Saturday, April 7, 2012

Why Is This Weekend Different from All Other Weekends

This weekend marks a unique event as Bettertonians and their families and friends gather to celebrate Passover or Easter or both.  When you think about these two holidays and what they symbolize one might think that they should always occur together.  However, at the Passover seder the youngest person always asks, Why is this night different from all other nights? So you might ask why is this weekend different from all other weekends?

Passover represents the Exodus of Jews from years of torture and slavery in Egypt and Easter celebrates the resurrection. The common thread is that Passover begins with a Seder which is what Christians know as the Last Supper, hence they should always be aligned.  However, as one might expect there is always a hook and that is today most western nations use the Gregorian calendar, which is a solar calendar. It is called the Gregorian calendar because it was established in 1582 by Pope Gregory VIII. The Jewish calendar is based on both solar and lunar movements. Since the Jewish day begins and ends at sunset, the holidays begin at sundown on the evening of the previous day. For this reason these two holidays are often several weeks apart.  So this weekend is truly unique in that all the stars are aligned and these different calendars are bringing both celebrations together as well as some magnificent weather.

Regardless of which holiday you celebrate, the B-blogger and staff wish you the happiest of Easters and a Zissen Pesach (Happy Passover).  Additionally because of this weekend's uniqueness, we thought we would offer up some wonderful and unique floral arrangements courtesy of the Philadelphia Flower Show for your dining table.  Enjoy!