All the talk is that today is already Good Friday, and how early the Easter season has come this year. And it is true, and it isn't that it 'snuck up on us' this year. It's just that it did come earlier than it usually does, and here's why: it is put on the schedule the first full moon after the first day of spring. I think that's how it works, anyway.
Basically, it has to do with the Passover, which of course is when the Bible tells us Jesus was crucified shortly after. That has to do with the Jewish calendar, which of course is related to the lunar calendar.
The obvious thing to do would be to put Easter each year whenever there is a Passover, right? Jesus said he came fulfill the law, Matthew 5:17. Which ties the whole symbolism of Passover and the crucifixion together, of course. The sacrifice, the blood, the judgment passing over... it's all there, so the obvious thing is, why not just make it Easter whenever there's a Passover? It's always in the Spring, right? Plus, those dates are pretty similar to where we'll find Easter nowadays anyway.
But for some reason we don't do that. So now we have these two 'floating' holy days that fluctuate from year to year with where they'll fall on the calendar.
A little research just told me that Easter won't visit us in March for a few more years. I think the next time it shows up in March, Madison will be 17 years old - in 2024. And the next time Easter shows up any earlier than today would be in 2035. She'll be 28 then.
So there's a quick lesson on why Easter falls on the seemingly random date that it does each year. I actually learned something there, so it wasn't a complete waste of time!
Today Madison was at school with her Easter bag, the one that says "HAPPY EASTER" on it? Fortunately, schools haven't banned that word completely yet. Anyway, the kids were out collecting eggs today. We donated a few earlier in the week, and donated some money and candy as well. She had a great time at school today.
Meanwhile, Mommy and Daddy got to go to a church service today. It is Good Friday, and we had a special service at the church at noon. It's a yearly tradition now, and it's a good one. Today we actually saw a lot of people able to get off of work or whatever in order to attend. The place had lots of people. It was a good message, following some really good worship. We were glad to be able to go today.
Madison got home, and we've been preparing for Easter a bit at the house. The family is coming over on Sunday, which means what to do for food, and for eggs. The food part is all Mommy, and a bit of Aunt Shain as well - she still has some Honey Baked Ham gift cards from Christmas, so there's our Easter feast. The egg hunt might be a little challenging though, as it is supposed to rain. The boys are older, Madison's cousins, so Daddy tries to make it interesting for them as possible. One year, it was a cell phone code that they had to scan at each egg location, and the year before that there were clues and puzzles to solve to reveal the next location. With the rain this year, Daddy thought about doing it all on Disney Infinity. Yes, there are literal Easter eggs within the game that you can collect. We went out and bought the boys a few new figures (Hulkbuster Iron Man and Ultron), and Daddy is going to make a virtual Easter Egg Hunt. It'll take a lot of work, but it should be fun.
As for Madison, we may have to do the egg hunt inside. We may go in the direction of making clues - we don't know yet. Maybe it won't rain, or at least it will hold off long enough for her to have some fun. We'll just have to take it as it comes.
Tonight we had movie time, and because Madison has been watching "Ultimate Spider-Man" so much lately, we decided to watch that first "Spider-Man" movie again, the one that Sam Raimi directed. Madison saw this for the first time tonight, and enjoyed it. We were nervous about the Goblin a bit, but she is okay with it all. She likes the Ultimate Spider-Man better, because he's funnier. And that's the only thing most folks seem to have against this original movie - Tobey Maguire is not as fast-talking as his comic book counterpart. But in every other way, this movie is far superior to the last two "Spider-Man" movies.
That may be a bit of sentiment coming through also. That original movie came at a time when superhero movies weren't as well-established. Nobody knew if they could do a Spider-Man movie right. And the world needed a hero desperately. 2001 was an awful year, and the following summer, there was Spider-Man, hanging off that American flag on a New York skyscraper. It was just what we needed. But even further than that, Peter Parker in that movie is so much what Daddy used to be like, and in many ways, still is. It was a really relatable movie in that respect. Obviously, Daddy doesn't have spider-like powers. Honestly, I'm not sure what I'd make of that, because if there's one thing I'm not fond of, it's spiders. Snakes I can deal with. Spiders just creep me out!
Anyway, we did watch the movie tonight, and Daddy did some work afterwards, finishing up our "Roughin' It" skit for Sunday. It should be really funny, actually. I was laughing as I typed it up!
We all went to bed at a reasonable hour tonight, and even better, we get to sleep in tomorrow. It's going to be a great Easter Weekend, no matter how early it came this year!
Basically, it has to do with the Passover, which of course is when the Bible tells us Jesus was crucified shortly after. That has to do with the Jewish calendar, which of course is related to the lunar calendar.
The obvious thing to do would be to put Easter each year whenever there is a Passover, right? Jesus said he came fulfill the law, Matthew 5:17. Which ties the whole symbolism of Passover and the crucifixion together, of course. The sacrifice, the blood, the judgment passing over... it's all there, so the obvious thing is, why not just make it Easter whenever there's a Passover? It's always in the Spring, right? Plus, those dates are pretty similar to where we'll find Easter nowadays anyway.
But for some reason we don't do that. So now we have these two 'floating' holy days that fluctuate from year to year with where they'll fall on the calendar.
A little research just told me that Easter won't visit us in March for a few more years. I think the next time it shows up in March, Madison will be 17 years old - in 2024. And the next time Easter shows up any earlier than today would be in 2035. She'll be 28 then.
So there's a quick lesson on why Easter falls on the seemingly random date that it does each year. I actually learned something there, so it wasn't a complete waste of time!
Today Madison was at school with her Easter bag, the one that says "HAPPY EASTER" on it? Fortunately, schools haven't banned that word completely yet. Anyway, the kids were out collecting eggs today. We donated a few earlier in the week, and donated some money and candy as well. She had a great time at school today.
Meanwhile, Mommy and Daddy got to go to a church service today. It is Good Friday, and we had a special service at the church at noon. It's a yearly tradition now, and it's a good one. Today we actually saw a lot of people able to get off of work or whatever in order to attend. The place had lots of people. It was a good message, following some really good worship. We were glad to be able to go today.
Madison got home, and we've been preparing for Easter a bit at the house. The family is coming over on Sunday, which means what to do for food, and for eggs. The food part is all Mommy, and a bit of Aunt Shain as well - she still has some Honey Baked Ham gift cards from Christmas, so there's our Easter feast. The egg hunt might be a little challenging though, as it is supposed to rain. The boys are older, Madison's cousins, so Daddy tries to make it interesting for them as possible. One year, it was a cell phone code that they had to scan at each egg location, and the year before that there were clues and puzzles to solve to reveal the next location. With the rain this year, Daddy thought about doing it all on Disney Infinity. Yes, there are literal Easter eggs within the game that you can collect. We went out and bought the boys a few new figures (Hulkbuster Iron Man and Ultron), and Daddy is going to make a virtual Easter Egg Hunt. It'll take a lot of work, but it should be fun.
As for Madison, we may have to do the egg hunt inside. We may go in the direction of making clues - we don't know yet. Maybe it won't rain, or at least it will hold off long enough for her to have some fun. We'll just have to take it as it comes.
Tonight we had movie time, and because Madison has been watching "Ultimate Spider-Man" so much lately, we decided to watch that first "Spider-Man" movie again, the one that Sam Raimi directed. Madison saw this for the first time tonight, and enjoyed it. We were nervous about the Goblin a bit, but she is okay with it all. She likes the Ultimate Spider-Man better, because he's funnier. And that's the only thing most folks seem to have against this original movie - Tobey Maguire is not as fast-talking as his comic book counterpart. But in every other way, this movie is far superior to the last two "Spider-Man" movies.
That may be a bit of sentiment coming through also. That original movie came at a time when superhero movies weren't as well-established. Nobody knew if they could do a Spider-Man movie right. And the world needed a hero desperately. 2001 was an awful year, and the following summer, there was Spider-Man, hanging off that American flag on a New York skyscraper. It was just what we needed. But even further than that, Peter Parker in that movie is so much what Daddy used to be like, and in many ways, still is. It was a really relatable movie in that respect. Obviously, Daddy doesn't have spider-like powers. Honestly, I'm not sure what I'd make of that, because if there's one thing I'm not fond of, it's spiders. Snakes I can deal with. Spiders just creep me out!
Anyway, we did watch the movie tonight, and Daddy did some work afterwards, finishing up our "Roughin' It" skit for Sunday. It should be really funny, actually. I was laughing as I typed it up!
We all went to bed at a reasonable hour tonight, and even better, we get to sleep in tomorrow. It's going to be a great Easter Weekend, no matter how early it came this year!
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