Easter and why does it move around?

[purpleR]

Does anyone else find the idea of egg-laying bunnies quite sinister and frightening? I never really thought about it before but now I'm all freaked out

 

[Arch]

Does anyone else find the idea of egg-laying bunnies quite sinister and frightening? I never really thought about it before but now I'm all freaked out

No, not really. It was just one of those misconceptions that arose when people had less understanding of the natural world and relied on chance observations and their imagination. Hares (the original easter bunny) lie low in scrapes in the ground, not unlike the scrapes made by many ground nesting birds for their eggs. So in the same way that people rationalised the disappearance of some birds for half the year by assuming they turned into something else for that time, they saw hares bolt from scrapes, found some scrapes with eggs in and assumed that hares laid eggs.

And, the echidna and the platypus would find nothing odd about a mammal laying eggs anyway.

 

[Pete]

Conversely, I believe that when the platypus was first discovered, and eggs were found in its burrow, they were assumed to be eggs of a different animal and the platypus had merely collected them for food.

Easter date? I think it's determined in the board rooms of Cadbury Shweppes, Nestle, and the like ... making a marketing decision as to how soon they can launch the next range of cream eggs on the market. My son tells me, in the shop where he's been working over the vacation, they had the Easter eggs out and on the shelves, before they'd cleared out the Xmas deccies....

 

[NickM]

It's all to do with rabbits. They move around quickly...

Well that's certainly true. I went walking in Shropshire last Easter and saw the eponymous bunny there, and he seems to have popped up on nearly every other walk I've done, from Dorset to Lancashire, this year...

And I still think it's weird that we let the pointy-hat brigade tell us when we can go on holiday. We should fix Easter at the first weekend in April, and tell that lot to go and swivel.

 

[derall]

Easter moves around because it's the only festival in the xtian Calander which is still based on a jewish festival. The crucifixion / resurection myth had associations with the festival of passover, and the modern easter still holds to that association. Most of the Middle East religions have their festivals marked by the lunar calander.

 

[Arch]

Well that's certainly true. I went walking in Shropshire last Easter and saw the eponymous bunny there, and he seems to have popped up on nearly every other walk I've done, from Dorset to Lancashire, this year...

And I still think it's weird that we let the pointy-hat brigade tell us when we can go on holiday. We should fix Easter at the first weekend in April, and tell them to go swivel.

If you care so little for the reasons behind the festival, why not just have the holiday when you want it anyway, and offer to work though the bank holidays whenever Easter falls?

Hardly seems to make much difference these days anyway, it's all just another reason for DFS to have a sale.

 

[NickM]

If you care so little for the reasons behind the festival...

What, the resurrection of Our Lord the Easter Bunny, you mean?

...why not just have the holiday when you want it anyway, and offer to work though the bank holidays whenever Easter falls?

They would need to pay me double time, and I don't think They would want me here that badly

Yes, I want to have my Simnel cake and eat it.

 

[Yellow Fang]

What bothers me more is how they decide on the date for bring cadburys cream eggs back in the shops. They seem to start selling them just after Christmas, before Lent, Ash Wednesday and Shrove Tuesday even.

 

[Pete]

Easter moves around because it's the only festival in the xtian Calander which is still based on a jewish festival. The crucifixion / resurection myth had associations with the festival of passover, and the modern easter still holds to that association. Most of the Middle East religions have their festivals marked by the lunar calander.

Pentecost (Whitsun) based on Pentecost (Shavuot)?

In fact, Easter and Passover usually more or less coincide, but can be a month apart, like this year (Passover isn't until 19th April). My view is, both are derived from pagan spring rituals: the egg as symbol of re-birth figures prominently in both festivals. In pre-industrial days you evidently had to placate the gods to ensure your crops started growing...

 

[derall]

Pentecost (Whitsun) based on Pentecost (Shavuot)?

In fact, Easter and Passover usually more or less coincide, but can be a month apart, like this year (Passover isn't until 19th April). My view is, both are derived from pagan spring rituals: the egg as symbol of re-birth figures prominently in both festivals. In pre-industrial days you evidently had to placate the gods to ensure your crops started growing...

Yes, the easter / passover festivals were based on pagan festivals, but that doesn't explain why they move around.

As to whitsun, that's because it's part of the easter festival complex (being celebrated on the seventh sunday after easter), so is tied to passover in that way. The difference between the dates this year is down to differences in the observation of the new moon.

 

[ChrisKH]

Easter; moving around. is it important? Surely it's the message that's important. Ditto Passover.

I'm not sure you can link Easter and Passover from a date perspective. Passover is celebrated in both Christianity and Judaism.

 

[Fnaar]

"The first Sunday after Pontefract", my dad used to say. He had no idea where Pontefract was, the daft bugger.

 

[purpleR]

in the same way that people rationalised the disappearance of some birds for half the year by assuming they turned into something else for that time,

That's very interesting- I'd not heard that particular misconception before. You'd think with some birds like geese it would be more obvious when they come and go. Right enough the smaller birds like swallows do just seem to appear one day in the summer.

And, the echidna and the platypus would find nothing odd about a mammal laying eggs anyway.

I'm just disturbed by bunnies laying eggs because it's not quite right, like a talking horse or a monkey playing the spoons.

 

[Dayvo]

I think it's something to do with the sell-by-date of the Easter eggs!
The shops always buy far too many and don't want to be left with stale eggs on their faces shelves.
I like to wait until after Easter Sunday for real discounts on eggs and things!

 

[Ashtrayhead]

What did jesus say on the cross?







"Save me an egg, I'll be back on Monday"