The two most celebrated holidays in the western world are Christmas and Easter.  Because of the Christian heritage of western countries, these holidays have a long tradition.  Christmas was first celebrated in Rome in 336 A.D. and Easter began to be widely celebrated in the 2nd century A.D.  Yet these two holidays are celebrated very differently.

The name Christmas comes from “Christ Mass,” the mass the Catholic church celebrated on December 25.  Since the Bible does not give the time of year of Jesus’ birth, and many sources believe Jesus was born during the spring or summer (why would shepherds be out on the hills at night with their sheep in the winter?), the date on which we celebrate Christmas most likely does not coincide with the actual birth of Jesus, but with the pagan celebration of the winter solstice and the beginning of lengthening days.  This time fit nicely with the Scandinavian celebration of Yule (hence “Yuletide”), the German celebration of the pagan god, Oden, and the Roman celebration of Saturnalia in honor of the Roman god Saturn.  So the Church decided that placing the celebration of Jesus’ birth at the same time as the people were used to celebrating pagan gods would make the transition to celebrating the birth of Jesus easier. And, in fact, it did.

The name of Easter comes not from Christian celebrations but from a pagan god, Eostre.  The date of Easter more closely aligns with the actual crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus than Christmas does with His birth, however,  since we know that Jesus died on a Friday after having celebrated the Jewish feast of the Passover with his disciples on Thursday.  In western churches, Easter thus falls between March 22 and April 25 on the first Sunday after the astronomical full moon. This generally places it three to five days after the feast of the Passover.  

Easter was celebrated in all of Christendom even when Christmas was not.  For instance, in America, the celebration of Christmas was first banned by the Puritans because it included raucous celebrations with guns being shot into the air and people getting drunk. When it began to make a comeback in the 1800s, it was helped on its way by Charles Dicken’s novel A Christmas Carol, and stories by Washington Irving about how Christmas used to be celebrated in England, including a story of how Santa Claus smoked a pipe and entered houses through their chimneys.  Around the same time, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem that begins “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” in an effort to make the celebration of Christmas more “family friendly.”  Saint Nicholas was a saint celebrated by the Dutch on January 6.  They called him Sint Klaus for short, which soon became our “Santa Claus.” Interestingly, in America, Christmas has become by far the most celebrated of the two, which is ironic, since while Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem was both important and necessary, it was his willing death for our sins and his resurrection, a victory over death and the grave, that gave us a living and loving Savior.  Why then, isn’t more made of Easter than of Christmas? 

 Easter has its eggs and the Easter Bunny and spring finery donned by those who go to church, but it has a different feel to it than Christmas.  In preparation for Christmas, homes and city streets are decorated, children visit a mall Santa Claus to tell him what they want for Christmas, everyone buys gifts by the dozens, and the scent of baking cookies fills most homes from Thanksgiving on.

The lead up to Easter is far more solemn. Children may expect an Easter basket filled with chocolate bunnies and other candies, but that’s not as exciting as the gifts they get at Christmas. The weeks leading up to Easter are called Lent, and most Christians are encouraged to give something up for Lent, just as Jesus gave up His life for ours.  Some churches use this as a money-making project for missions, giving every Sunday School child a folder with slots in which they are to place dimes for every day of Lent.  The dimes are supposed to come from their “allowances,” but most simply turn them over to their parents who go to the bank for the requisite number of dimes and the folders are then turned in on Easter. Many churches still have weekly Lenten services leading up to Easter, but since the number of Easter hymns is limited, none of them are generally sung before Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter. Thus, the Lenten services tend to feel more like a short Sunday service without the offering. During Christmas, on the other hand, Christian carols abound along with secular songs like “Jingle Bells,” Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” and “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”  and they are all played over and over on the radio and in the stores.

The giving of gifts at Christmas reflects the gifts that the Wise men gave to the baby Jesus, but that tradition has gone wild, fueled by stores and greeting card companies. Christmas is so secular, it becomes difficult at times for Christians to remember the reason for the celebration.  Easter has its share of commercialization.  Stores are filled with all kinds of Easter candies, Easter baskets, Easter cookies, and stuffed Easter rabbits.  Even churches sponsor Easter egg hunts.  But outside of these relatively muted expressions of joy, the holiday season is one of sadness and reflection. 

Lent itself begins with ash Wednesday which follows Shrove Tuesday.  Shrove, the past tense of shrive, means to confess your sins to a priest in order to prepare for the Lenten season, a common practice in Medieval Europe.  That Tuesday is better know to us as Mardi Gras (the French term) or Carnivale, a time of feasting before the deprivations of Lent that begins on Ash Wednesday. This day of celebration is found mostly in New Orleans in the U.S., where the French influence began the tradition of a fantastic parade with floats designed and manned by special clubs or “krewes,” the oldest of which is the Krewe of Bacchus.  The celebration goes on for most of a week, ending on the Tuesday before Lent.  Beside the spectacular parade which winds its way through the French Quarter, there is much eating and drinking.  Then comes ash Wednesday, when every good Catholic goes to church where a priest spreads ashes in the sign of the cross on his or her forehead, to be worn the remainder of the day as a sign of repentance. This begins the period of Lent for the faithful.

Palm Sunday is the only time before Easter that Christians are encouraged to feel really joyful.  This Sunday commemorates the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem, cheered by large crowds of people, many of whom would be asking for his death by Friday.  Songs sung on Palm Sunday may now include not only old favorites like “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” and “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna,” but also more modern additions like “Praise Adonai” by Paul Baloche and “Sing Hosanna” by Joshua Blakesly. But looking forward to Friday, the day of His crucifixion, congregations may also sing “The Old Rugged Cross,”  and “Lead Me to Calvary.”  One of the most beautiful songs on this theme is “Here Is Love,” its words written by William Rees.

            Here is love vast as the ocean,

            Lovingkindness as a flood

            When the Prince of Life, our ransom,

            Shed for us His precious blood.

            Here is love. Lord, we remember.

            From our hearts we lift Your praise,

            Raising high the living anthem

            All will sing through endless days.

            On the mount of crucifixion

            Fountains opened deep and wide.

            Through the floodgates of Your mercy

            Flowed a vast and gracious tide.

            Here is love like mighty rivers

            Poured unceasing from above.

            Heaven’s peace and perfect justice

            Kissed a guilty world in love.

These words remind us of the great sacrifice that Jesus made, willingly dying on the cross in agony for you and for me.  But we see the agony of the sacrifice more than we feel the joy of what His sacrifice has done for us. We may feel thankful, but we do not feel joyful. Through Him, our sins are forgiven and we will not need to face the wages of sin which the Bible teaches are death, separation from God, eternal punishment in Hell. Yet it is only on Easter itself that we seem to be allowed to bask in the glorious joy of His death and resurrection.  Our God walked among us as a man and died a cruel death for our sins and rose from the grave on the third day.  He was dead, but now He is alive again, and coming back to earth for His Church one day.  These are things to rejoice over!  Yet we seem to only be allowed to be happy on the day of His resurrection.  I find this unfathomable. 

Somehow, the secular world has taken over Christmas and made it huge.  But Easter doesn’t have shepherds with lambs spoken to by angels or wise men bringing gifts.  No one dresses up Sunday school kids as Pontius Pilate and the thieves on the cross.  Easter just doesn’t lend itself to the same celebrations as Christmas does.  And yet, it is by far the more important of the two holidays.  I would really love to see more joy expressed at Easter. After all, as one tee-shirt says, it was the “Best Day Ever!”