Despite our society’s exuberance regarding Christmas, Easter
is
”
the greatest and oldest feast of the Christian Church.
”
Despite our society’s exuberance regarding Christmas, Easter is “the greatest and oldest feast of the Christian Church.” This ancient holiday, commemorating the resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ, is the linchpin of a whole series of Christian holy days.
The date of Easter varies every year according to the lunar calendar: “It is the first Sunday on or after the first full moon of spring, which occurs between March 22 and April 25 each year.” Thus, all the important events associated with Easter move accordingly.
First to herald the approach of Easter is a day known variously as “Mardi Gras” – Fat Tuesday, “Carnival” – Goodbye meat, “Shrove Tuesday” – Confession Tuesday.
Since the next day begins Lent, a season traditional for disciplined preparations for the joy of Easter, usually accompanied by giving up some worldly luxuries in order to concentrate on salvation and eternal life.
Foods have been a common luxury to give up; and butter, meat and eggs were traditionally high on the list to avoid. With no refrigeration and few preservatives in the Middle Ages, this food was often used up in a final gala event before Lenten restriction. Thus began the party-like celebrations we associate now with this Tuesday.
In the United Kingdom, curious customs developed, since exported to other English-speaking countries: pancake suppers in churches and races. Of course, it is easy to see how cooking and consuming pancakes used up the luxury food items in the home. But pancake suppers are held in churches, and races are sometimes held in which women carrying frying pans race to a finish line flipping pancakes as they run.
The following day, Feb. 6, is Ash Wednesday, a complete contrast to this merriment as it begins the solemn season of Lent (an old word meaning “spring,” referring to the lengthening of days).
The key feature of Ash Wednesday is the ashes used in worship that day, the clergy smudging a cross figure on the foreheads of the faithful. Ashes are a traditional biblical symbol of death and sorrow; those used this day are traditionally provided by burning the palm crosses from the Palm Sunday liturgy of the previous year.
The following days of Lent are traditionally marked by extra discipline among observers: giving money to charity, studying the Bible, increasing prayer, fasting and abstinence (limiting consumption of food).
Some churches use this time to prepare adults for initiation into the Church through the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and communion at Easter.
After all these centuries, there is some controversy among various Christian bodies about how to count the 40 days of Lent. Forty is a symbolic number in the Bible (for example, 40 years in the wilderness for Moses, 40 days and nights of rain on Noah’s ark, Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness).
n Many churches count Ash Wednesday through the Saturday before Easter as 40 days, subtracting the Sundays, which are traditionally “feasts.”
n Roman Catholics don’t include the the final three days before Easter, “The Triduum,” as part of Lent but as separate them as “days different from all the other days of the year” with special rituals.
n Eastern Orthodox Christians, following the ancient Julian calendar, begin observance of their own Great Lent on March 10 this year, known as “Clean Monday” or “Green Monday.”
In Morgan Hill, two congregations will follow a long-standing tradition by meeting together for an ecumenical Ash Wednesday service using the rite of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. Members of Advent Lutheran Church will worship at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, 17740 Peak Ave. at 7 p.m. St. John’s rector, the Rev. Phil Cooke, will celebrate the liturgy; the Rev. Anita Warner, pastor of Advent, will preach the sermon; members of both choirs will provide accompaniment. Call either church for more information.
