New Year in the Spring?
In this passage, we see that the season of Passover is also a new year celebration for the Hebrew people. “New year in the spring?” you may ask: we celebrate our new year in January, and as far as most people know, Jewish new year is around the Autumn Equinox on their lunar calendar, beginning with Rosh Hashanah. And yet, many ancient people celebrated their new year at the Spring Equinox. Persian new year, for example, occurs on the Spring Equinox, which is called “Nowruz” in Farsi. For Passover, it is more complicated: it follows the Jewish lunar calendar, so it can vary on exact dates every year relative to our calendar. The month and date is always the same on the Jewish calendar: the month of Nisan, which begins like all Jewish calendar months, on the visible new moon, and Passover occurs on the 14th of Nisan, which is the full moon. This makes Passover a full moon festival. Easter, which is the Passover of the Christians, is calculated in a similar fashion: Easter occurs on the Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. This is why there can be such a variation of dates of Easter each year, from sometime after March 20th, to a whole month later on April 20th, as it is in 2025.
What does it mean if we view Easter as our own new year? Christ is Risen on Easter Sunday, and this has a certain quality of a new year for the Church. As is said in the classical liturgical language: “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore, let us keep the feast.” Let us therefore celebrate the new year in the life of the Church by participating in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, who gives us life and gives it abundantly.
God of the new year, Who raises Christ to life anew and so permits us to new life, make us new beings that we may participate fully with You in your Creation, and with one-another in community. In Christ, the I AM, Amen.
Cole Sadler