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Christianity

Two major holiday periods relate to the birth and death of Jesus:

• Begins with Advent on each of four Sundays prior to Christmas, looking forward to the coming ("advent") of God manifest as the Christ.

• Christmas day: Dec. 25 is not the actual day Jesus was born (no one knows exactly when he was born); probably celebrated in early Winter as a continuation of early Pagan European Winter Solstice celebrations given Christian reinterpretation: symbolically celebrating the return of the sun, of light (the lengthening of daylight) as the coming of the Son of God. Many Christmas traditions such as the tree and lights, caroling and the Yule Log have their origin in non-Christian Pagan traditions.

• Epiphany: Jan. 6 - celebrating the arrival of the three wise men from the East who came bearing gifts to the infant Jesus. In some European cultures this is the major gift giving day of the Christmas season.

• Begins with Ash Wednesday as the start of Lent, the 40 day preparation period; a period to give up something (a sacrifice), a cleansing period (purification); traditionally the avoidance of meat ("Fish on Fridays" in traditional Catholic homes).

• Holy Week includes:

• Palm Sunday: observing Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem as the beginning of the events leading up to his death and resurrection.

• Maundy Thursday: observing the "Last Supper" Jesus held with his disciples; some churches even hold mock seders reenacting the event (which is traditionally thought to have been the Jewish Passover Seder).

• Good Friday: a solemn occasion observing the day Jesus was crucified.

• Easter Sunday: celebrating Christ’s resurrection; attendance at sunrise services is common; the association of Easter with rabbits, chicks and eggs may also relate more to Pagan culture in celebration of the new life of Spring than to the Christian religious meaning of Easter but, symbolically, Christ brings new life and so the use of these fertility symbols is not entirely unwarranted. Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox (thus the date may differ according to the cycle of the moon); it thus also usually follows close after the Jewish Passover since that holiday falls on the first full moon after the vernal equinox.

• Ascension Day follows Easter by 40 days as the observance of the day the risen Christ ascended into heaven (Acts 1:3-9).

• Pentecost comes the 50th day after Easter in remembrance of the Pentecost event (Acts 2:1-13) when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles.

The entire Christian liturgical calendar is organized around these key occasions with specified Biblical readings for each Sunday of the year (a tradition of annual scripture reading adopted from Christianity’s Jewish roots)

For details on the relationship between Christian holidays and their Pagan origin, read this student paper

This ends the lectures on Christianity
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