Monday, March 23, 2026

It is the 23rd of March 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

A happy Monday to you- here at the almanac, we answer questions from listeners on Mondays, and Dave in Levittown, PA, knows how to get my attention- first, he tells me that Levittown in Eastern Pennsylvania is a census-designated community, and second, Levittown is considered the model for the modern suburb. Also home to Super Joe McEwing- the all-purpose utility man for the Mets.

 

Dave says his daughter asked him about the significance of the word “Easter,” and it sent him down a rabbit hole, and that he “knows this one guy”- well, at least in the podcasting sense. And yes- it gets weird fast, and I get a “what’s up with Easter” question just about every year. But it’s worth breaking down as we head towards the holiday- for Dave, his daughter, and all of us.

 

Easter is the first universal holy day in the church. The rest of the calendar gets set by it. It is based on the Passover because of when we read of Jesus’ crucifixion in the Gospels. Passover is a Jewish lunar holiday, and Easter (more on that word in a minute) is as well. We determine it based on the vernal equinox. When do we have more daylight than nighttime? It’s around March 21st, so we just set that as “ecclesiastical equinox”. SO- after that day, you wait for the first full moon. The following Sunday is Easter. Boom. But what is “easter”?

 

What is Easter in any other language you might know? In German it is Ostern. That doesn’t help necessarily except to see that almost every other language calls it some variation on “Pascha” for “passover”- so it’s the minority Germanic tradition which prevails in English, where we get “Easter”.

 

So, God Bless the Venerable Bede- he’s venerable for Pete’s sake. But in his sometimes rambling, but very important. His 8th-century Ecclesiastical History of the English People notes that the month in which the resurrection is celebrated is called Eosturmonath- this is true, and he suggests a goddess named Eostur is at the root. He may be vulnerable, but I think he’s wrong, as he’s the only ancient source noting this.

 

The whole thing crumbles- go back to Christmas- it’s more “pagan”- but let me remind you, as always, anything can be made pagan if you try hard enough.

 

What about the fertility stuff? Well, it’s spring. What about the Eggs? My favorite answer is that giving up eggs was part of the Lenten fast, but the chickens don’t know that, and they keep laying eggs, so we might as well have fun with them if we can’t eat them.

 

And rabbits and bunnies are mammals, no eggs, sorry- but once again it’s the Germans to the rescue as they had a tradition of the OsterHase that brings eggs to well-behaved children. I know the promise of an omelet always made my kids behave.

 

It’s important to remember that symbolism is used by people; it does not hang over them with necessary connotations or meanings. As people focused on the resurrection of Jesus and then of us all it would make sense that in a season of “new life” we would be keen on tying budding flowers and other things growing as images of the resurrection- Paul does it himself in 1 Corinthians 15 when he writes of the seed and it’s “death and resurrection” that doesn’t make “seed talk” explicitly Christian nor is it pagan- it’s what the people use it for. So- Dave and daughter and friends- look for new life this season and call it what you will, but may it all point you to the glorious news of this season- a world waiting- seeing in Christ the first of what will become of us as well. Thanks for the question- keep them coming to danv@1517.org.

 

The Last word for today comes from- let’s call an audible and hear the seed analogy from 1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse 35:

35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 23rd of March 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man whose Osterhase brings shakshuka and speckkuchen- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who learned to make the perfect egg from his brother-in-law, who learned it from Jacques Pepin- the undefeated sun-side-up egg. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.