Happy Pesach

CA-35

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Gut Yontif my Pontiffs!! Happy Pesach and Chag Sameach to all our Jewish LTG'ers.

Zei Gezunt........A Be Gezunt
 

dapmdave

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Spell check would make that a really difficult post!
 

PittPastor

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I'm not Jewish, but FWIW, we do a Passover Seder every year. "Next year in Jerusalem!"

Mj2jwdn.jpg
 

dreadnut

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All I can say Joe is that you are gonna be pondering that for a long time...in fact I'm having a hard time just figuring the connection between bunnies and eggs!
 

adorshki

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Still trying to figure the connection between bunnies, eggs, and the Resurrection. :frustrating:

Joe

For Christians, egg was symbolic of Christ's empty tomb:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg
And according to this article the rabbit was so fecund as to be thought to be capable of virgin birth by ancient Greeks:
"The ancient Greeks thought rabbits could reproduce as virgins. Such a belief persisted until early medieval times when the rabbit became associated with the Virgin Mary, who we know became pregnant without knowing man.
During the medieval period, rabbits began appearing in illuminated manuscripts and paintings where the Virgin Mary was depicted, serving as an allegorical illustration of her virginity.
The Easter Bunny was first popularized as a symbol of the season by the German Protestants. It is likely they were the ones to invent the myth of the Easter Bunny for their children. Even in earliest folklore, the Easter Bunny came as a judge, hiding decorated eggs for well-behaved children."

But Jews also had a tradition of eating eggs at Passover, which is what's generally agreed Christ was celebrating at the Last Supper:
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-are-passover-eggs-and-easter-eggs-related-1.5461517:What I always had trouble with is celebrating Easter in spring when Passover's in fall.
Oh well I guess I haven't come across anything saying Easter is supposed to be the actual anniversary, and in fact there's another hypothesis in that article about Passover eggs that might just explain how the timing of the celebration was shifted to spring:
"Following this evidence to early Orthodox Christianity, the custom seems likely to have originated in Mesopotamia, from the tradition of decorating eggs and placing them on the table on Nowruz. That is the Zoroastrian new year celebration that takes place in spring, around the time of Easter. Zoroastrianism was the major religion of Mesopotamia at the time when Christianity took hold."
Huh.
Thanks for making me look.
:friendly_wink:
 
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PittPastor

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What I always had trouble with is celebrating Easter in spring when Passover's in fall.

What makes you say that? Passover has always been celebrated in the spring...
"Passover is a spring festival which during the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem was connected to the offering of the "first-fruits of the barley", barley being the first grain to ripen and to be harvested in the Land of Israel. Passover commences on the 15th of the Hebrew month of Nisan"

As for the connection to Easter (a name which has unfortunately stuck -- since that is neither a Jewish nor a Christian name -- we prefer "Resurrection Day" in my church, but that hasn't caught one...) it is because Jesus Christ's famous "Last Supper" was a Passover Seder he held with his disciples.

The egg was not originally a part of the Seder, but was added sometime after the fall of Jerusalem. My thinking is that is where the concept of "Easter Eggs" comes from. No idea on the yellow squishy peep candy, tho...
 

chazmo

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By the way, Pitt, I meant to inquire about your holding of a Seder. Are you Unitarian?

And, as for the Easter egg thing... Christianity has adopted many pagan customs over the years. I have no idea where the bunny comes from, but an egg as a symbol of birth/re-birth certainly seems related to Easter.
 

Guildedagain

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It's tough being judged by bunnies, nor do they have a lot of time, with the endless reproduction...
 
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adorshki

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What makes you say that? Passover has always been celebrated in the spring... it is because Jesus Christ's famous "Last Supper" was a Passover Seder he held with his disciples.
That sputtering noise you heard was my brain farting, yes was confusing it with the High Holidays Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah.
(insert pulsing red embarrassment emoticon here)
The egg was not originally a part of the Seder, but was added sometime after the fall of Jerusalem. My thinking is that is where the concept of "Easter Eggs" comes from. No idea on the yellow squishy peep candy, tho...
'Cause eggs hatch cute little chicks?
 

adorshki

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By the way, Pitt, I meant to inquire about your holding of a Seder. Are you Unitarian?

And, as for the Easter egg thing... Christianity has adopted many pagan customs over the years.
THAT one's NOT a "pagan custom", see the links I posted in post #13.

I have no idea where the bunny comes from
Rabbit eggs.
 

PittPastor

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By the way, Pitt, I meant to inquire about your holding of a Seder. Are you Unitarian?

No, actually, we're a non-denominational church. The Seder thing happened serendipitously (wow, there's a word!) when we were having our initial founders meetings. The cool thing about being a non-denominational church is that you have no denomination telling you what to do. The hard part about being a non-denominational church is that you have to decide everything your church will do!

We were going through the list, and when we got to communion, everyone wanted to know when we would do it, how often, what way we would handle it... and I said: "You know what, I'm going to be honest here, I've never really understood the communion thing." Since -- unlike the Catholic faith -- Protestants do not believe that the elements actually supernaturally transform into Jesus actual blood and flesh -- I never saw the point of having a sacrament based on a cracker and grape juice. I had this vague notion that Jesus did the last supper at the passover, so I said: "Let's just do communion the way Jesus did it, at Passover." And all of the founders said: "OK, that sounds cool. Lets do that." We put it in our constitution. Forgot all about it. Then a couple of months later, my wife said "Easter is coming up. Aren't you supposed to do a passover dinner or something with the church?" I completely forgot about it.

So, mad scramble to find anyone who could get me in touch with the Messianic Jewish community. We finally found a couple of young twenty somethings who ran a Seder for their church small group, and they acted as our advisors. And we held out first Seder Passover meal.

BTW, if you are of the Christian faith, and have never been to a Seder, you need to go. It is amazing. The whole last supper comes alive and you realize that much of what Jesus did was actually always in the Seder. It was there for a thousand years before he did the last supper. Also, this is a tradition that predates the great wall of China. It is so worth doing, at least once.

Anyway... so, yeah, we only do communion in our church once a year and that is at Passover -- we don't keep the Jewish calendar... we always hold ours on Maunday Thursday. One of the highlights of our church year.

And leading up to it, we always play this to get folks in the mood:

 
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