Why I don’t celebrate Easter…at least not as a “Christian” holiday.

I don’t consider Easter a Christian or specifically a Biblical holiday. I do, however, celebrate it as a worldly holiday similar to how I celebrate New Year’s or our country’s Independence Day. And here’s my unsolicited take on why:

What I consider Biblical holidays

I consider holidays that were instructed by God or practiced through the tradition of the first-century church, as highlighted in Scripture, to be Biblical holidays. Before I give examples, I will note that the practices of the first-century church described in scripture carry the same weight as instructions from God simply because “all scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim 3:16) and by inclusion in the New Testament, God wanted us to follow them. The first and most obvious example is Passover, which God directed the Israelites to observe, Exodus 12:1-14. But, similar to the Sabbath, this is not a tradition of the Christians because this was observed under the Mosaic Law and the Old Covenant. I won’t go into detail on this, but the book of Galatians explains this well (as does Romans). Under the New Testament and the New Covenant, there does not appear to be such a holiday, at least not a yearly one. The first-century church did have traditions, however, following from the instructions of God; we will get into this in a bit. Any celebrations or commemorations other than what is described in scripture I consider to be additions to God’s word, in other words, not important.

Does the Bible mention Easter?

No, there is no mention of Easter or a holiday resembling what we call Easter today(i.e., a special weekend the church sets aside to remember the events leading up to, including, and after the death of Jesus Christ). The KJV translation of the Bible uses this word in Acts 12:4. Almost all other translations use the word Passover here instead. Let us engage in some layman’s hermeneutics here. King Herod arrested Christians, intending to persecute them. King Herod had James, the brother of John, killed, and this made the Jews happy. King Herod noticed this reaction from the Jews and because of this, he had Peter arrested. Exodus 12 and Luke 22:1 might give more information on the relationship between Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread; but for now it suffices to say that this occurred during a special time period for the Jews. King Herod had Peter arrested during the Feast of Unleavened Bread but planned to have him executed after a particular event. This event could either be the Jewish Passover or Christian “Easter”. I will let you be the judge of which event it is and what the more accurate translation is. If you were King Herod and wanted to please the Jews by punishing Christians which event would you respect and which would you disrespect?

What the Bible says about commemorating Jesus’ death and resurrection

This is the most important issue to consider. I believe in asking this question, I find common ground with most followers of Christ. Those who celebrate Easter do it for this reason and I don’t do it for the same reason. I think this is what they call irony. A reading of Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-26, Luke 22:14-22, and 1 Cor 11:23-26 clearly shows that Jesus wants us to remember His death, burial and resurrection. Put simply, commemorating Jesus’ death and resurrection is quite literally doing what God commanded us to do. The question becomes how He wants us to do this. And how often should we be doing this? When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, He told His disciples exactly how He wanted to be remembered, by eating the bread that represents His body and drinking the wine that is His blood. 1 Corinthians 11 gives further details to this by explicitly telling us that in doing this, we “proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes”. This tradition, as started by Jesus, is not as “flashy” as the Passover feast and doesn’t seem like a big event, but in simply doing those two things, we are proclaiming His death and by extension His burial and resurrection. The second question is how often. The answer to this question is again found in scripture. The Bible, God’s word, describes to us when the believers met and when they partook in this proclamation. First, we know from Acts 2:42, 1 Cor 11 that this was something the church did regularly, and this was something they did when they met. Acts 20:7 tells us that the church was meeting specifically on the first day of the week for this meal. There are other references in scripture pointing to the believers meeting every first day of the week, Sunday, such as but not limited to 1 Cor 16:2. So the believers partook in this remembrance of Christ often, they did it when they met, and they met weekly. If the Bible truly is the message of God to us and not just random collections of stories that happened to be collected by some people, then these verses mean something.

Application to us

If we are to follow God’s Word and do as He wants us to do, then, first, we must remember Christ’s sacrifice and included in that is His death, burial and of course, resurrection because that is the centre of the hope of all Christians. Secondly, we are to do this regularly, and in following the example of scripture, we must do this weekly on the first day of the week. God’s Word has given us clear instructions on what we are supposed to do and exactly how to proclaim the Lord’s death. If we do this only yearly, then we are falling short of the instructions of God. The question then becomes, is it right for us to set aside a special weekend of commemoration in addition to the instructions we were given?

Is it wrong?

I do not feel the need to ask myself this question. The Bible gives us a prescription and I do not see the need to add to that. Do I think anyone is more or less of a Christian for celebrating or not celebrating? No. Do I enjoy the holiday? Yes, I do, the chocolates are delicious and I very much love the time off from work. Can we take advantage of this worldly celebration? Yes, of course you can. It is probably a good opportunity to reach out to others, which we should be doing anyway. Is it good for Christians to meet and pray together, sing together, and study the Word together? Yes, of course, this is not only every Christian’s right but responsibility. Do I think it is worship? Our worship has to be genuine but also in accordance with His will (His word), John 4:24. You can make your own conclusion from there.