Easter vs. Passover

Easter and Passover are significant religious festivals? Frequently these festivals occur around the same time, but this year the two celebrations are separated independently. Easter is Mar. 27, and Passover is Apr. 22. Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. The Friday before Easter is Good Friday. Traditionally, Passover and Good Friday occurs on the same day. Passover always occurs on the 14th day of Nisan, which is the first month. Because the lunar cycle establishes the Hebrew calendar, it has an additional month this year, which is Adar 1. The extra month causes Passover to be 28 days later than Good Friday.

Traditionally, both Easter and Passover are memorializing the death and resurrection of Christ, but there are significant differences in the ways of celebration. The festival of Easter commemorates the bunny as its primary focal point. The festival consists of playing a game of (hide and go-seek) with eggs. I guess hiding the eggs is symbolic of the death and burial of Christ, and the children who go seeking the hidden eggs are figurative for saving a potential life. This theory of the Easter bunny is an extreme case of stretching the imagination. Please note rabbits are mammals, and they don’t lay eggs. Because rabbits don’t lay eggs, the eggs of a chicken are substituted. Perhaps the non-existent eggs of a rabbit represent the non-existent sin of Christ and the substitution of Christ for the sins of man.

On the other hand, the focal point for the festival of Passover is an animal also. Instead of a bunny rabbit, it was a lamb. Individuals smear the blood of the sacrificial lamb on the doorpost of their homes. Every household having blood on the doorposts escapes death and destruction. The lamb represents Christ, who is the Lamb of God. The doorpost is the entrance to one’s home or one’s heart. The blood of the lamb (blood of Christ) placed over one’s heart symbolizes death passing over that individual’s heart. Death passing over one’s heart symbolizes new birth, born-again, or resurrection of that individual.

Which festival seems more feasible to you, the bunny and the egg or the blood of the lamb? Remember, the lamb (Christ) is our Passover and not the Easter bunny and his fake eggs.