Inspirations: Archives

When the ‘moveable feasts’ of Passover and Easter tango together, religious rituals fill the air, and tastes of childhood linger on the tongue through matzo, or peeps. The sour and sweet of holy ground offers both guilt and redemption. It can open the numinous, or close down possibility by orthodoxy. Religious roots can send us on trajectories into unknown spiritual quests, as well as the crazies. Passover and Easter are called ‘moveable feasts,’ not because we go from meal to meal visiting family, but because they were created by the timing and turning of earth in relation to the heavens. This was not a precise science. Planetary orbits change, and we set calendars by this heavenly movement, revealed year by year, much as religious bias has grown, slowly, layer on layer. Pesach, or Passover, originated on the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. Easter took its timing from Passover, setting itself on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, after the vernal equinox. Easter, based on the Gregorian calendar, not on the actual astronomical full moon or equinox, was set by the Catholic Church, mandating an automatic equinox on March 21. Religion superseded God to dictate when and how. More tied to ancient roots is the Orthodox Church, which uses the same formula, but bases its timing on the Julian calendar, instead of the Gregorian. This sets Easter on the actual astronomical full moon and equinox for Jerusalem, instead of the Gregorian auto-pilot of the western calendar. Eastern Orthodox celebrate the death and resurrection of Easter after Jesus entered Jerusalem and held Passover. However we celebrate our moveable feasts, may religion free us, rather than enslave. May our beliefs rise and twine from heart and mind. May we return to what is ancient and powerful within, connecting us… Read more »