What did Easter look like in the early Church?

[Michie]

Like Christmas and other Catholic holy days, Easter is often misunderstood and mis-celebrated. Either its origins are said to be based on pagan holidays (a myth we will bust), or we treat it as a day to binge after a season of fasting. So, to fully embrace Easter, let’s look at how the early Christians understood and celebrated the day of Christ’s resurrection.

First of all, they didn’t call it Easter

What was Easter like in the early Church? Well, to begin with, they didn’t call it “Easter” — that word would be meaningless to them. The early Christians believed that Jesus’ passion and resurrection were the central part of the whole story of God’s saving activity in the world. These events were not seen as a single, isolated moment in history, but part of the great trajectory of God’s providential interventions.

More specifically, the passion and resurrection of Jesus were understood to be a continuation and fulfillment of the events of the Passover and the Exodus. And not coincidentally, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus happened at the time of the festival of Passover, so when the early Christians referred to the annual commemoration of Jesus’ passion and the celebration of his resurrection, they simply called it Passover. It’s just like the way that Pentecost continues to be named after a Hebrew festival, even though it is given new meaning in the Church as the celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so in the early Church, the feast day of the Resurrection of the Lord was simply called Passover, or some translation of that word, as it still is to this day in most languages of the world. This is where we get the word “Paschal” in the Paschal Mystery. That just means, “the Passover Mystery.”

Continued below.

The truth about how early Christians really celebrated Easter

To fully embrace Easter, James L. Papandrea takes a look at how the early Christians understood and celebrated the day of Christ’s resurrection.

www.oursundayvisitor.com

 

[The Liturgist]

Like Christmas and other Catholic holy days, Easter is often misunderstood and mis-celebrated. Either its origins are said to be based on pagan holidays (a myth we will bust), or we treat it as a day to binge after a season of fasting. So, to fully embrace Easter, let’s look at how the early Christians understood and celebrated the day of Christ’s resurrection.

First of all, they didn’t call it Easter

What was Easter like in the early Church? Well, to begin with, they didn’t call it “Easter” — that word would be meaningless to them. The early Christians believed that Jesus’ passion and resurrection were the central part of the whole story of God’s saving activity in the world. These events were not seen as a single, isolated moment in history, but part of the great trajectory of God’s providential interventions.

More specifically, the passion and resurrection of Jesus were understood to be a continuation and fulfillment of the events of the Passover and the Exodus. And not coincidentally, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus happened at the time of the festival of Passover, so when the early Christians referred to the annual commemoration of Jesus’ passion and the celebration of his resurrection, they simply called it Passover. It’s just like the way that Pentecost continues to be named after a Hebrew festival, even though it is given new meaning in the Church as the celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so in the early Church, the feast day of the Resurrection of the Lord was simply called Passover, or some translation of that word, as it still is to this day in most languages of the world. This is where we get the word “Paschal” in the Paschal Mystery. That just means, “the Passover Mystery.”

Continued below.

The truth about how early Christians really celebrated Easter

To fully embrace Easter, James L. Papandrea takes a look at how the early Christians understood and celebrated the day of Christ’s resurrection.

www.oursundayvisitor.com

Christus resurrexit!

Indeed, the word Easter is specific to the English language, and there is a similar word in German, Oestre I think. Pascha is the word most commonly used by Greek Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. I would guess that most Catholics who speak a language other than English or German use some variety of Pascha, for example, the Dutch* word is Passen.

*The Dutch Catholics of the United Netherlands and later the Kingdom of the Netherlands endured some nasty persecution, for example, being forced to conceal their churches in ordinary houses, although my understanding is that it was nowhere near as bad as what British Catholics were subjected to for roughly 275 years; indeed there was a time in the late 18th century when Unitarians were actually treated better and had more civil rights and opportunities for government employment and service than Catholics!

 

[The Liturgist]

By the way, the Mozarabic Rite, which is still celebrated in a designated chapel in the Cathedral of Toledo, and in a nearby monastery, and which was celebrated by Pope St. John Paul II in 1995, has a particularly ancient and beautiful Paschal liturgy.

As an aside, I really wish that permission could be granted for the celebration of the Mozarabic and Ambrosian rites, and perhaps other historic and regional uses of the Gallican* and Roman liturgies, in North America, for example, the Beneventan, Old Ambrosian and Gallican* uses of the Gallican Rite, and the Roman Rite uses of Sarum, York, Cologne, Lyons, Braga, and perhaps that of the Carthusians, which is very ancient and beautiful but unfortunately impossible for most Catholics to ever see.

I think the Catholic Church does a particularly good job teaching a correct understanding of Pascha, particularly compared with some of the mainline, Calvinist, Restorationist and non-denominational Protestant churches, which either fail to stress its relative importance or in some cases intentionally avoid celebrating it, for example, the Churches of Christ, Quakers, Reformed Presbyterians (Covenanters) and liberal denominations where you have church leaders like John Shelby Spong expressing doubt about the reality of the Resurrection.

Apparently they either forgot or disagree with St. Paul who declares that if Christ were not risen, Christians would be the most pathetic of people in their collective delusion, but of course, Christ is Risen, and it is the adherents of false religions, the gods of which are devils (Psalm 95 v. 5 according to the Challoner Douai Rheims and the Septuagint), who are to be pitied, and evangelized where possible.