Have you ever wondered where the name Easter came from?
Where is Ash Wednesday, and Good Friday in the Bible?
These are questions my husband started asking me about 30 years ago. He grew up doing Easter with decorated eggs and the Easter Bunny and baskets of candy and toys. But when he became an adult, he wanted to know what that had to do with Christ’s resurrection. Every Spring it was a constant nagging in his heart and in my ears.
It would be a few years before we truly figured out the truth, but boy has it been a great journey.
If you have some of the same questions as my husband, or if you just want to hear about God’s Spring feasts then keep reading.
Sadly, I hate to tell you that Easter has nothing at all to do with Christ. Easter is actually the name of a pagan goddess of fertility, a spring goddess. Bunnies laying eggs also are a pagan tradition. I don’t want to focus on these things today.
I want to focus on the day of our Lord and Savior’s resurrection which is indeed a day to remember and celebrate.
In my last post, I shared about God’s Biblical calendar and appointed times. The new year begins at the start of Spring on God’s calendar.
On the fourteenth day of the first month of the year the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt when the angle of God came and passed over their homes as He took the life of every male first born in the land of Egypt.
This is one of the most famous stories of all time. It is known as “The Passover.”
The first Passover, the children of Israel observed was in Egypt (Exodus 12), and the second Passover was in the wilderness, in the second year out of Egypt (Numbers 9). But they will not observe it again until they enter the promise land of Israel, forty years after leaving Egypt (Joshua 5).
Passover is one of the commanded special days to celebrate with our Creator and Redeemer.
Specifically, “Passover” is a sacrifice(slaughter and butcher) made on the afternoon of the 14th day of the first month of the year. The sacrifice is to be made at the temple by the priests of Yehovah, and it is to be eaten in each families home at twilight that same day as a reminder of when the Israelites came out of Egypt.
(This Appointed feast can not be kept as Yehovah commanded it without a temple and priest in Jerusalem.)
Therefore, when we celebrate on the 14th day of the first Biblical month, we are only having a memorial service, a Passover Seder.
Our family first began to understand about the feasts of God when we read our Bible through from cover to cover.
In Leviticus 23, God outlines his special set apart days for His people.
The first special day God gives to us is the weekly Sabbath.
Sabbath is my favorite holiday. I love it because it comes every seven days, and it is a day of rest and remembrance.
God doesn’t leave us to guess about how, when, and where He wants us to worship with Him. He gives us clear instructions.
As we continued to read God’s Word and study it out, we found that God called us to remember certain days and to honor them, and to be very careful to not worship Him in the ways of the nations around us that worship many gods.
Every year as the Spring comes, I get so excited about keeping God’s feasts. I don’t miss Easter at all. Because now I have a whole week to celebrate and remember God’s redeeming love and His power to free me from the bondage of sin.
We celebrate a Passover Seder in our home each year. We also observe the week of unleavened Bread. During that week, we still celebrate our Savior’s Resurrection, we just call it First Fruits or Resurrection Sunday.
If you would like to learn more about God’s calendar and Appointed Times please feel free to reach out to me.
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