I find it weird that his birthday/christmas always fall on the 25th of December no matter what year it is... but the date of his death/easter varies year by year...
How is THAT possible?
2007-12-22 13:27:20 · 19 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Does YOUR birthday change every year? No? I didn't think so.
Jesus died on the Jewish Passover. The Jewish Calendar is lunar and differs from our Gregorian calendar. Thereby it can be at different times each year.
2007-12-22 13:32:38 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
Neither his birth or death/ressurection are celebrated on the exact day that the event happend.
Christians decided that they needed to pick one day to celebrate his birth, so they picked December 25th because it was convenient since the pagans that they wanted to convert already had a holiday around that time.
Easter is more or less the same, except they want it to be on a Sunday every year, so it can't always be the same date.
It's not the date that's important, they didn't even use the same calendar when Jesus was born. What's important is that Christians remember Jesus and what he lived and died for.
2007-12-22 21:38:20 · answer #2 · answered by abbbijo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is because Easter is the first Sunday after Passover. Passover is based on the season. Christmas once was on Solstice. this yr Solstice was at 10 pm on the 21th. The reason Christmas is around the time of Winter Solstice is that there are many other holidays that fall in that time. It was much easier for Christians to include the Pagans into the Holiday this way.
2007-12-22 21:38:53 · answer #3 · answered by Tedi 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The "birth" date is artificially assigned. His death took place at the time of the Passover. Since he died at age 33 1/2, his birth probably took place 6 mo. before Easter. I.e., about September. How exciting is that? December 25 is a pagan holiday, but, hey, why turn down any opportunity to 1) celebrate and 2) talk about Jesus?
2007-12-22 21:31:55 · answer #4 · answered by shirleykins 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Easter is determined based on the Passover. The Passover does not occur based on our calander, but rather based on Jewish tradition. It has nothing to do with pagan holidays, any perceived timing is coincidental. December 25 was instituted by the Roman Catholic Church. It is more associated with Pagan holidays, it was decided to use the holiday to celebrate something more appropriate for Christians, the birth of Jesus.
2007-12-22 21:43:44 · answer #5 · answered by future dr.t (IM) 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The short answer is that Easter is always celebrated on a Sunday.
The long answer is that there are two separate calendars in Christianity, one based on Easter (or, more properly, Pascha), and the other based on the Julian/Gregorian date.
2007-12-22 21:39:35 · answer #6 · answered by NONAME 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because we do not have any biblical evidence of the date Christ was born. December 25th is merely the traditional date that people celebrate the birth of Christ. On the other hand, the Bible does specify the date of the Resurrection of Christ in accordance with the phases of the moon and the Jewish celebration of the Passover.
2007-12-22 21:34:48 · answer #7 · answered by mr_e_cowboy 3 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Because Passover was celebrated according to the lunar cycle. You know. Full moons. That kind of stuff. They did not have a set date for Passover, it was based instead on the moon. If Jesus' death was to be celebrated on a set date then often Jesus' death would be BEFORE Passover so it wouldn't make sense.
2007-12-22 21:47:53 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The dates we Christians celebrate both Easter AND Christmas are pased on pagan holidays. the dates were chosen as they were to appease the pagans and to try to "chrisianize" them. Easter is a day when the pagans used to worship Ishtar, a goddess of fertility( thats why bunnies and eggs etc, too), and Christmas is based around the winter solstice.
2007-12-22 21:35:37 · answer #9 · answered by rose_32008 5 · 4⤊ 2⤋
It's the first Sunday after the first full moon after the equinox.
Still confused? LOL - I'm not sure most Christians realize that or not or if they just look at what the calendar tells them. I was a way for the Church to slightly distance themselves from the celebration of the equinox, a pagan tradition, celebrating Spring with symbols of painted eggs and rabbits (fertility symbols). And they wanted distance after the full moon so....
first Sunday after the full moon after the equinox.
2007-12-22 21:36:05 · answer #10 · answered by Aravah 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋