Should Easter be celebrated three and a half weeks before Passover?

[Tomdstone]

This year the Roman Catholic date for Easter was March 27, 2016.
Jewish Passover 2016 began in the evening of
Friday, April 22
and ends in the evening of
Saturday, April 30.
Did not Our Lord celebrate the Lord’s Supper at the time of the Passover?
Should not the date for Easter be after the beginning of Jewish Passover, as is celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox church on May 1, 2016 this year? Why don’t Roman Catholics follow the synoptic gospels and celebrate Easter after the beginning of Jewish Passover as do the Eastern Orthodox?

 

[Darryl_B]

The original Jewish year was based on observation of the moon. In the event that one saw a new moon it was witnessed and reported, examined by authority and the new year began. This was subjective and cloudy evenings could throw the year a month out for a few years. The Christian Church bases its calendar on the Julian/Gregorian. The Jews in turn developed their own calendar system, which is not based on the original observation of the new moon, but rather a different mathematical cycle.

Hence the Jews will sometimes celebrate the Passover a month later than the Christian Easter. It has nothing to do with who is right or wrong, it is two different mathematical calculations which occasionally produce different results, but more years than not Easter coincides with the Jewish counterpart, so the maths is quite good on both counts.

 

[Tomdstone]

The original Jewish year was based on observation of the moon. In the event that one saw a new moon it was witnessed and reported, examined by authority and the new year began. This was subjective and cloudy evenings could throw the year a month out for a few years. The Christian Church bases its calendar on the Julian/Gregorian. The Jews in turn developed their own calendar system, which is not based on the original observation of the new moon, but rather a different mathematical cycle.

Hence the Jews will sometimes celebrate the Passover a month later than the Christian Easter. It has nothing to do with who is right or wrong, it is two different mathematical calculations which occasionally produce different results, but more years than not Easter coincides with the Jewish counterpart, so the maths is quite good on both counts.

Our Lord celebrated the Last Supper at the time of the Jewish Passover, according to the Synoptic Gospels. Should Christians follow Our Lord and the Eastern Orthodox Church and do the same? Our Lord was a Jew and followed the Jewish rule for the Jewish Passover. I don’t see why Catholics don’t want to celebrate the Last Supper at the Passover time, as the Jew Jesus Himself did. It seems that Catholics just do not want to follow the Jewish calculation of determining the Passover time? But Jesus had no trouble in following the Jewish calendar for the determination of the Passover?

 

[Darryl_B]

Our Lord celebrated the Last Supper at the time of the Jewish Passover, according to the Synoptic Gospels. Should Christians follow Our Lord and the Eastern Orthodox Church and do the same? Our Lord was a Jew and followed the Jewish rule for the Jewish Passover. I don’t see why Catholics don’t want to celebrate the Last Supper at the Passover time, as the Jew Jesus Himself did. It seems that Catholics just do not want to follow the Jewish calculation of determining the Passover time? But Jesus had no trouble in following the Jewish calendar for the determination of the Passover?

Repetition. The Jewish mathematical calculation was after the Christian Catholic calculation. Should we follow the later Jewish calculation? Are you making millstones out of milestones?

 

[Simca]

One thought, is that we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord, which occurred on a Sunday.
We choose to always commemorate on a Sunday rather than on any day of the week when Passover should fall.

As already said, Passover and Easter usually coincide nicely–I especially like it when Passover falls on Good Friday. But this was a Leap Year in the Jewish Cycle and an extra month was added, so it was considerably different.

We celebrate a greater festival than the remembrance of God freeing the Israelites from bondage to the Egyptians. When Jesus celebrated, of course there was no such thing as Easter, but in his death he fulfilled the Passover, and all those who have spread the blood on the doorposts of their heart, so to speak, will be spared from Eternal Death.

 

[dmar198]

Our Lord celebrated the Last Supper at the time of the Jewish Passover, according to the Synoptic Gospels. Should Christians follow Our Lord and the Eastern Orthodox Church and do the same? Our Lord was a Jew and followed the Jewish rule for the Jewish Passover. I don’t see why Catholics don’t want to celebrate the Last Supper at the Passover time, as the Jew Jesus Himself did. It seems that Catholics just do not want to follow the Jewish calculation of determining the Passover time? But Jesus had no trouble in following the Jewish calendar for the determination of the Passover?

How do you know modern Jews are doing the calculations correctly? Jesus didn’t follow the modern Jewish calendar, He followed the ancient Jewish calendar, and I don’t think it can be reconstructed.

 

[Wesrock]

The Orthodox, to my knowledge, aren’t following the Jewish calculation, either. Their calculation is based on the Julian calendar, while western Christianity uses the Gregorian.

Look at 2015. Passover started on Friday, April 3rd. Western Christianity Easter was on Sunday, April 5th. Orthodox Christianity celebrated Easter on April 12th.

(Oh, and your original point would be better served if the Orthodox were celebrating Easter on April 24, the Sunday following the first day of Passover, but even then the point is that the current Jewish calendar is (1) probably not the same calendar that Jesus used and (2) came into existence after the current Christian ways of calculating Easter.)

Also… You are right. Jesus was a Jew. But now he is also a Christian, and our current and eternal High Priest.

 

[Corki]

This year the Roman Catholic date for Easter was March 27, 2016.
Jewish Passover 2016 began in the evening of
Friday, April 22
and ends in the evening of
Saturday, April 30.
Did not Our Lord celebrate the Lord’s Supper at the time of the Passover?
Should not the date for Easter be after the beginning of Jewish Passover, as is celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox church on May 1, 2016 this year? Why don’t Roman Catholics follow the synoptic gospels and celebrate Easter after the beginning of Jewish Passover as do the Eastern Orthodox?

There are three calendars and more than three methods of calculating the date for Easter. I don’t believe any one way is inherently “better” than the others.

Maybe the method of choosing the date for Easter should be changed. But IMHO, not **because we want to adopt someone else’s calculation but because having a common date with the Orthodox would be an important move toward unity.

 

[AmbroseSJ]

This is an old controversy settled at the Council of Nicea, in the 4th century so that all Catholics would celebrate Easter on SUNDAY, and not some random day of the week, as it would be if we followed the Jewish method of computation for Passover.

So, it is for Unity among all Catholics, and to Celebrate Easter on a Sunday, the first day of the week, which IS the day Jesus arose from dead.

 

[1ke]

In a word, no.

The Feast of the Resurrection is a liturgical feast, and as such we should celebrate it on whatever day the Church assigns it on the liturgical calendar.

 

[ChadS]

This is an old controversy settled at the Council of Nicea, in the 4th century so that all Catholics would celebrate Easter on SUNDAY, and not some random day of the week, as it would be if we followed the Jewish method of computation for Passover.

So, it is for Unity among all Catholics, and to Celebrate Easter on a Sunday, the first day of the week, which IS the day Jesus arose from dead.

Although Bede was still dealing with it in his Ecclesiastical History of the English people over 300 years later. I suppose old habits die hard!

ChadS

 

[AmbroseSJ]

Although Bede was still dealing with it in his Ecclesiastical History of the English people over 300 years later. I suppose old habits die hard!

ChadS

I think St. Bede the Venerable blames the Irish!