Happy Easter!
Published: Tue, 04/04/23
My most favorite month is already here! I've always loved April! I suspect it is because in Greece where I grew up, April implied Easter break which meant two weeks off from school.
Of course this was the case for Christmas as well, but the weather was always much nicer in Spring!
Easter celebration is a very big deal in the Greek Orthodox tradition with lots of unwritten rules and regulations in terms of feasting and fasting. None of them ever made sense to me even though I was strongly encouraged to follow them without much questioning. The only thing that I got out of it was that fasting for 40 days meant consuming an unreasonable amount of carbohydrate based foods (olive oil being the only fat, fava beans and calamari being the main proteins) while waiting for the big lamb and red eggs feast of Easter Sunday.
Which brings me to the highly confusing topic of this "movable" holiday. :)
Question:
How is the date of Easter Sunday determined?
And why are there two of them? Easter Sunday vs Orthodox Easter Sunday?
Answer:
The answer lies in the "logistics" and "technicalities". Us humans do not like to agree much. I wonder what Jesus would say about that.
The Christian Orthodox Church decided to stick to the Julian calendar, the calendar that was established in 45 BC. The rest of the Christian Church follows the Gregorian calendar that was established in 1582.
Easter (outside the Christian Orthodox Church) is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon on or after Spring Equinox. This Wednesday is the first Full Moon after the equinox, so Sunday is Easter Sunday!
Orthodox Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Hebrew holiday of Passover (another "movable" holiday that's a topic for another day). This year, it falls on April 16.
Now that we are done with the technicalities, let's go into the etymology. :)
Question:
Why is the Orthodox Easter called "Pascha"? And where does the word "Easter" originate from?
Answer:
The answer lies in the meaning of our traditions. Us humans need to have meaning because we do not seem to do good without it.
Pascha is an Aramaic word initially used in the New Testament to refer to the Hebrew Passover. Part of the New Testament was actually written in Aramaic which at the time was considered an "international language". Today, the word Pascha refers to the Orthodox Easter celebration.
The word Easter derives from Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of April, the rising sun and fertility whose legend seems to have almost vanished through the centuries.
Wow. Pascha and Easter - two words of completely different origin, that celebrate the same event but on different dates. It is so weird. But hey, this year Tim and I get to enjoy lamb two Sunday's in a row. :)
Speaking of Full Moons...
Did you know that we are currently living in some unprecedented astrological times? In our most recent podcast episodes Tim and I are discussing this quite a bit from an Ayurvedic Astrology point of view. Quite a few of you have mentioned to us that you are not receiving the podcast notifications anymore. We looked into it and found out that we are shadow-banned. So we are making sure that our episodes are also uploaded on YouTube and Rumble as well. We are not sure how long the shadow-ban will last but we are happy to see that we annoyed somebody enough to go through the trouble.
Below are the direct links to our podcast (where you can choose your favorite app), YouTube channel, and Rumble channel.
The Paleo Ayurveda Podcast on all your favorite podcast apps
Our YouTube channel
Our Rumble channel
Happy Full Moon, Happy Easter, and Kalo Pascha (which in Greek means Good Easter)!!!
Until next time... Much much love from all of us!
Na’maste Kala! (Which in Greek means, may we all be well!)
Tim, Vie, Freyja & Kali | Ayurveda Outlaws
