The most important Christian holiday was Easter, the Resurrection of Christ. The prototype of Christian Easter was Jewish Passover, or rather, Jewish Passover, from which the Christian holiday inherited its name.
Easter is a Greek pronunciation, in this form the word came into Russian from Byzantium. In Hebrew, the name of the holiday is pronounced somewhat differently - Passover, or Passover, which means "outcome."
The holiday is dedicated to the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, where they were in slavery. In Christianity, the meaning was rethought: the outcome of the sinful slavery that made the Savior's victory over death possible.
Passover Date
Passover Day, like all Jewish holidays, is calculated according to the Jewish calendar, which is officially used in Israel along with the Gregorian. The holiday is celebrated on the 15th day of the month of Nisan.
The Jewish calendar is associated both with the movement of the sun and with the phases of the moon, therefore it does not coincide with the solar Gregorian, and the holiday date is "wandering" relative to the last.
The beginning of each month in the Hebrew calendar falls on the new moon, and the middle on the full moon. But the position of the sun is also taken into account, so the beginning of each month falls on the same season.
The Nisan month, in which the Passover is celebrated, begins on the new moon, which follows the vernal equinox, i.e. for March 20. After counting 14 days from this date, they receive the date of Jewish Passover. In 2014, the holiday was celebrated on April 15th.
