Jewish holidays vs. liturgical calendar

[Elzabet]

I'm not sure where to put this but I think this is the right board.

I am observing a conversation on another message board about holidays. I don't really care to become involved except they keep saying that the feasts and fasts of the Liturgical calendar (specifically Christmas and Pascha) are man-made holidays, unlike the Biblical feasts (booths, tabernacles, chanukah, purim, etc.), and therefore might be okay, but not spiritually necessary or even pleasing to God. So, I'm adding my $0.02 for clarity about how they have been added to the Church calendar by the same men who developed the canon of Scripture. I get the reply about how those men were still sinful, and God the Holy Spirit only helped then canonize Scripture and then left them to their own human ways. Apparently the Holy Spirit took a nap for 1500 years until Martin Luther came along.

This is an old discussion that keeps coming up and I have removed myself from it because the authors of it continue to profess that the only way to be a "real Christian" is to basically become Jewish. Bringing up the Council at Jerusalem in Acts 15 and the epistle to the Galatians is always met with, "But that isn't what Paul meant because he was teaching them from the perspective of an observant and blameless [meaning 'Torah observant'] Jew" and that the only reason the Fathers came up with/made up a new calendar of holidays was to differentiate between Christians and Jews, based solely on anti-semitic feeling toward the Jews.

What is, from the Orthodox perspective, the history of when and how Christmas, Pascha, and other such holidays based on the life of Christ came into practice and were added to the Church Calendar instead of the Jewish holidays? Is there anyway to find this out?

Thank you

[Kosta]

The discussion you are refering to must be dominated by protestants who tend to be surface thinkers they cant scratch under that surface. First off Judaism does indeed have a liturgical calendar. There is something commemorated everyday of the year ,likewise when you pick up an Orthodox calendar, you see a saint(s) commeorated every day of the year.

Channukah is actually a secular holiday commemoratingthe defeat of the greek-syrians by the Maccabees. The 8day celebration commemorates the day the jews recaptured the temple and dedicated it back to the Service of the True God. When they restored the eternal light found on the altar (menorah) they only had oil for the light to burn for one day, yet miraculously the flame stayed lit for 8 days.

All religious holidays are of man and for man. Without them man would not be what he is, These holidays establish culture and customs.

[Peter Farrington]

If the Jewish calendar commemorates the shadows and types which were made know in the Old Testament, such as the Passover, how much more should we celebrate the realities?

If Christ is the true Passover then surely we should keep the feast of Pascha?

And if the Annunciation is the beginning of the Incarnation and of our Salvation should we not celebrate it?

And the birth of our Saviour? Should we not keep it with joy?

All of these things are rooted in Salvation history. They remind us that these were real things that happened in time, just as the Passover reminded the Jews that their freedom was a real event rooted in a particular time.

We are doing nothing more. To fail to keep the Christian feasts is to disconnect ourselves from Salvation history, and it is to live by the shadows of Salvation rather than in the light of what truly has happened in time.

We are not Passover people according to the Old Testament type, but we are Passover people according to the reality of what happened in Christ at the beginning of the Christian age.

[Herman Blaydoe]

only reason the Fathers came up with/made up a new calendar of holidays was to differentiate between Christians and Jews, based solely on anti-semitic feeling toward the Jews.

As Peter points out the ancient Jews were merely celebrating the anticipation of the feasts of the Church. In the Jewish Passover, the Jews participated in the prefigured Pascha. Our feasts are their feasts transformed and fulfilled. Through their participation in the "Jewish" feasts, they are active participants in Salvation History which connects them with us as one Israel, the continuing worshipping People of God.

I suspect the people expressing this line of reasoning are descendents of the Judiazers that St. John Chrysostom writes against and were indeed the major antagonists at the Council of Jerusalem. These people do not realize that they were decided against at that council and continue to argue their point. They were wrong then and they continue to be wrong now.

[Elzabet]

If the Jewish calendar commemorates the shadows and types which were made know in the Old Testament, such as the Passover, how much more should we celebrate the realities?

If Christ is the true Passover then surely we should keep the feast of Pascha?

And if the Annunciation is the beginning of the Incarnation and of our Salvation should we not celebrate it?

And the birth of our Saviour? Should we not keep it with joy?

All of these things are rooted in Salvation history. They remind us that these were real things that happened in time, just as the Passover reminded the Jews that their freedom was a real event rooted in a particular time.

We are doing nothing more. To fail to keep the Christian feasts is to disconnect ourselves from Salvation history, and it is to live by the shadows of Salvation rather than in the light of what truly has happened in time.

We are not Passover people according to the Old Testament type, but we are Passover people according to the reality of what happened in Christ at the beginning of the Christian age.

I hadn't even thought about that. The NT itself says that what went before were only types and shadows of the reality. Talk about having a "duh" moment.


I suspect the people expressing this line of reasoning are descendents of the Judiazers that St. John Chrysostom writes against and were indeed the major antagonists at the Council of Jerusalem. These people do not realize that they were decided against at that council and continue to argue their point. They were wrong then and they continue to be wrong now.

Dead on. Most of them are "Messianic" gentiles.

Thank you everyone.