The Most Important Holiday in the Christian Calendar: Easter not Christmas

In the United States it is Christmas that is the most celebrated holiday. As these feast days go, it has become a secular holiday which only tangentially touches on its roots, such as the birthday celebration of the Lord Jesus Christ. While many a traditional Christmas song talks of the baby Jesus, the more secular songs have slowly begun to take over the celebration. It may be surprising for some to realize that the Bible does not actually require or encourage Christians to celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ. It does, however, require them to remember the death, burial and resurrection of this same Jesus.

This celebration is usually associated with spring festivals, and thus the celebration of Easter, albeit with a large variety of pagan trappings, has at its heart the festival of the resurrection of Christ. The Biblical account of Jesus Christ speaks of His triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem. The inhabitants are throwing palm fronds at His feet, and this devotion of the crowd catches the eye of the skeptical high priest Chiapas. Knowing that He was to die, Jesus shared a last supper with His followers, and soon Judas, one of the inner circles of Christ's followers, betrays Him to the authorities. Jesus is arrested, tried, convicted in a kangaroo court, and executed by crucifixion. Up to this point, He followed in the footsteps of many a rebel rouser and other uncomfortable prophet who dared to question the rule of Pharisees.

What sets this Jesus apart from the others who preceded Him is the fact that instead of remaining dead in the grave, He was actually raised from the dead, and was found walking amidst His followers and others who clearly identified Him. For this reason Easter has become the most important holy day of the Christian calendar: it is proof that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah and not one of a seemingly endless number of prophets (many of whom were self-appointed) who preached for a while and then disappeared.

It is interesting to note that unlike Christmas, which always falls on December 25th, the date of the Easter holiday is quite movable. Of course, like almost anything in Christianity, there are those members of the faith who do not celebrate Easter simply for the fact that its actual date cannot be pinpointed with any accuracy, and instead it is a pagan feast day that lent its date for the Easter celebration than an actual date of the resurrection of Christ. Notwithstanding that foregoing, there are those scholars and denominations that believe that April 23rd, 33 is the actual date that Christ rose from the dead. A couple of scientists employed a computer, the Bible and astronomy to fix the date of Christ's resurrection as actually having taken place on April 5th, 33 at four in the morning.