KEY POINTS:
It seems to have become standard practice for someone or another to beat up on the Christians each time their major festivals approach. It is disappointing to see a historian of Professor Paul Moon's ability joining the game.
Views will differ on the shopping debate, but the history of the Christian festivals is much less cynical than Paul Moon claims. Certainly Christmas is a non-historical observance in that the birth date of Jesus is unknown and its celebration at the Roman Saturnalia was a Christian response to that pagan festival in which we said "The real Son of Light is Jesus - and this is his story".
Gradually Christianity prevailed and much of the debauched Roman festival was replaced with Christian worship and celebration. In our current culture the battle between the two is strong with secularism and consumerism becoming ascendant.
But Christmas as a community festival and holiday has been entrenched in European culture for well over 1000 years.
The Easter festival of Jesus' death and resurrection is a different story. Here the dating is certain (give or take a year or two). Its timing each year is based on the full moon and derives from the Jewish Passover.
Remembering Jesus' death and proclaiming it wherever we can is enjoined upon Christians by our scriptures and occurs in much of our worship. Indeed every week we "proclaim the Lord's death until he comes". There is reasonable historical evidence that Christians celebrated Jesus' rising from the dead at the Paschal season from a very early date and that it was known originally as the Paschal Observance.
The name Easter probably derives from the worship of Oestre, a European spring festival which occurred at much the same time. Yes, the traditions merged (rabbits and eggs, for example) and Christianity's adoption of them is typical of widely recognised cultural conversion processes.
Perhaps we could have avoided the confusion if we had stayed with the word Paschal or even adopted the Greek Anastasia (resurrection) but the change happened too long ago to be reversed.
What is particularly objectionable and unjust is Paul Moon's reference to these developments being brought about by "conniving church politicians". The Christian celebration of the Paschal mysteries preceded the church's acquisition of political power by at least two centuries.
The question of protecting the Easter holiday is not a matter of the origin of the word but the place of the holiday, both religious and secular, in our culture. All cultures have special times of recreation and celebration and New Zealanders have shown themselves to be very creative at enjoying both the holiday and holy-day aspects of this long weekend.
As Paul Moon observes, many retailers would prefer not to have to work over Easter - indeed many regret the seven-day shopping that has been forced on them. Recreation time is important for health and balance, however we choose to use it.
Paul Moon's comments on the Sabbath are curious reflecting as they and his critique of the origins of Easter and Christmas also do the short-lived Puritan experiment in England between 1645 and 1660. The English soon grew tired of the Puritan restrictions and the military conflicts the abolition of the monarchy had given rise to and threw the Puritans out.
As for Sabbath observance, the evidence is clear from Christian history that the early Christians gathered to worship Jesus on Sunday ("the eighth day"), possibly in expectation of Jesus' return on the day of his rising from the dead. As they were increasingly driven out of Judaism Sunday became their new holy day.
They were convinced that they had been set free from the Sabbath laws (Colossians 2:16) and were free to worship on "The Lord's Day". The New Testament does not require Christians to keep the Jewish Sabbath. The "bad history" here is on Paul Moon's side.
We Christians value our history, most of which is very well documented and it is distressing to see it misrepresented by a professional historian.
* The Rev Dr Don Battley is priest-in-charge of St Margaret's Church, Hillsborough, and is a retired Anglican archdeacon of the diocese of Auckland.
