What is Easter: Pagan tradition or Christian holiday, and how will it be celebrated in the midst of a pandemic

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Since childhood, we have become accustomed to celebrating a bright holiday in the spring, which we call Easter. This is the day when believers massively visit churches, visit relatives and friends to exchange food and congratulations. This year, the ailment under the sonorous name "coronavirus" made unexpected adjustments not only to the work and life of each of us, but also to the celebration of this important day. And what exactly is this Easter? Why do Christians have Easter, Muslims have Ramadan, and Jews have Passover? And how will all this happen in the current conditions?

April 8 was the first day of Passover this year, April 12 was celebrated by Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans and several other Christian denominations. On April 19, Orthodox Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Christ.

On each of these days, the streets of Jerusalem were filled with tens of thousands of pilgrims, but this year the Israeli government imposed very strict quarantine measures and the city is completely empty. Not everyone supports such restrictions. Some synagogues where Orthodox Jews gathered were closed by police force.

The ceremony of the descent of the Holy Fire was in jeopardy. The temple was closed, services are held in a narrow circle of priests and are broadcast via the Internet. After the descent, the priest will take the Holy Fire to the square in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and hand it over to representatives of several embassies. After that, the ambassadors will raise lamps with fire on board the aircraft and will be able to fly to their home countries. Such ceremonies are somewhat unusual, but if it can save someone's life, then it will be worth it.

The celebrations were held in the same format on April 12 at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. All Holy Week services were held without parishioners. St. Peter's Square was also empty this year, usually it was filled with people. The tradition of annual absolution by the Pope was also carried out in absentia this year.

Muslims around the world, adapting to current circumstances, conduct their traditional collective Iftar using videoconferencing. During Ramadan, another Islamic precept had to be fulfilled - to make a pilgrimage to Muslim shrines. This year, the Saudi Arabian government has closed Mecca and Medina to pilgrims.

In Russia, statements about how believers will celebrate this day vary enormously. "Easter will be! Easter was celebrated during the plague, war and other disasters, we will celebrate it now," said the head of the church department for interaction with the media, Vladimir Legoyda. special patriarchal blessing, and also not to listen to those priests who oppose quarantine measures.

Let's try to figure out what Easter really is. After all, it is very important to know what and in whom you believe. We all have one God the Father. Why, then, are those who were born, for example, in Israel, more often than not become Jews? Those who were born in Iran are Muslims and the Chinese are Buddhist? We almost always become followers of the confession in which we were brought up from childhood. It turns out that someone told us something and we believed? So what is it? Just following tradition?

The Slavs have always celebrated on these days the end of winter and the onset of spring. It was a great pagan holiday. He symbolized the beginning of a new life. The land was ready for cultivation and sowing. Therefore, it is not surprising that it was celebrated on a grand scale. Round dances were held in the fields in order to help the earth to be saturated with positive energy for the future good harvest. It was also customary to bake Easter cakes. This pastry was a symbol of masculine strength and fertility. That is why it has an elongated shape, and the top of the cake is traditionally decorated with white fondant. It is also customary to paint eggs. Easter cake and krashenki are symbols of masculine and feminine principles, which is a symbol of fertility. This is not surprising: many cultures use such phallic symbols in religious fertility cults.

So the true meaning of what we celebrate every year is a tribute to a pagan tradition? Of course, you can continue painting eggs and baking cakes as if nothing had happened, without understanding the true meaning of the holiday. Forgetting at the same time that if you are already called Christians, then what does pagan traditions have to do with it? In order to find out the true meaning of Easter, you need to research the history of this holiday from its very beginning.

Most Christians know that this is the feast of the resurrection of Christ. But at the beginning everything was a little different. In Old Testament times, Jews were enslaved by the Egyptians. In order to deliver the people of Israel from this heavy burden, God sent a man named Moses to them. This man proclaimed the will of God. The last "Egyptian execution", after which the Pharaoh agreed to release the Jewish people, was the death of all the firstborn.

As a result of this, the firstborn were saved only in those houses, the doorposts of which were anointed with the blood of an innocent lamb, the so-called Passover lamb. A significant role in this was played by the fact that this Easter sacrifice should have been eaten by the whole family. Since those ancient times, the essence of Easter has not changed at all. There is the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Bread, as a symbol of His flesh and wine, as a symbol of the blood of the Lamb. In order to understand the true essence, you need to understand the meaning of two more holidays: the feast of the first harvest (Pentecost) and the feast of the second harvest (Tabernacle). These holidays are related. During the Last Supper, Jesus broke bread with his disciples and sipped wine. Christ gave his apostles a command: to accept bread as a symbol of His body, broken for us, and wine, as a symbol of His blood, which he sheds for us.

Thus, the true essence of Easter is death - a sacrifice for the redemption of mankind from the bondage of sin. You can agree with this, or you can argue and follow established traditions. There is nothing wrong with traditional Easter food. The main thing is to know the true meaning of Easter. It is not in food and drink, but in the salvation of mankind through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. What is true for you, ONLY YOU DECIDE …

Read about the history of this holiday among different nations in our article. not eggs alone: 10 Easter traditions from around the world.