EASTER. – The greatest feast of the Israelites and of Christians. It was instituted by Moses to commemorate Israel’s exodus from Egyptian oppression; among Christians it designates the solemn feast commemorating the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus.
I. THE JEWISH PASSOVER
1. Institution, legal prescriptions
The word Passover is the Greek πάσχει of the Septuagint, from the Hebrew(Pesahim, VIII, 1). In this case, friends and neighbors were also invited so that the Passover lamb could be eaten: in the time of Flavius Josephus, the guests had to number more than ten and not exceed twenty (Bell. Jud., VI, 9, 3). Pilgrims formed a single family, as in the case of Jesus and the Apostles (Mt. 26, 17-19), and were accommodated in a suitable room. Only the circumcised could take part in the Passover meal (Ex. 12, 43-49). Those prevented by legal impurity had to celebrate Passover the following month (Num. 19, 10-12). Nothing of the Passover lamb was to remain until the next day: any leftovers had to be burned (Ex. 12, 10). Not even one of its bones was to be broken (ibid. 12, 46; Num. 9, 12). During the meal, the head of the household was to explain to his family the meaning of the feast (Ex. 12, 26-27; cf. 13, 8, and Pesahim, X, 4-5).
2. The Passover meal
Some particulars of the Passover celebration also appear from the account of the meal celebrated by Jesus at His last Passover and from the description of the meal in Talmudic writings.After the washing of hands (or before, according to other rabbinic schools), a cup of wine mixed with water was poured. The first cup seems to be referred to in the words of Lk. 22, 17: “Take this, and divide it among yourselves.” After the water was mixed with the wine, the blessing of the wine followed, and then that of the feast, according to the school of Hillel; whereas, according to the school of Shammai, the blessing of the feast came first, then that of the wine: perhaps this blessing is indicated in the words of Lk. 22, 17: “giving thanks.” After the blessing, the cup was passed around and all drank from it (ordinarily, however, each had his own cup: F. Nötscher, p. 357, note 1).
The Passover lamb was then brought to the table. Before this, it seems that in Jesus’ last supper the dispute among the Apostles must have taken place, arising from their places at the couches arranged in a triclinium around Jesus (the Passover meal was no longer eaten in the attire and posture of pilgrims; all, even the poorest, had the right to recline as lords). Another event that took place before the legal meal was the washing of the feet, perhaps to replace the usual washing of hands at the beginning.
After the first cup, the Passover foods were brought to the table: the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs (lettuces, radishes, and the like), the roasted lamb, the salt water, and finally the hârôseth (q.v.), a thick paste of dates, figs, and other fruits boiled with vinegar. The head of the household, having washed his hands again, took a little of the bitter herbs, dipped them in the hârôseth, and, giving thanks for the fruits of the earth, ate them. The guests, invited by him, did likewise. Then one of them (the youngest, a boy) asked the father about the meaning of the feast, and the father explained its symbolism (cf. Ex. 12, 26-27). This was followed by the first part of the Hallel (q.v.): Psalms 113-114 (112-113, 1-8) were sung, being the thanksgiving for the deliverance from Egypt, just recalled. The second cup was then drunk, and the main meal began. Again all washed their hands, and the head of the household, having broken the unleavened bread and placed some bitter herbs on it, gave it to the guests after blessing the bread and the herbs. All then ate of the bread and herbs, and only after this did they eat the other festive sacrifices (called hâghâhâh, from the verb hâghâhâh = to celebrate a feast) and the Passover lamb: this had to be eaten entirely, as prescribed in Ex. 12, 9-10. A joyful banquet then ensued. Although not expressly stated, it is highly probable that Jesus followed the customary ritual. Of the conversations during the meal, only the announcement of the betrayer remains, who left the room during the legal meal. St. John notes that the occasion was the piece of bread dipped in the hârôseth and given to him by Jesus (Jn. 13, 30). To the rhythm of the legal meal, Jesus added the rites by which He instituted the Eucharist. It does not appear at exactly what point He consecrated the bread. Of the consecration of the cup, it is expressly stated that it was after the meal (Lk. 22, 30; 1 Cor. 11, 25). Perhaps the consecration of the bread replaced the last morsel of the Passover lamb, with which the meal ended; then it immediately preceded the consecration of the cup. This seems to have coincided with the third cup, which, after the meal and the washing of hands, was poured, adding the prayer of thanksgiving after the meal: it was therefore called “the cup of blessing” (by calling it thus, St. Paul confirms the hypothesis that the consecrated cup was the third: 1 Cor. 10, 16). To the consecration of the cup Jesus added the words: “I shall not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Mt. 26, 29). From this it appears that in that meal the fourth cup was not poured, as was usually done. After the fourth cup was poured, the second part of the Hallel was recited, namely, Psalms 115-118 (113, 9-117). This was also done by Jesus and His disciples (“having said the hymn”: Mt. 26, 30). After the Hallel, the fourth cup was drunk. Thus the four cups (which together were not to exceed half a liter, and perhaps even less) marked the four main points of the Passover meal: the first blessing, the explanation of the meaning of the feast, the thanksgiving after the meal, and the final praise.
The wine used was red; white wine was not esteemed. The meal was not to last beyond midnight, in observance of the law that nothing of the Passover victim was to remain in the morning (Ex. 34, 25).
3. The feast of unleavened bread and the offering of the first sheaf
The feast of Passover was closely linked with the feast of unleavened bread, which began on the 15th of Nisan: “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats anything leavened from the first to the seventh day shall be cut off from Israel” (Ex. 12, 15; 16-20; Lev. 23, 4-8). The eating of unleavened bread began at the lamb’s meal (ibid. 8). On the first and seventh days there were sacred assemblies, and work was forbidden (ibid. 16; Lev. 23, 7-8). Each day victims were offered, specified in Num. 28, 19-22.As regards the offering of the first sheaf that had to be made in the Temple after Passover, “on the morrow after the sabbath” (Lev. 23, 11), there was a difference of opinion between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees understood this “sabbath” to mean the solemnity of the 15th of Nisan and offered the sheaf on the 16th of Nisan, whatever day of the week it fell on. The Sadducees, with more reason, understood this “sabbath” to mean a true sabbath and always offered the sheaf on the day after, whatever day of the month it happened to be. This practice was superseded by that of the Pharisees. But this led the Boethusians to fraudulently arrange that the 16th of Nisan should fall on the first day of the week. The sheaf was of the first harvest, that is, of the barley harvest, which in Palestine, on the coast and in the plain along the Jordan, usually takes place in April. The offering signified the consecration of the harvest to God. At Pentecost (q.v.) the fruits of the completed harvest were offered, namely, the two loaves.
4. Sacrificial character; the Passover in the New Testament. “The immolation of the paschal lamb had, besides its commemorative aspect, a sacrificial character: ‘And when your children ask you, What does this rite mean to you?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Passover for the Lord’” (Ex. 12:26–27).
In this passage, as also in Ex. 34:25 (cf. 23:18), the word zebhâh is used, indicating a true sacrifice. In Num. 9:7–13 too, mention is made of a sacrificial offering: the word qorbân is employed, together with the verb qârabh in the hiphʿîl form (hiqribh). Wis. 18:9, alluding to the paschal lamb, states that “the pious sons of the good made sacrifice in secret.” The slaughtering of the victim was the duty of the heads of households (Ex. 12:3–6); only when they were unclean did the Levites take their place in this (2 Chr. 30:17) (cf. also for the offering of other victims, in which the slaughter was not reserved to the priests, Ex. 29:22). But the act properly sacrificial—that is, the sprinkling of the victim’s blood around the altar—was reserved to the priests (2 Chr. 29:22; Lev. 1:11; 3:2–8). Now, in the celebration of the Passover under Hezekiah, the priests “sprinkled the blood, receiving it from the hands of the Levites” (2 Chr. 30:16). The same occurred in the celebration under Josiah (ibid., 35:11). There is reason to believe that this was the ordinary rite: thus it is described in the Mishnah.
The sacrificial character of the immolation of the paschal lamb underpins the typology of the lamb itself (v.), noted by St. Paul (1 Cor. 5:7). In the sacrifice of the Cross, which was not followed by the breaking of the bones, St. John saw fulfilled what had been prescribed (Ex. 12:46): “You shall not break any of its bones” (John 19:36).
Besides the symbolism of the lamb, another figurative aspect of the Passover has often been noted: the Exodus of the Hebrews as a figure of the Christian Exodus, that is, of liberation from sin (cf. La vie spirituelle, March 1951, entirely devoted to Easter, “Exode des Chrétiens”).
In the New Testament, πάσχα (páscha) most often denotes the Jewish Passover feast: Matt. 26:2 and parallels (cf. 14:1; Luke 22:1; cf. Luke 2:41; John 2:13, 23; 6:4; 11:55; 12:1; 18:39; 19:14; Acts 12:4; Heb. 11:28). At times, however, it bears the sense of the paschal meal, as in Matt. 26:18–19; Mark 14:16; Luke 22:8, 9, 13. With the sense of the paschal meal, or rather of the paschal lamb, it is found in the expression “to eat the Passover” (Matt. 26:17; Mark 14:12–14; Luke 22:11, 15; John 18:28). Exclusive is the sense of the paschal lamb in the expression “to immolate the Passover”; thus Mark 14:12: “On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they were sacrificing the Passover” (cf. Luke 22:7), and in the text of St. Paul on the Christ-lamb (1 Cor. 5:7).
In the life of Jesus, the feast of Passover is mentioned: once in his life at Nazareth (his relatives went to Jerusalem every year for the feast of Passover: Luke 2:41); three times by St. John in his public life: John 2:13 is the first Passover; ibid., 6:4 is the second Passover (it remains uncertain whether the “feast” of 5:1 is the Passover, even if the article were certain from a critical standpoint); finally, the third and last Passover is mentioned in ibid., 11:55; 12:1. The significance of the last Passover was the liberation from the slavery of sin through the blood of the lamb, which forever replaced and abolished the Jewish Passover rite. Christians celebrated the new Passover on the day of Christ’s Resurrection, with which the mystery of their Redemption was accomplished, namely, their being claimed by God as His people, just as the people were claimed by God in their liberation from Egypt (cf. Ex. 19:5).
II. CHRISTIAN PASCHA
4. Meaning
Pascha, the commemoration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the oldest and most solemn feast of Christians, the principle and center of the ecclesiastical year, a feast of very great beauty, celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon of the spring equinox, that is, not before March 22, and not later than April 25. This date determines the ecclesiastical year: the beginning of Septuagesima and Lent, the other movable feasts (Ascension, Pentecost, etc.), and the number of Sundays after Epiphany and after Pentecost; in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, this calendar was noted on a parchment affixed to the paschal candle.5. Origin of Pascha
Christian Pascha has its roots in apostolic tradition; it does not perpetuate the Jewish feast, but fulfills it with its purely Christian content: the Redemption accomplished by Christ through His death and Resurrection. Of the solemnity of Pascha in apostolic times, no certain news is available. The first secure testimonies come from the famous “Paschal question” (2nd–3rd centuries), when the issue was not the introduction of Pascha, but only the time of its celebration. The feast itself was universal throughout the Church; this fact presupposes a very ancient and apostolic tradition, which is manifested in the authentic and classical interpretation of the Christian transformation of the ancient Jewish feast, given by St. Paul (1 Cor. 5:7). The Jewish Passover and Christian Pascha stand in parallel connection with regard to date and typology.6. The meaning of the mystery in East and West
Of the mystery celebrated in Pascha, two different moments are distinguished: the theoretical-theological of the first three Christian centuries, and the more historical-real from the 4th century onward. The first, the theoretical-theological, celebrated the Redemption accomplished by Christ through His Passion, death, and Resurrection; Passion and death in the sadness and mourning of fasting, the Resurrection in the glory of the Eucharistic celebration. During the night vigil before the first light of day, the “Transitus” (Pascha) was accomplished—that is, the fast ended and the Eucharist was celebrated. The Asian Church celebrated this “transitus,” Pascha, on the evening of the 14th of Nisan, whatever day it might fall on, as did the Jews, thus opposing the Christian fulfillment to the Jewish type and emphasizing more the Lord’s death as a “transitus” to the Resurrection, that is, celebrating together with the death also the mystery of Christ’s Resurrection in a single solemnity. The Western Church, on the other hand, celebrated the Passion and death of the Lord, also in the mourning of fasting, but ended the fast on Sunday, the day of the Kyrios (the Lord exalted in glory), to celebrate Pascha, giving stronger emphasis to the Resurrection of Christ. From the 4th century onward, the individual days of Holy Week were given names corresponding to the course of historical events according to the usage of the Church of Jerusalem, as described by Egeria in her Itinerary: on Thursday the Eucharist was commemorated, on Friday the Passion. Pascha was celebrated on the night following the aliturgical Saturday; it was the only Saturday of the year on which fasting was observed in the East. The following Sunday became the solemnity of the Resurrection.PASCHA — Resurrection of Christ. Master of Vyšší Brod (Hohenfurth), ca. 1350. Prague, National Gallery.
From the earliest Fathers the name "P." was given only to the day of the Passion and death of the Lord, and the preceding fast was called "paschal," deriving from the Greek πάσχειν = to suffer. However, St. Cyprian began to call "P." also the day of the Resurrection, a name that has remained for the feast of the Resurrection. From this feast the word "P." became synonymous with feast and greater solemnity (e.g., P. Epiphaniae, P. Pentecostes; in Spain, P. floridum, Palm Sunday), and also "P." of a saint. Hence one speaks of P. magnum or P. Resurrectio to distinguish it from other Paschal feasts. The Greeks still today speak of Good Friday as the P. of the Crucifixion (πάσχα σταυρώσου) and of the following Sunday as the P. of the Resurrection (πάσχα ἀναστάσμου).
A particular feature of P. was the vigil, "Mother of all Christian vigils" (St. Augustine, Sermo. 219: PL 5, 1088). The Paschal night was most holy and solemn; churches and houses were illuminated, by order of the emperor Constantine (Eusebius, Vita Constant., IV, 22, 2), even the streets. It was a "pannuchis"; already in Tertullian's time, the entire night was spent in sacred readings and prayers. In that holy night the neophytes received Baptism and Confirmation, for the first time attended with the faithful the celebration of the Eucharist; the sacred oils were blessed (Hippolytus, Traditio Apostolica, 21, ed. B. Botte, Paris 1946, p. 49). This most solemn night, preserved until today in the Eastern Church and moved in the Western Church, from the 9th century, toward the morning, has been restored since 1951. It begins with the blessing of the fire, of the new light of the Paschal candle, in CRISTO (v.) and Exultet (v.), the lamp of the Holy Night; followed by the reading of the prophecies, 12 or 6 or 4, as now in the new Ordo, with the respective canticles. After the white in the Lumen Christi and in the Exultet, the violet of the Paschal mourning returns; then the blessing of the font and the administration of Baptism; in the restored new rite there is the renewal of baptismal promises; followed by the Paschal Mass, in white vestments, with the transition from mourning to joy in the triple singing of the Alleluia. It was originally the only Mass of the great solemnity at the close of the "pannuchis." But when the vigil began in the evening of Saturday, in the time of St. Gregory I, the Mass of the day was introduced with the Gospel of St. Mark, in which the beautiful sequence Victimae is sung, attributed to Wipo (d. ca. 1050). Another peculiarity of P. is the octave, which closes with the hour of Nona on Saturday in Albis. Each day of this octave has its own formulary with its own station; in the prayers and readings reference is made both to the Resurrection and to Baptism; the neophytes attended in their white garments; after vespers there was a solemn procession. There were 7 festive days, but after the 10th century only the first two days after Sunday remained such; under Pius X these were also suppressed, remaining festive only in the liturgical office.
Another peculiarity of the Paschal feast are the 50 days that follow it, called Quinquagesima paschalis, until Pentecost, which falls precisely on the fiftieth day after P.; they formerly constituted the feast of the Resurrection that began immediately after the P. of the vigil. During this time the entire Office is pervaded by a feeling of joy; the Alleluia is added to all the responsories, verses, and antiphons of the Office; it is repeated many times in the Mass. As a sign of joy, one did not kneel during prayers. In the Sacramentaries and in all the Capitulary books of the 7th-8th centuries, the Pascha annotatum is noted, a feast celebrated on Monday after the Sunday in Albis, to remind the baptized of the P. of the previous year of their initiation into the Faith.
Particular customs of P. are: the blessing of houses with holy water during the Paschal vigil; the new blessed fire was also taken home to cook Paschal foods. Foods forbidden during Lent are blessed before being eaten: meat (Paschal lamb, already in the Bobbio Sacramentary [8th century]), in Rome in the 9th century, and eggs (in Rome not before the 11th century), etc.
7. The Paschal Question
In the 2nd-3rd centuries there was discussion about the two different dates for the celebration of P.; in Asia, following the example of St. John and St. Paul, P. was celebrated on the day of Christ's death, the 14th of Nisan, whatever day of the week it fell on (the followers of this usage were then called "Quartodecimani" [v.]); in the West, however, P. was always celebrated on the Sunday following the spring full moon. Already St. Polycarp of Smyrna, at the time of Pope Anicetus (ca. 150), attempted without effect a reconciliation of these two usages; the controversy culminated around 190 at the time of Pope Victor I and Bishop Polycarp of Ephesus. Through the intervention of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, the danger of a schism was avoided. The Asiatics gradually adopted the Roman usage. Another difference arose from the different computation to determine the full moon, so as not to have P. in common with the Jews. The Romans used a cycle of 84 (or 16) years, called of Hippolytus, with P. between March 25 and April 21; the Alexandrians, however, a cycle of 19 years, attributed to Anatolius, with P. between March 22 and April 25. At the Council of Nicaea (325) Sunday was decided as the day of P.; it was the duty of the Patriarch of Alexandria to announce its day each year. Finally, Dionysius Exiguus, in 525, carried out a new computation based on the Alexandrian cycle, with P. between March 22 and April 25; that computation was gradually accepted everywhere, except by the Britons and the Irish, who retained their 84-year cycle until the end of the 8th century.For the opuscule Computus de Pascha, attributed to St. Cyprian, see the relevant entry.
RUB.: K. A. H. Kellner, L'anno ecc., Rome 1914, pp. 37-49; L. Duchesne, Origines du culte chrétien, Paris 1925, pp. 248-252; O. Casel, Art und Sinn der ältesten christl. Osterfeier, in Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft, 14 (1934), pp. 1-78; C. Callewaert, La Pâque chrétienne primitive, in Sacris Erudiri, Steenbrugg 1940, pp. 452-56; M. Righetti, Man. di stor. liturg., II, Milan 1946, pp. 166-200; A. Bugnini, Decretum de solemni vigilia paschali instauranda (cum comment.), in Ephem. Liturg., 65 (1951), Supplementum pp. 1-48; Ch. Mohrmann, Pascha, Passio, Transitus, ibid., 66 (1952), pp. 27-52.