Resurrection Sunday (y'know, Easter) is really early this year! In fact, thanks to the inscrutable mathematics of liturgical year calculations, it lands nearly a full month ahead of Passover!
It's always made the best sense to me that we ought to just make Rez Sunday the first Sunday after Passover, since the "Last Supper" took place during the Passover/Unleavened Bread week. But thanks to a history of antisemitism in the Church, they decided to calculate Easter separately from the Jewish holyday. So, instead of getting to celebrate Passover, in conjunction with teaching about the Last Supper and Jesus as Paschal Lamb, just before Rez Sunday, I have to wait a month! Aaarrgh!
I'm still planning on holding a Pesach celebration, but it'll just be during the actual feast. I should be grateful. Holy Week is so busy already. Not having Passover that week should be a relief. But am I grateful? No! I'm perturbed! Silly foibling human!
That's not all. Purim is one of my favorite Jewish holydays. It's the closest thing to Mardi Gras or Halloween on their calendar. I generally try to do a sermon on Esther on the nearest Sunday to it. This, year, though, Purim starts on the night before Good Friday, which is just before Resurrection Sunday. What this means is that we won't be doing Purim at Cornland CC this year. Of course, I might still manage to finagle an invite to the one of the local synagogues' Purim Pub Crawls.
Maybe I should go Orthodox. The Eastern Orthodox Church places Resurrection Sunday on the last day of Passover. Do you think my congregation would go for that? Nah. Me either.
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Easter early means spring break is in March, when leaving for warmer climates makes sense, as opposed to April, when life outside is starting to become tolerable.
Orthodox? Can't picture it. Unorthodox, yes-- no stretch of the imagination involved there.
But my roommate is in Constantinople this week, so if you're thinking of attempting an Eastern Orthodox spin on Easter-- oops; better make that "Resurrection Sunday" or my grandfather will make like Samuel and the medium of Endor and scold me-- anyway, as I was saying, my roommate might bring back some useful tips. I can ask if you like.
Fingers crossed for the Purim Pub Crawl, though. Sounds interesting, at the very least.
Yeah, I am kind of Western Unorthodox.
Constantinople? Are you sure your roommate's not in Istanbul? Or is that nobody's business but the Turks'?
Not being Turkish, I haven't the same attachment to the name Istanbul. (I won't tell the Turks if you won't.) For some reason, "Istanbul" always makes me think of 1980s adventure-romance-comedy films. Not sure why.
Apparently, she's staying not far from the Ayah Sophia. My luck, she'll come home with all pictures of people she won't be able to name in five years and no pictures of the amazing landmarks that have endured for centuries.
This is one of the major (and fairly irreconcilable) differences between her and me: I'm not a people-person, and she collects them. Preferably ones in crisis. She likes a good crisis, my roommate does. Me, I'm just sorry the Protestant tradition never made provision for anchorite vows.
Anchorite vows! hee-hee-hee.
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