Easter, Pascha and Pesach: religious traditions to form connections

Happy Easter, Happy Pascha and Happy Pesach to all of you who celebrate these holidays this month of April!

This year, the month of April sees a convergence of the most important celebrations of all the main monotheistic religions, which are all represented within the borders of the EU. Two weeks ago, we have written about the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting and prayer. Today, we are going to talk to you about Easter and Pesach (Passover).

Jewish Pesach (Passover)

Let’s begin with the oldest of them all: Jewish Passover (Pesach in Hebrew). It is one of the most sacred and widely observed holidays in both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish traditions. For the Jews, Pesach commemorates the Exodus from Egyptian slavery and the return of the Jews to their ancestral land.

Like Easter, Pesach also consists of a series of celebrations or movable feasts. This means that its date is not fixed in the calendar and it falls on a different date each year (the date is determined by a set of rules).

Beginning on the evening preceding 15 Nissan – the first month of the Jewish calendar, corresponding to March-April – Pesach lasts for 8 days in the Diaspora and 7 days in Israel. During this time, Jews abstain from leavened wheat products and other leavened food. This includes virtually all breads, pastas, cakes and cookies. Prior to the holiday, homes are thoroughly cleaned for Passover, kitchens are purged, and the remaining chametz is burned or sold. Instead of bread, religious Jews eat a type of flatbread called matzo.

On the first two nights of Passover, Jewish people hold the ritual meal of Seder. After candles have been lit, they enjoy a ritual-rich 15-step feast, which centers around telling the story of the Exodus. Some highlights include: drinking four cups of wine, dipping vegetables into saltwater, eating matzah and bitter herbs, the youngest child asking the Four Questions to mark the beginning of the storytelling, and singing late into the night. The final days of Passover, instead, are dedicated to announcing the future redemption through the Messiah.

In 2022, Pesach is from 15 April to 23 April.

Easter and Pascha

From the earliest days of the Church, Easter has been considered the central Christian feast for both Western (Catholic and Protestant) and Eastern Orthodox Christians. Known in the Orthodox world as Pascha – the Greek word for “Passover” – Easter commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For Christians, it is seen as proof of Christ’s divine nature and as his sacrifice to free humanity from sin and death.

Christians celebrate Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday. It is the culmination of the 40-day period of fasting and penitence called Lent. The latter begins on Ash Wednesday (Clean Monday for the Orthodox) and ends with the Holy Week.

Palm Sunday, commemorating Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, marks the beginning of the Holy Week. It is followed by Maundy Thursday (honoring the Last Supper), Good Friday (the day Jesus was crucified), Holy Saturday and, of course, Easter Sunday. In Orthodox Christianity, Easter Sunday is also called Resurrection Day or Resurrection Sunday.

A statue of the Resurrection inside the Parish Church of Stella Maris in Sliema, Malta

Are Easter, Pascha, and Pesach celebrated at the same time?

According to the New Testament, Christ was crucified on the second day of the Jewish Pesach – Good Friday for the Christians – and then shortly afterward He rose from the dead. In fact, the Last Supper, celebrated on Holy Thursday, may well have been a Seder – the ritual meal shared on the first night of Pesach. Because of this, Christians have always commemorated Christ’s resurrection around the time of the Jewish Passover.

However, most Christians who are aware of the division between Orthodox Christianity and “Western Christianity” – both Catholic and Protestant – will know that Orthodox usually celebrate Easter on a different Sunday from the other Christian denominations.

The primary reason why Easter is celebrated on different dates is because the Orthodox calculate the date of Easter according to the Julian calendar, while the rest of Christianity calculates it according to the more recent Gregorian calendar. In most years, the two celebrations will differ by one week, but occasionally by up to five weeks. Easter and Pascha can also fall on the same date. The next time this will happen will be in 2025.

In 2022, Easter was celebrated on Sunday 17 April, while Pascha, the Orthodox Easter, will occur on Sunday 24 April.

A statue of the Crucifixion at an exhibition in Mdina, Malta

Easter in Malta

As many of you already know, Global Mindset Development is located in Malta. In 2019 83% of Maltese people declared themselves to be Catholic. The Constitution of Malta also establishes Catholicism as the state religion, although freedom of religion is guaranteed as a constitutional right.

Easter celebrations in Malta are something quite unique and heartfelt. “My thoughts on Easter traditions give me an immediate sense of belonging, of warmth even”, tells us Kirsten Cutajar Miller, a Maltese economist and business consultant from Paula, Malta. “These are traditions that nowadays I strive hard to pass on to my children… perhaps to connect them to my past or to make my heart warm,” she explains.

For her family, Lent (Randan in Maltese), the run-up to Easter, has always been important. They would observe no-meat Fridays and attend Lenten spiritual reflections. “An important part of the Easter traditions was always the mass and annual procession of the Lady of Sorrows,” says Kirsten. This procession generally occurs on the Friday before Good Friday. “I would look forward to this as my mother and father would always seek to attend the procession in Paola,” she continues.

Good Friday

Another day that carries particular significance for Maltese people is Good Friday. “My dad would have the day off work and we would go around several Maltese churches to visit their Holy Week statues and pray,” recounts Kirsten, as she describes the smell of incense and the sounds of wooden clappers. She continues: “The churches would close at noon, we would scramble to have a meatless lunch – often some lovely fish at Marsaxlokk. We would then rest up and at around 5 p.m. visit the processions of Holy Week in Paola.”

Sylvia Herbert, a Maltese language and culture teacher, also described to us what happens during Holy Week: “On Thursday, we celebrate what we call Seba Visti (Seven Visits). You go to the church seven times and there are certain prayers you can say. On Good Friday, there is a celebration at 3 p.m. It’s more of a ceremony than a real celebration. And then there is the procession, with the big statues.” On Sunday, we do the mass and there is the statue of L-Irxoxst, the Resurrected. Children go in front of the statue and the priest will throw holy water at them.

Sylvia also told us a little bit more about the Maltese Easter tradition of decorating churches and private houses with statues: “We like to decorate our churches with statues which go out during a procession on Good Friday. Some people like to have a small version of these statues. They decorate their houses or maybe a garage and people can come in to see them. Or they can be placed in church halls and even in the MUSEUM – that is where children get their catechism classes.”

il-qagħqa tal-Appostli, the Maltese apostles’ ring bread. © Kappa Vision / Jean-Paul Borg

Culinary

On the culinary side, there are many traditional products that people typically eat during or around Easter. Kirsten recalls with emotion the divine sights of il-qagħqa tal-Appostli (the Maltese apostles’ ring bread) on a day of fasting. It is a circular bread inspired by the last supper Jesus had with his disciples. Sales of this bread usually start right after the end of carnival on Ash Wednesday and run until a bit after Easter Sunday. Soft on the inside and with a crusty outside layer. This traditional Maltese bread is decorated with almonds and with sesame seeds.

Sylvia, instead, talks to us about the different Easter desserts: “For Good Friday or for Randan (Lent) – those forty days before Easter Sunday – there are some special sweets. Before, people could not take sweets. So the only allowed sweets were karamelli, which are made out of carob, and the kwareżimal, which comes from quaresima (forty), because of the forty days of Lent.”

A chocolate-coated figolla

However, the king of desserts for Easter is undoubtedly the figolla, as Sylvia explains to us. “As a traditional sweet for Easter, in Malta we have the figolla. It is a sweet pastry filled with pure almonds. It’s very good. It has different shapes and sizes. And they cover it with icing sugar. Generally, it’s white, and then you have coloured icing sugar.” However, lately Easter eggs have also become very popular.

Easter, Pascha, and Pesach: inclusive perspectives for April 2022

This month of April brings together different religious traditions and celebrations. It can be a great opportunity to show openness and inclusion toward all types of diversities. After all, inclusion is about engaging in a dialogue of mutual discovery and recognition.

There are many ways we can create a more inclusive environment. Something as simple as asking your colleagues or friends what they celebrate and including the different dates in your calendar can go a long way toward making everyone feel welcome and appreciated. This way, you can then mention festivities such as Easter or Pesach at work. You could also engage in discussion with colleagues about each person’s different traditions. Or you can invite colleagues and friends to participate and share some activities with the rest of the team.

Even simply incorporating little gestures of acknowledgment towards any special celebration that a colleague might be honoring can have a great impact. Be mindful when you offer others food or drinks. Ask them if there are any products that they can’t eat due to their religious traditions. For example, Jewish people don’t eat leavened products during Pesach. It’s okay to not know about this. No one has to be knowledgeable about everything. But asking is always a good practice and it can be easily done.

Inclusion, openness, and mutual understanding

Inclusion is not about eliminating all differences between people and traditions. On the contrary, it is about creating the conditions for people to show their true and wholesome selves in an open and welcoming way.

During these special occasions that are occurring this April, we have an opportunity to create a sense of belonging and mutual understanding.

For Kirsten, Easter brings “a sense of calmness, understanding, of wider perspectives and reflection on life.” Most people – both religious and non-religious – have felt or sought similar feelings. We might express ourselves and our culture through different traditions. Yet we often all share or at least understand the underlaying values and emotions.

Sign on the wall of the Parish Curch of Stella Maris in Sliema, Malta. Maltese is a Semitic language so the Maltese word for God is “Alla”

We’ll leave you with this video by Nuseir Yassin, aka Nas Daily. The video was shoot while he was in Malta and discovered something very important. We think you’ll enjoy it!

Here you’ll find the original video posted by Nas Daily

Easter, as much as Pascha, Pesach or Ramadan represents a great moment of dialogue. It is a chance to learn about our mutual cultures and share values of respect, inclusion, diversity and religion.