Passover-Calvary & Protestant-Catholic

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Hello everyone,
So I have a number of Protestant friends who keep telling me that I shouldn’t celebrate Easter (and all the other holidays) anymore because of “pagan connections”, but that they are going to only celebrate Passover citing the Old Testament.

I read the last topic about this which was posted three years ago on this forum, and didn’t really get any answer… but isn’t Easter the same thing as Passover? I’m confused? Idk. How can I explain our beloved faith?
 
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Are they actually Christians? What denomination? Speechless (not typeless Lol) that they’d refuse to acknowledge Easter. Do they think it’s 5779 not 2019?
Easter isn’t Passover btw…any more than Christmas is Chanukah…lthough the two sets of dates are usually close together in the calendar.
 
Are they actually Christians? What denomination?
Jehova’s Winesses are one group that do not celebrate Easter because they believe it has Pagan origins. Neither do the Quakers, nor many Presbyterian churches derived from Putitan Calvinism, or the Armstrong branch of Millerism, or Seventh Day Adventism. There are probably others.
 
They’re more Baptist in beliefs, non-denomination the others claim. They seem to lean more messianic, with the introduction of this anti Pagan rant against holidays…
 
Here is the Jewish take on such comments from a Jew who supports his fellow Catholics. Easter isn’t pagan, and Passover isn’t a Christian celebration. Also…

You can’t celebrate Passover by “citing the Old Testament.” Celebrating Passover is a Jewish liturgical event and requires the use of the Jewish liturgical text called the Haggadah. It also takes training in Jewish liturgy to know how to properly lead, recite (which often calls for chanting and singing–some of it in Hebrew)–and prepare the Seder foods that the Haggadah calls for.

You have to be associated with the Jewish nation and (often) some denomination in order to know when and how often you will hold a Seder (yes, some Jews hold it two nights in a row). You have to know how to kosher your home and utensils for Passover and what foods are allowed and not allowed for Passover week (its not a one-night observance). How do you get Passover-approved foods? Where do you find them? How do you cook them? Why do your cooking utensils and surfaces and kitchen have to be prepared in a special way for Passover? You can’t just ‘read from the Old Testament’ to observe Passover. That is not the way Passover works.

And even though Easter isn’t Passover, there are similarities. For example, both holidays use the symbol of the egg. In Christianity it is the symbol of the resurrection of Christ, called the Lamb of God. In Judaism, a roasted egg is used on the Seder plate as a reminder of the roasted lamb, the Sacrifice of Passover. Both holidays recall God’s power of redemption, of salvation, and of hope of a better and lasting future.

The symbols that people often call “pagan” are merely universal in nature shared by cultures that did not worship the God of Abraham. For instance, many cultures use eggs as symbols of life. Just because the culture happened to be pagan does not mean that the egg is a symbol exclusive to pagans. God created eggs, right? Then eggs are not the exclusive symbol of pagan gods, gods that, in reality, do not exist.

While not sharing in the exact same festivals around springtime, Jews and Christians don’t have to give up their liturgical celebrations to others who believe that they can make them their own by merely reading Bible texts. The liturgy and traditions of both the Catholic Church and the synagogue have been handed down for generations of the faithful. They teach truths of God we cannot simply set aside because someone comes to us and wants to read the “Bible only” in some vacuum. The Bible did not develop in some vacuum but in the tradition of the Patriarchs and Apostles and sages and faithful who have handed it down to us. This living tradition is not pagan but part of the treasure that adorns the Word of God that gives us life, both Christian and Jew.
 
So I have a number of Protestant friends who keep telling me that I shouldn’t celebrate Easter (and all the other holidays) anymore because of “pagan connections”
These aren’t “Friends” and they don’t sound very “Protestant” either. I never knew any Christian, including various Protestant denominations, who didn’t celebrate Christ’s Resurrection. If they don’t want to call it Easter or Pascha or whatever, they call it “Resurrection Sunday” or “Resurrection Day” but they still observe it.
but isn’t Easter the same thing as Passover?
No. Holy Thursday is the equivalent to Passover because that is the day Christ ate the Passover meal with his apostles. Passover involved the sacrifice of a lamb and the Passion of Our Lord involved the sacrifice of Christ as the Lamb of God, so I guess you could make an argument that Passover kind of extended into Good Friday.

However, Easter Sunday celebrates the Resurrection of Our Lord when he rose from the dead, having redeemed all mankind from sin and vanquished death. There is nothing like that in the OT Passover.

And I would echo BenYosef saying that Passover is actually a Jewish holiday. Christians and Catholics don’t celebrate Passover, we are celebrating the Lord’s Supper which is a different event from what Passover is celebrating (the OT event where God freed the Jewish people from captivity in Egypt). It would be pretty presumptuous of me as a lifelong Gentile to decide I was going to have a Passover celebration.
 
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So I have a number of Protestant friends who keep telling me that I shouldn’t celebrate Easter (and all the other holidays) anymore because of “pagan connections”, but that they are going to only celebrate Passover citing the Old Testament.
Tell them that they should not be judging Catholics harshly for observing Easter/Resurrection Sunday (and other Christian holidays) because Catholics observe it in honor of the Lord. St Paul said:
Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Master is able to make him stand. One man esteems one day as better (greater/holier/more important) than another, while another man esteems all days alike. Let every one be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. (Romans 14:4-6a)
 
Christians and Catholics don’t celebrate Passover, we are celebrating the Lord’s Supper which is a different event from what Passover is celebrating (the OT event where God freed the Jewish people from captivity in Egypt). It would be pretty presumptuous of me as a lifelong Gentile to decide I was going to have a Passover celebration.
Actually Jesus is the Passover Lamb that was pictured in the sacrifice in Egypt. He was offering Himself at the last supper which was Passover. What makes it so significant is that He connected it to Himself. The OT is the shadow of NT reality. Paul even celebrated Passover.

Egypt is the picture of bondage (sin) which Jesus the Passover Lamb delivered believers from by His blood. Those who by faith applied the blood to the doorpost were delivered. Same as those who put their faith in Jesus’ blood for deliverance today.
 
Are they actually Christians?
Allegedly. I encountered the idea occasionally as a Protestant.

Granted, when one’s liturgy openly rejects a core Christian celebration in favor of a badly celebrated Jewish one, the Christian-ness of the group is certainly questionable.

I propose calling it Post-Christian but am open to alternatives.
They’re more Baptist in beliefs, non-denomination the others claim.
So they’re all Baptists. 😆
 
Only a speaker of a Germanic language could say something so ridiculous. In any other language, the name of the Festival is either some derivative of the Hebrew “Pesech,” or else some variation of “Resurrection Day,” “Great Night,” or “Holy Night.”
 
Technically the Exultet Easter Proclamation sung at the Easter Vigil says something like “these then are the nights of Passover”.
 
I’m not sure what your point is in saying that “Jesus is the Passover Lamb” etc. This is not new news to me or to any other good Catholic on this forum. We know that. We celebrate it daily at Mass.

This is still not the same thing as “celebrating Passover”. Passover is a Jewish holiday. We as Christians now commemorate Jesus’ sacrifice, which is not the same as Passover. That is my point. It is not that I don’t know what Passover is or that it foreshadowed Christ, it’s that as Christians, we do not celebrate Passover because the focus of our celebration/ commemoration has shifted to something different. Those who still celebrate Passover are the Jewish people for whom the day is still focused on the traditional Jewish reasons it was celebrated.
Technically the Exultet Easter Proclamation sung at the Easter Vigil says something like “these then are the nights of Passover”.
Please see my response above.
The Easter Vigil is focused on reviewing all of salvation history, of which Passover was a part.
If the Easter Vigil was actually a Passover celebration, it would be called “Passover”.

My impression from these posts is that a certain number of Catholics/ Christians are focused on celebrating “Passover” in the Christian sense and that nothing anyone can say is going to dissuade them from doing so. Whatever.
 
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