This question is for those among you who are Christian.
Why is Christmas the big Christian holiday, and not Easter? It seems to me that Christ’s resurrection is the defining event of Christianity, not his birth. Or . . . if you remove all the secular things of Christmas, you’re left with something smaller than Easter?
Speaking as a regular churchgoer (Episcopal church), I’d say that Easter IS the more important holiday, and it’s not really all that close. I think that most of the people in my church would agree. Certainly the priests we’ve had over the years would argue for Easter as being central to the faith in a way that Christmas is not.
And we probably do Easter in just as big a way as Christmas, but then again we don’t do it in a way that’s bigger.
Why is Christmas so big then? I think it may be at least in part a push from the more secular world, but I doubt that’s the whole story. Presents, perhaps, and the need for a major holiday in late December, and maybe the Easter Bunny just can’t compete with ol’ Santa Claus…
Easter is the big holiday for Christians, IME.
Easter is the big holiday for Catholics.
I don’t know why Santa is more popular than the bunny, though.
Roman Catholic here, and I wouldn’t say Christmas is the big Christian holiday. The Easter Triduum is hugely important because it celebrates His death and resurrection and also the Eucharist which He left for us. Each Sunday is a celebration of His resurrection and the Eucharist, and while Catholics are encouraged to receive Eucharist as often as possible, they are only required to receive once a year, at Easter.
“Christ redeemed us all and gave perfect glory to God principally through his paschal mystery: dying he destroyed our death and rising he restored our life. Therefore the Easter triduum of the passion and resurrection of Christ is the culmination of the entire liturgical year.
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Next to the yearly celebration of the paschal mystery, the Church holds most sacred the memorial of Christ’s birth and early manifestations. This is the purpose of the Christmas season.”
Easter is more important in a textbook sense, but it doesn’t lend itself to celebration as much as Christmas does. Easter has a more reflective and somber tone, notwithstanding the deep joy in considering “He is risen.” Christmas, on the other hand, focuses totally on the positive and happy aspects. Christmas also has the giving of gifts and status as a national holiday enjoyed in both secular and religious ways. It just has more going for it irrespective of its theological significance.
What makes you think that Christmas is bigger than Easter? Do you find it to be more visible? That is because what you see is all the atheists and irreligious people joining in. Which is fine - doesn’t stop Christians from celebrating in a religious way.
But atheists and the irreligious don’t have a real interest in Easter so it doesn’t stand out as much as a big holiday. Definitely some non-religious folks joining in but maybe not as many as those in Christmas.
A more interesting question is why is the secular celebration of Christmas greater than the secular celebration of Easter?
Depends on who you talk to. I’ve been to Church Wide Assembly, led worship, and done other things that make me a slightly-more-than-just-active Christian and while I celebrate and honor Christmas my real joy comes with Easter.
If you stop and seriously consider it – we humans had so screwed things up and turned our backs on God that He had to be born a man, suffer as we suffer, just to give us the chance at redemption. I’ll live with “merry” but I may not always feel it the way you would think.
Now on the other hand - He so loved me (and you and everyone else) that He did indeed suffer and die for us; that I call Joyous and Blessed. Have you ever loved anyone that much? Or been loved that much? It’s why when after Easter you give me the usual “He is risen” you get back a great big “He is risen indeed!!!”.
Christians come in a thousand different hues and flavors and someone else may have a different take - but you asked and that’s mine. For what its worth.
Sort of something I’ve pondered. In this country (US) I expected something to surpass Christmas long before now. Thanksgiving or 9/11 or something. But it still hasn’t happened yet. And in my youth Easter and Christmas were closer to neck and neck with every store and drugstore selling candy crosses and bunnies just as they did Santas and Marys a few months earlier. And at almost the same rate. Somewhere Easter became more what both began as; more a Christian holiday. I can live with that - no problem. But having both back would be nice as well.
Having been both a mall Santa and Easter Bunny at the same location ------ Santa gets longer lines but Bunny gets way more intricate wardrobes and bigger spending on photo packages. Call it a draw between the two financially in the end. Check some of the stats from the big “mall picture chains” and I think you will find that the overall experience holds true.
Religiously speaking, the important holiday IS Easter.
From a civil point of view, Spain does have Easter holidays; depending on location, there’s two different sets of dates involved for the children (from Palms weekend to the Monday after Easter Sunday, or from Holy Thursday until the Sunday after Easter Sunday), the parents may get less days but will often use vacation days so they get the same days off. Many people take a short vacation (where “short” can easily mean 10 or 11 days); people who own a vacation home will often go there for Easter “to open the apartment”, that is, to prepare it for use after the winter. People whose summer home is very close to their primary one may even move to the summer home already.
The US doesn’t have Easter vacations, but you have Spring Break instead. While that doesn’t involve the whole family (among other things, because the parents don’t get vacation at the same time unless they happen to be teachers), it’s a pretty big deal for young adults.
I think it all depends on how you measure ‘bigger’. If you mean, even none believers participate, gets more TV movies and capitalist exploitation, then yeah, Christmas is ‘bigger’.
But, I think you’ll find, if you ask actual believers/adherents they’ll all tell you that Easter IS the more meaningful and therefore ‘bigger’ holiday, in reality.
So which is it? Measure by the outward appearances, like trees, decor, TV movies, how busy the malls are? Or by what the actual adherents consider the deeper and more meaningful celebration?
Which begs the question; if Easter was accompanied by a larger outward and monetary element would it be, in any way elevated? I don’t think so.
Which holiday has more people attending Church services?
As for Easter being more somber, I disagree. Lent is somber. Good Friday is somber. Easter is all about: HE IS RISEN! The church statues are uncovered (in Catholic churches) and flowers are everywhere.
Easter is more important.
But on the Christmas side: a baby! Look at The Baby!
I don’t think people think of the baby much until they question what the heck they are doing all this Christmas stuff for, then, oh yeah, there’s a baby.
Christmas is for the kids - Easter is for the adults.
The Feast of the Resurrection IS the highest Holy Day of the Christian churches. Christmas is the most popular holiday celebration among many Christian peoples.
I tend to agree that the view of Christmas being “the big Holiday” is more based on the syncretism of secular and prechristian traditions and customs, and somehow having the secular-celebratory part more closely associated to the date of Christmas while the “spring festival” part was not quite as closely associated to that of Resurrection Sunday. A lot of what we call “Christmas songs” are really *winter *songs, aren’t they? Heard any fun, rollicking Easter Carols celebrating springtime lately?
In the various places I’ve lived, my experience is that “secular Easter” is at best a day or two of dressing in colorful spring clothes and doing egg hunts, while “secular Christmas” can be multiple weeks of partying, decorating, feasting, gift exchanging etc.
IME, “secular Christmas” seems to be more universal among different Christian cultures than is “secular Easter”. I remember as recently as 40-50 years ago here in PR the cultural penetration of the bunny and eggs thing was very shallow, and Easter Season was primarily a season of piety and observance; while Christmas Season meanwhile was (and remains) one of celebration and partying.
I speculate on another component to how come the secular-hedonic festivities stuck closer to Christmas: On Christmas, Jesus is the child, his mother swaddles him, neighbors and strangers visit and bring gifts; he becomes one of us. So it’s natural to welcome and celebrate him as humans celebrate a kid’s birthday, with a raucuous party. On Easter, OTOH, this is now the Risen Christ; he has become something else. He makes the earth shake and the stone roll, his closest dearest friends recoil in fear. The people rejoice on the great news of salvation, but are now awed before their Lord and the party if any is more sedate.
Speaking from a strictly religious point of view, Easter is more important than Christmas. Practically, though, Christmas falls in the middle of winter, and it acts as a sort of winter festival to cheer people up. If Christ ever actually existed, he was likely born in the spring - but people need something bright and warm during the winter months.
Plus, presents.
Plus, sheep!
Yes, after 40 days of no “alleluia” we get the Alleluia Chorus! The final note of that big fat crazy Alleluia at the end of “Jesus Christ is Risen Today” after two hours of Easter Vigil magic (which sometimes includes the baptism of “a baby!”) is seriously the happiest moment of my year. 
I think this is because Easter doesn’t have many (any?) good secular traditions that are geared toward adults. Christmas lights, presents and decorated trees appeal to people of all ages. Once you’ve outgrown Easter egg hunts and baskets of cheap candy, there’s no reason left to celebrate, unless the holiday has a deeper meaning to you, or you have little kids of your own to dress in fancy clothes and shower with jelly beans and peeps.
As a Catholic, I agree that Easter is a much more important holiday. However, it suffers in terms of popularity because IT CAN’T MAKE UP ITS DAMN MIND WHEN TO OCCUR.
You can set your watch to all the Christmas minutia. But Easter can occur anywhere within a month or so long span. That kind of unpredictability is a huge drawback in developing a loyal following.
Doesn’t cause any problems for Thanksgiving. Both always occur on the same day of the week, too.
Funny thing about Easter is that, in English, it still carries the Pagan holiday name that it’s paired up with.