover, but they don't do that. They can even go to an Astronomical observatory and pinpoint the exact date passover fell on in 33 AD and establish a fixed anniversary date, but they dont.




One of the subforums has a discussion entitled "Should christians celebrate easter", its about 7 pages long. A parallel discussion within that thread also touches upon the dating of Christmas. For the low church protestants this is indeed a legitimate question to ask themselves. I assume if i go to the bible belt, I wont have to ask, "hey what day does your easter (or your Christmas) fall on this year"? I can safely assume if they do celebrate these feast days it will be based on the papal liturgical calendar. But why?????
I think its a legitimate question to ask, especially in the face that these people are quite conflicted over why they celebrate what they do. Its evident that bible-only believers have a problem with a December 25th Christmas associating it with pagan baggage. From their own reading of scripture they have concluded that Christ was not born in winter but in one of the warmer months. So why hasn't any protestant leader called to transfer Christmas to Labor Day, or if they want to give it symbolism transfer it to Rosh Hashana or maybe on Yom Kippur. It can be in the summer or whatever warmer month makes more sense to them.
After centuries of non liturgical protestants debating this point everytime these holidays approach and being conflicted over it, I as an Orthodox need to call their bluff and ask them: "why the heck do you continue to celebrate these days? Or at the very least why the heck haven't you devised your own calendars by now? What in the world are you waiting for????

It never occurred to me, even being a good Protestant, to go off and create my own calendar.

Christmas simply WAS Dec. 25, and if there was anything wrongly feeding into that date, well, it had been accepted for centuries, and the purpose was to commemorate Christ's birth. If I didn't know for sure what day that actually was, Dec. 25 was as good as any other for the sake of being universally accepted, even if some were telling me a different time of year made more sense. Protestants are not so tightly connected anyway - not all taught this. So it makes no sense to think of going off and creating one's own new date for Christmas. That smacks somewhat of pride and rebelliousness, don't you think? And generally speaking, these were not "virtues" we pursued.

As far as Easter/Resurrection Sunday, again, we were simply told when it would be each year. We knew it moved. And see above for all else, except we at least knew the season in general was correct.

I'm not sure whose conversation you're referring to, and I'm not really interested in seeing it, but it sounds to me as though they are just slice(s) of Protestantism and don't reflect every line of thinking out there. Perhaps not even the major ones.

Regardless of dates and details, celebrating the coming, the crucifixion, and the resurrection of our Lord were important to every group of Protestants I belonged to (except one person - not a group - who was close to me who used to criticize observances of any kind, and he was best described as a rather charismatic Evangelical sort, but non-denominational).

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

Pardon my density here, but am I to understand that this thread is about how Protestants don't realize how much they owe to their Catholic parents whom they departed from during the Reformation, and that they're lost sheep not asking enough questions as to why they celebrate what they celebrate? Just checking.

 

[buzuxi02]

Pardon my density here, but am I to understand that this thread is about how Protestants don't realize how much they owe to their Catholic parents whom they departed from during the Reformation, and that they're lost sheep not asking enough questions as to why they celebrate what they celebrate? Just checking.

Yes and no. For a group that claims they don't go with Rome or Rome is pagan, they certainly still hold onto dates relevant only within the Roman Catholic tradition and pretty much nonsensical within their own tradition.

The second is WHY do they want to celebrate these feast days. In absence of a wider tradition, these observances are pretty much irrelevant in the protestant context. Perhaps that's why these holidays were secularised so much.