Why is Christmas a more important holiday than Easter? Sure, the birth of a religion’s Messiah is important, but for this particular religion, one would think that the resurrection ould at the very least touch off a round of “we told you so” celebration. I’ve been trying to think of some possible reasons, and so far I’ve come up with:
Time of year. A lot of major stuff happens at the same time as Xmas so it’s more natural to celebrate then. New Years is then and so is a major Jewish holiday. Problem: There’s a major Jewish holiday around Easter too, and with more activity surrounding the New Year it would seem logical to reduce the level of Xmas celebration.
Secularization. Word association. I say “Easter,” you say “bunny.” The dominating myth of Easter is secular and so it’s not viewed as a particularly religious holiday. Problem: Xmas isn’t secularized?
I had tought of another, but I didn’t write it down. I’ll post it if it comes back to me.
AFAIK, Hannukah is not a major Jewish holiday. The fact is since it is a gift giving holiday around Christmas and since commercial America has bastardized and hyped the hell out of Christmas, Hannukah has become more “major”. Any Judaism experts out there, feel free to correct me.
From what I gathered in my Catholic education, Easter is really supposed to be “the” big Christian celebratory holiday. But like I said, Christmas has more appeal commercially.
Tony Soprano: We’re the only country in the world where the pursuit of happiness is guaranteed in writing… Where’s my happiness then? Dr. Melfi: It’s the pursuit that’s guaranteed. Tony Soprano Yeah, always a fucking loophole.
My guess:
It just happens that 25 December was in a location in the calendar that happened to tie in to many more ancient celebrations, e.g. the Roman celebration of the winter solstice (natalis solis invicti), Roman gift-giving an merry-making on the Saturnalia (17 December), the birthdate of the Iranian God Mithra, the Sun of Righteousness, German and Celtic Yule rites.
Nowadays, in an increasingly secular consumer society, Christmas is becoming even more important due to its capacity for generating revenue for retailers.
Easter is a far more important holiday than Christmas from a religious standpoint for Christians.
However, Christmas is more popular because of the gifts and IMO because it’s always on the same day, so you can get ready for it.
Easter moves around through roughly a 30-day period. Next year, Easter is on April 15, on 2002 it’s March 31.
Spring breaks from schools don’t necessarily coincide with Easter also, but winter breaks are always around Christmas.
I always thought that Passover was the most important Jewish holiday growing up because that was the one holiday we learned about in Catholic school. I wasn’t set straight on that until college when my Jewish friends told me about Yom Kippur.
You’re right – or, at least, mostly right. Hannukah was not a “gift giving holiday” originally. It only became one because of Christmas. I think Purim might be the main Jewish gift-giving holiday, but I can’t recall for sure now.
Let me clarify. Easter may doctrinally be recognized as more important, but in reality it’s not treated as more important. So maybe the question is, are Christians ignoring this aspect of their doctrine and if so, why?
Ah, another discussion where I can bring my foot-in-bot-camps perspective to bear. I’m a Christian married to a Jew, and we’re bring our kids up Jewish.
Passover is indeed important, but the High Holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the 10 days in between call “The days of awe”) are at least as important, if not more. Hanukkah is a minor holiday.
The celebration of Christmas is a relatively recent event, and it is a concession to pagan celebrations around the same time. Newly converted Christians missed their old pagan celebrations, so the church authorities let them celebrate the birth of Christ, although theologically there’s not much to celebrate. Many serious Christians put much more importance on the Cruxification and Ressurection of Jesus (Easter).
Most people (Jews and Christians) aren’t really serious about their religion. They want to be basically secular, but keep their religions around for a kind of security blanket. That’s why a lot of Jews dust off their souls during Passover and the High Holidays, and Christians do likewise on Easter. That’s when the big crowds hit the Synagogues and Churches.
And since most people are really secular at heart, they readily embrace the secularization of Easter and Christmas. Of the Jewish holidays, Hanukkah is the most vulnerable to secularization, but mainly because a lot of people see it as the “Jewish Christmas”, as wrong-headed as that is.
Anecdotally, here’s what my family does for Christmas/Christmas season: buy, wrap and give gifts, set up Christmas tree, decorate house, sing/play carols, have a family dinner, watch Christmas specials/movies, wait for Santa Claus (if young children are in attendance), attend church.
Here’s what my family does for Easter/Easter season: celebrate Lent, have a family dinner, attend church.
Which holiday has more secularized activity? Which holiday has more religious-oriented activity?
JoltSucker: Most people (Jews and Christians) aren’t really serious about their religion. They want to be basically secular, but keep their religions around for a kind of security blanket. That’s why a lot of Jews dust off their souls during Passover and the High Holidays, and Christians do likewise on Easter. That’s when the big crowds hit the Synagogues and Churches.
Ain’t that the truth. My wife and I went to church yesterday, and there were about 2-3 times the number of people regularly there. I had to park on the lawn instead of one of the parking lots.
Our pastor joked, after welcoming the new visitors, that we have services every Sunday at the same time.
[hijack]I went to mass yesterday (Catholic) at the basilica me and my family regularly attends. A good friend of mine is the Director of Ministry (he organizes the readers, euch. ministers, servers, ushers, etc.) We went to the 12:00 mass, and before it started, he comes up to tell us that he’s drunk. He was a eucharistic minister at the 10:30 mass before this one, and there were so many people, but so few of them went to receive communion. They had so much wine left over that needed to be consumed, he got himself a bit inebriated.[/hijack]
Sala, can’t you count?!? I said NO camels! That’s FIVE camels!
My aunt is very religious (in a nice way). Having spent both Christmas and Easter with her, I can definitely say from her perspective Christmas is a nice holiday, very family oriented, but Easter is a big deal from a religious perspective.
Christmas is almost a secular holiday. A lot of non-Christians or celebrate Christmas (myself included). Its secular aspect appeals to people of every religion and no religion.
Easter is very much a religious holiday. If you’re not into Christianity, it’s not that important in a secular sense. But, I think that for people such as my aunt that are really serious about their religion, Easter is the main event.
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.
“Treated” by whom? Easter is a far more important religious day than Christmas to vitrually every Christian I know, including me. It is “treated as more important” by Christians through keeping it as a primarily religious holiday, not a secular one. I would argue that the appearance of Christmas as “more important” in terms of hype and general perception merely reflects that many Christians treat Easter as a “holy day” and not a “holiday.”
My local church had 11 Masses on Easter Sunday and nearly each one had an overflow crowd, except for the one I went to at 6:30 in the morning, which was ONLY about 85% full.
I don’t think Easter is being ignored. As any Catholic can tell you, Easter and Xmas are the only times some semi-lapsed Catholics go to Mass (we call them C&Eers).
I’d say the only difference is that there’s more fuss made in the media about Xmas than Easter. In the Church, Easter is definitely given a big buildup–holy water fonts blocked off, stations of the Cross, Palm Sunday, and then the big orgy of baptisms and confirmations at Easter Vigil Mass.
Easter falls on a Sunday–always. My guess is that it appears to be a lower profile holiday due to this fact. Schools are already closed, most government entities are shuttered on the weekend, and any number of other businesses closed on Sundays as well. now if Easter were, say, on Wednesdays without fail…
In the Orthodox Church, Easter is THE religious holiday of the year, and Christmas is almost insignificant. The Orthodox families seem to celebrate it because all the surrounding Catholic and OPD families are doing so.
I met a lapsed Catholic in college whw said in one of his religion classes, the nun asked “What is the most important day of the year?”
The answer she was looking for was Easter, because without Easter (resurrection and all) Christmas would be just some man’s birthday. My friend argued that without Christmas (the incarnation of Jesus as Man) there would have been no Easter. Well, he learned not to argue with a nun.
Virtually yours,
DrMatrix
If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you 0.99999999… times.