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Paschal Triduum

The Paschal Triduum starts now.


Safe driving to all those who are leaving to go on holiday, especially to those passing through Kapiti.

And was Easter originally a pagan holiday? No.

In the original language of the gospels, the Greek word pascha is used for the Aramaic form of the Hebrew word pesach, which means Passover. During the first three centuries of the Church, Pasch referred specifically to the celebration of Christ's passion and death; by the end of the fourth century, it also included the Easter Vigil; and by the end of the fifth century, it referred to Easter itself. In all, the term signified Christ as the new Passover Lamb. Together, the mystery of the Last Supper, the sacrifice of Good Friday and the resurrection of Easter form the new Passover - the new Pasch.

Latin used the Greek-Hebrew root for its word Pascha and other derivatives to signify Easter or the Easter mysteries: for instance, the Easter Vigil in Latin is Sabbato Sancto de Vigilia Paschali and in the First Preface of Easter, the priest prays, "...Cum Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus" ("When Christ our Pasch was sacrificed"). The Romance languages later used the Hebrew-Greek-Latin root for their words denoting Easter: Italian, Pasqua; Spanish, Pascua and French, Paques. Even some non-Romance languages employ the Hebrew-Greek-Latin root: Scotch, Pask; Dutch, Paschen; Swedish, Pask and the German dialect along the lower Rhine, Paisken.

However, according to St. Bede (d. 735), the great historian of the Middle Ages, the title Easter seems to originate in English around the eighth century A.D. The word Easter is derived from the word Eoster, the name of the Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and Spring, and the annual sacrifices associated with her. If this is the origin of our word Easter, then the Church "baptized" the name, using it to denote that first Easter Sunday morning when Christ, our Light, rose from the grave and when the women found the tomb empty just as dawn was breaking.

Another possibility which arises from more recent research suggests the early Church referred to Easter week as hebdomada alba ("white week"), from the white garments worn by the newly baptized. Some mistranslated the word to mean "the shining light of day" or "the shining dawn," and therefore used the Teutonic root eostarun, the Old German plural for "dawn", as the basis for the German Ostern and for the English equivalent "Easter". In early English translations of the Bible made by Tyndale and Coverdale, the word "Easter" was substituted for the word "Passover," in some verses.

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