Christmas or Easter: Which is your favourite and why?

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I love both but if I had to pick an absolute definite favourite it would be Easter. As a child I’d have to say Easter was my least favourite because I always felt left out when everyone got to do Easter egg hunts and I had to go to church. While during Christmas I may not have done all the Santa stuff but I still did gift exchanges (also had to go to church) plus I loved Christmas carols (still do). But when I decided to practice my catholic faith Easter became my favourite simply because Easter is the foundation of my faith. Although I dont exchange gifts on Easter I think its something just as special and important as Christmas… maybe more.

Now I know that those aren’t the only holidays on the calender so if you prefer a different holiday like St. Patrick’s day over Easter or Christmas I’d really like to know why and what it is. Im really excited to see what people think.
 
Growing up in a family that stopped going to church when I was still little, Easter faded from my memory but Christmas, Christmas is still celebrated by non-Christians and since my birthday is close to this, I could sing Jesus happy birthday and I didnt care if anybody minded. I remember one birthday wish I made to Jesus, when I was old enough, I would go to church and no one could stop me. So I love Advent, Christmas and Epiphany.
 
I really love both of them. I love Christmas because the holiday season seems magical to me. Everyone is happier; the Christmas music is playing everywhere, and I love Midnight Mass when we sing Silent Night as a prelude and then belt out O Come, All Ye Faithful during the procession.

Easter is probably my favorite, however. Easter has a lot more “build-up” to it compared to Christmas. We start on Palm Sunday and greet the Lord in Jerusalem, then we move to the Chrism Mass and celebrate the institution of Holy Orders and listen to the priests renew their vows. Then we move onto Holy Thursday and witness the institution of the Eucharist and watch as Our Lord gets taken to Gethsemane. Then we move onto Good Friday when Our Lord sacrificed himself on Calvary. The Church remains silent all day and then most of the day on Holy Saturday, and then at the Easter Vigil we hear the story of salvation history and then greet the Risen Lord.

Easter just has a lot more tradition behind it, and that’s why I prefer Easter over Christmas, but I do love them both.
 
I prefer Easter. It is the most important day in the Church’s calendar. At the moment it is less commercialised than Christmas has become although many non-Christians celebrate the secular things that happen such as Easter Eggs and the Easter Bunny. In addition to the lighter commercialisation, retail outlets don’t seem to market Easter as aggressively as Christmas or for as as long. Subject to the climate Easter occurs at a more pleasant time of year. The spring with it a sense of anticipation and new life.
 
Christmas because my parish usually does a particularly poor job at Easter as far as liturgy itself.
 
The week leading up to Easter, the Vigil and Easter Sunday all move me in ways nothing else does.
The feeling of grace, love, connection is at its strongest for me then.
My feelings of gratitude and love are at their most profound levels then as well.
 
IrishRush said:
The week leading up to Easter, the Vigil and Easter Sunday all move me in ways nothing else does.
The feeling of grace, love, connection is at its strongest for me then.
My feelings of gratitude and love are at their most profound levels then as well.
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I am getting goosebumps right now, just imagining how I love the Holy Week. I would say that particularly Holy Thursday is my favourite ‘Catholic day’. Early we have the lauds and Chrism mass in the morning, and in the evening the Washing of the feet,* Nos autem gloriari* and other latin chants, silence, adoration, I think Holy Thursday is just perfect.
 
I voted for Easter, but that only applies to my own rite. In the Roman rite, I prefer the Christmas Mass, but I love celebrating Great Compline on Christmas Eve in the Byzantine Rite.

I love the Easter Vigil Mass of the Roman Rite, but after Easter Sunday, the celebration seems to fade away pretty quickly. The hymns chosen usually have an Easter theme, but after a few weeks, the awareness that we are in the midst of such an important season fades.

In the Byzantine Rite, Easter comes as a joyous celebration and stays that way for a full 50 days. Regular prayers and hymns are replaced with special prayers only sung during Pascha season. We joyfully sing the troparion of the Resurrection: Christ is risen from the dead. By death he trampled death and to those in the tombs he granted life. It is repeated many times throughout the liturgy for the full 50 days of the season, as if we just can’t get enough of proclaiming it. My favorite prayer in the Byzantine liturgy is also sung during this time and only at this time: The Angel exclaimed to her, full of grace: “Rejoice, O pure virgin, again, I say ‘Rejoice!’ Your son is risen from the grave on the third day and has raised the deal Let all nations rejoice.” Shine in splendor, O new Jerusalem; for the glory fo the Lord is risen upon you, O Zion. Sing with joy and rejoice. And you, pure Theotokos, rejoice in the resurrection of your son. At the end of the liturgy, the priest comes to the center of the church and holds up the crucifix three times, each time proclaiming in a strong voice, “Christ is Risen” and the people answer back “Indeed he is Risen”. I always feel a little sadness each time that Pascha season is gone, and I anticipate it much more than I do Christmas.
 
Easter (Holy Week)- Its all about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and I love the Easter Vigil Mass the most!!!👍
 
As someone who was raised without religion, Christmas was always the biggest holiday for my family. Treats, presents, and the one day a year where everyone showed up no matter what. We didn’t really do anything for Easter. But I am learning to love Easter more and more! 👍
 
As a child I always had an almost mystical love for Christmas, while Easter was really nothing but eggs and candy, and girly pastel colors. For family reasons Easter was the one Sunday of the year in which we would usually not go to church.

As an adult I am growing in appreciation for Easter, while due to working in retail the material trappings of Christmas have mostly lost their enchantment for me.
 
I like both equally, but since I had to choose, I chose Christmas. I chose that because it celebrates the birth of our Savior. And if Jesus wasn’t born, how could He die on the cross for us? I know some will not understand what I am saying, and I am ok with that. Just my two cents:cool:
 
I love Christmas because ours are so steeped in Tradition. We have beautiful Advents full of prayer and a bit of merriment, the Advent Wreath, which is lit each week in order of age, sewing Christmas gowns, the day full of cooking and general preparing, then finally all of the family and friends staying over for Midnight Mass and Wigilia, and Christmas Morning when we get presents and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus with cake. : )

Easter is beautiful but we haven’t had very good ones recently. Two Easters ago my grandfather died, and last Easter our garage caved in. 😦 But I love the penitence of Lent and Holy Week.
 
I picked other, since you cannot have one without the other, I choice both as my favorite. God bless!
 
Although I will say I love Lent more than Advent. Emotionally, there is nothing like a First Sunday of Lent on a dark and rainy Sunday morning.
 
I’d have to say “Easter”. I always try to watch either “Ben Hur” or “The Passion”, and listen to or read Fulton Sheen during Lent. Lent’s a really faith-filled time for me, I join a Lenten group in my parish, I have a Cursillo meeting every second Wednesday (our parish priest is really supportive of lay groups, and actively encourages them, which is a real blessing).

Whereas Christmas. I try for spiritual formation, but other things just seem to take precedence, unfortunately (going into crowded shopping malls, etc). And by the time Christmas Eve Vigil comes around, I’m generally exhausted. I like to serve mass on Christmas day, though. I’m the only server there on Christmas day morning mass.
 
I enjoy Easter more than Christmas. It is slightly less secular than Christmas nowadays I think. I also like the Easter liturgy better than the Christmas liturgy. Holy week is my favorite part of Easter and everyone in our parish is SO joyful at Easter time. Lastly from a purely secular prospective I hate winter and with Easter is spring, longer and warmer days. Either ways I love both of them I just prefer Easter.
 
Easter is by far the most important but I like Christmas and how advent works.
 
Christmas is a secular holiday. I hate it.

The pressure to give expensive gifts which no one really needs, spending money that people really don’t have, the plastic trees and wires, and this year’s version of Silent Night sang by the promiscuous country music star who’s every other song is about drinking beer and having pre-marital sex in the back of a pickup truck… Not to mention the sacrilegious bastardization of a Catholic Saint by Coca-Cola.

I hate it and would be happy if it stopped altogether and became the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord as it should be.

The Easter Vigil and the Midnight Christmas Mass are the high points of my year.

-Tim-
 
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