Did You Ever Wonder? ... about Pascha?

You probably have never wondered about Pascha, because likely you don't know what that is.  It has to do with the early church's practice of Lent and Easter, however, so this is a great time to give you some information about our history.

In its most simple definition, "Pasch" is a word for Easter that is still used in some parts of the Christian world.  It comes from the word "Pascha", which is what the Early Christians called the festival that would become Easter.  The word "Pascha" comes from a Hebrew word that means to dance or leap, as in joy.  As this was a joyful celebration, it was appropriately named.

In the early church, they would celebrate a Passover feast, except that they would hold it one week after the traditional Jewish observance.  Then they would spend a whole week celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, each day having some way of observing this source of joy.

The night before their Sunday celebration, they would stay up all night and wait for the morning.  In the early church, they believed that Jesus would actually return on the morning of Pascha.  They would celebrate communion in the morning, upon seeing that Christ had not returned. 

Food was a big part of this celebration, as meals would have been shared all throughout the week leading up and following.