Sunday, April 24, 2011

What is Easter?



What is Easter?



Easter Sunday, traditionally one of the two cornerstone dates in the Christian calender, is shrouded in mystery in terms of origin, meaning, reality and symbolism with a huge variety of interpretations claiming definitive truth on the meaning of Easter. Importantly, regardless of the evolution of the concept of Easter, we must ask, what is Easter to us, today?

In the Bible we are told that Jesus entered Jerusalem for his fatal final few days during the Jesus festival of the Passover, a celebration of their freedom from enslavement, so immediately we have a concept. The idea of Jesus' arrival on the scene as the son of man was a fulfillment of a prophesy laid out in the Torah so to place his death and celebration of his resurrection at the same time as a major Jewish festival goes some way towards usurping that religion in favour of the new Christian faith. The parallels drawn between the freedom from bondage of the Jewish slaves in Egypt and the emancipation from sin offered by the death of Christ are striking. Without going too much into the mingling of Jewish traditions and celebrations by certain Christian sects it is important to note the arrival of Easter as a continuation of the Passover by another name.

This practice of the exact date of celebrating Easter proved contentious until that great leveller, the Council of Nicea of 325, decreed a regulated period of the year, under the Gregorian calender, in which Easter Sunday must be celebrated. But the date aside, what impact does the celebration of Easter have on life at the time? To some people, the role of Lent and the idea of sacrifice would have played into the hands of ancestral belief in sacrificing to the Gods in return for favourable results. Breaking Lent after God has repayed your loyalty with the ultimate sacrifice, his son, creates a connection with the worshipper needed in a monotheistic religion where it is difficult to see God in the trees and the sun, where god is an abstract concept. So for the worshipper in the early centuries of Christianity, Easter would have served to created a bond of mutual sacrifice, laid in place the notion that death was not a finality and instilled a belief in the greatness of a God who could show such restraint as to allow this to come about (quite different from the war-mongering God of the Old Testament).

The crucifixion is a whole narrative whose different forms and structures people have fought and died arguing over, so I only seek only to jump to modern times and view the relevance of Easter to us today. So we have seen that it is a continuation of a Jewish holiday, rooted in the fulfilment of a prophesy, designed to show, through the crucifixion, that this God was all powerful and yet restrained, and that only through him could the promised land be reached. Well we must look at the central themes then; Sacrifice, Rebirth, Restraint and Faith. In Ireland, the Easter Rising of 1916, soaked in the language of blood sacrifice and the rebirth of Ancient Ireland, borrows directly from the biblical narrative, bending it for political aims. Yet it doesn't have to be thought about in such broad brushstrokes, these four themes, central as they are to the perpetual struggles between the sects and tribes of Christians still arguing their worth and practical implication, need only to be interpreted by individuals as a sort of compass, a guidebook of sorts, with the story of Easter and the crucifixion, and even the resurrection, as just another parable, albeit quite a strong one, the likes of which the four gospels were keen to put into the mouth of the living Jesus. The noble notion of sacrifice for a greater good, of putting the collective above yourself, the idea that every man, every movement, every moment can have a rebirth, can be saved and that nothing is ever as desperate as you may think, these are two cornerstones of the modern interpretation Easter. Added to this the ideals of restraint in the face of provocation, a nod to the art of diplomacy and a frown on those who act with impetuousness, and faith, in yourself, your ability, your family, whatever you want to have faith in, are vital to any modern reading of the Easter story.  

So Easter today may not be signs of the cross and long prayers of submission but that is not to say that the central message does not ring clear, the notion of rebirth, being loosed from the bondage of whatever restrains you, this imagery is timeless and universal.

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