Happy Easter Sunday. It is rainy and gray in Seattle today, which I take as symbolic of the cleansing and rebirth which this day is supposed to signify. At least, that’s what it signifies to me.

But there was one thing that always baffled me about Easter–and that was why Easter and Passover very rarely coincided with one another. After learning the traditional story of the crucifixion as I was growing up, I simply could not understand how Easter could be “so early” this year (as I often heard the adults around me say when Easter appeared in March), and indeed, there was still snow on the ground as Easter Sunday rolled around–while Passover was not due for another month. This year Passover begins on April 22, nearly a month after Easter Sunday.

So according to our calendar, Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead before he ever dined at his last supper. Is something wrong with this picture? Wouldn’t it help, for the sake of clarity, to coordinate Easter and Passover to the same calendar?

My mother, or any of the other adults I questioned, seemed rather blissfully unoconcerned about this discrepancy, and completely ignorant of the methods used for determining the dates of both Passover and Easter. If we want to stick by the biblical rendition of the story, then the crucifixion and resurrection would have to immediately follow Passover. The dates would have to be coordinated, and be determined by using the same calendar. Of course, that would mean that Good Friday might fall on a Tuesday, and Easter Sunday would then be Easter Thursday.

Very Very Complicated

But as we know, that is not the case. Passover commemorates the ancient Hebrews’ exodus from Egypt. The dates are coordinated according to the Hebrew calendar, which celebrates Passover from the 14th to the 21st day of the Jewish month of Nisan, which is sometime in April.

Easter Sunday, on the other hand, is calculated as the first Sunday after the paschal full moon that occurs on or after the vernal equinox. If the full moon falls on a Sunday, then Easter will be celebrated the following Sunday. This means that the holiday can occur anywhere between March 22 and April 25. To add to the confusion, the Western Christian churches do not use the astronomically correct date for the vernal equinox, but instead, made it a fixed date–March 21. And their interpretation of the full moon is also not the astronomical full moon but the “ecclesiastical moon,” which is based on tables created by the church.

The Eastern Orthodox church uses the same basic formula, but their dates differ because they use the Julian calendar rather than the more contemporary and widely used Gregorian. In addition, the Eastern churches use the actual, astronomical full moon and the actual vernal equinox to set the date of Easter. So not only are Easter and Passover set according to different calendars, but the dates for Easter vary as well, among different sects of Christians.

But according to the Wikipedia, separating Passover from Easter was a deliberate move.

According to the Roman Catholic beliefs, their Holy Week occurs around the same time as Passover. Easter was set so as not to coincide with Passover, though it is determined by a lunisolar calendar as is Passover. The Catholic calendar is designed so that Easter nearly always falls out during the week of Passover or immediately after. The Catholics believe that Easter replaces Passover in importance, as Passover represents the death of Jesus, they believe that Easter represents the resurrection.

The Roman Christian Church developed its tradition of celebrating the resurrection, deviating from the celebration of God’s appointed Holy Day of the Passover representing the death of Jesus, early in its history. In letters exchanged between the Eastern (Greek) churches and the Roman Church as early as the second century, a dispute is laid out that is referred to as the “Quartodeciman Controversy”. The Eastern Churches believed that Christians should continue in the tradition of the Apostles of celebrating the Passover on the 14th of Nisan (also known as Abib), whereas the Roman Church had already abandoned the Passover in favor of a celebration on the following Sunday. Most Protestants follow in the Catholic tradition of celebrating Easter instead of Passover.

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I know, that Schiavo woman again. But I thought of a rather perplexing trivia question, one that no one has sought to answer.

Terri’s feeding tube has been removed so that she can die in peace. This is being done to relieve her pain and suffering, and to end this miserable existence that she’s led for the past 15 years. The “experts” who believe that Terri is no longer a sentient being, say that she will feel no discomfort as she slowly dehydrates and dies. To them, Terri is basically a plant, a shrub, something that’s still growing but has no mind, and no ability to feel pain, love, joy, sadness, hatred or fear.

So here’s the $10 million dollar question; if Terri is unable to feel anything, then how can she be suffering in her present state? How is it that she is leading a “life of misey” if she is basically lump of flesh that continues to breathe but has negative brain activity?

Why remove her tube then? What then, is the crime of turning her over to her parents care (she is a plant, afterall, and not suffering) and allow them to try some new experimental therapies that may help her? Since the woman supposedly doesn’t know the difference, whether she’s on Mars, Jupiter, Florida or having dinner at the White House, then what is the harm?

As you can see, the experts have twisted themselves into a riddle. Terri is miserable so we must allow her the peace of death, but yet she is basically a vegetable, so she is unable to feel the misery of death by dehydration and starvation.

Well which one is it, boys and girls? Does she or doesn’t she? You can’t have it both ways. If she’s suffering in her life now, then it is illogical to assume that her death will be painless. Likewise, if she is now in a state of blissfull unawareness, to the point that total body shutdown will not even make her flinch, then why must she die?