The Truth... What is it?





The Christian Calendar

I am joyful to also include some of the holy days, periods, and festivals of the ancestors of Jesus of Nazareth, our spiritual ancestors, and our brothers and sisters who are Christian, "messianic" Jews. The Orthodox Church Christians (see The Church) use the old Julian calendar to set important event dates; others use the modern Gregorian calendar. Here is a web site with a timeline of the life of Jesus, HERE.

  • Sabbath: The Holy day. Every 7th day (Saturday) of each week (Shabbat) for the Jew and every 1st day of each week (Sunday...because Jesus resurrected on the 1st day& breathed the Holy Spirit onto the disciples to send them on ministry on the 1st day) for the Christian (HERE). A regularly set-aside day of rest and worship. (Exodus 20:8, Leviticus 23:2-4). 
  • New Year's Day: 1st of Jan...8 days after Jesus born: circumcision (covenant) and naming as Jesus (Luke 2:21).  
  • Epiphany Season: Eight days after Jesus was born (Jan. 2nd,  4 days before the epiphany), Jesus was circumcised according to Jewish custom. Modern circumcision in the USA is bloodless. But 2000 years ago, Jesus first shed blood as His human aspect when He was circumcised. Three decades later, He would shed blood as the Savior of mankind. By convention, epiphany  begins 12 days after Jesus was born (6 Jan. [hence the custom of the Twelve Days of Christmas]), to (1) celebrate the visit of the Magi...the first gentiles to recognize & worship Jesus, the Savior of mankind (Matthew 2:1) & to celebrate (2) the day of John's baptism (Luke 3:21-22) of Jesus as a young teenager on which day the miracle of Theophany (Theo-fania in Greek) or “the revelation of God” occurred..."this is what God is like...He will reveal what God is like. When Christ was baptized, the one and almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth, for the first time revealed Himself to mankind as Three Persons: (a) God the Father – by His voice; (b) God the Son – by His baptism in the river Jordan & God expressing pleasure in Jesus & calling Him His Son; and (c) the Holy Spirit – by descending on/into Him in the form of a dove. Following the Magi visit (with Herod desiring to kill any newly born "king"), Joseph & Mary took Jesus & fled to Egypt until Herod died.
  • Orthodox & Coptic Christmas: In Dec. 2002, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak declared Jan. 7th to be the Egyptian (Coptic) Christian's Christmas day, the Orthodox (Greek, Russian, "eastern") date. 
  • Transfiguration on the top of the mount: Transfiguration Sunday is the Sunday preceeding onset of Lent. Well into His 32nd year, He underwent the miracle of Transfiguration so that He would go through and endure the journey therefrom to the Cross in His 33rd year.  
  • Lent Season: The "feast" before the "fast". It is IMPORTANT that the focus be on (1) who (Jesus) and (2) why (died to pay the sin penalty for all mankind) & NOT just on what the church person is "giving up for Lent". Might the contemplation time also focus strongly on, "What can I do from here on to reflect Jesus better?...to promote the truth of Jesus better?" Beginning about 400 AD, the 40 (not counting Sundays...those Sundays are exempt from the fast) day period of penitence ending on the day of crucifixion. The 40 days is akin to the 40 days Jesus contemplatively spent in the wilderness prior to the onset of His ministry. "Lent" is a middle-English word meaning "springtime" or "growth"...sort of like springtime for our souls. It is a seriously reflective religious period of trying to put away the "flesh"...a time of contemplating sin in one's life. It is a period to especially say, "I'm sorry, Lord, so sorry that I have continued to sin against you!" Some fast at various times and others try to convert to more simple eating. In olden times, the meat, butter, and eggs were "used up" before Ash Wednesday & done without during Lent and often lead to a celebratory "last gulp" of "fat Tuesday" feasting: "Shrove Tuesday" (the word "shrove" is a past tense of the English verb "shrive," which means, by confessing and doing penance...shriving, to obtain absolution for one's sins. Other cultures call it Mardi Gras, Fasching, or Carnival (Latin for "farewell to meat"). Tuesday ends at midnight to begin that 40 day penance time, as the first day of Lent is "Ash Wednesday" ("from ashes you came and to ashes you shall return"...Genesis 3:19). Ash Wednesday is celebrated by some churches by making a mixture of oil and ashes from, say, the burned palm leaves from the previous year's Easter service or materials related to the Shrove Tuesday eating event. The pastor dips a finger into the mixture and draws a small ash cross on the forehead of the believer.
    In churches which observe the period of Lent, it is a season of individual and church-wide seriousness, soberness, and reflection of the upcoming remembrance of God's sacrifice of Jesus (& Jesus' willingness) on the cross that all have a way to eternal salvation. Believers often give up something for Lent as a penitential help to keep focused on the meaning of this incredible sacrifice. Especially when they fail, it is a reminder that we all need a Savior.
    Huge pagan festival perversions of gluttony & debauchery ( such as the Mardi Gras..."fat Tuesday"...of New Orleans and Carnival of Brazil) may lead up to the eve of Lent.

  • The Easter Season:
    • Easter week (Pascha for Orthodox): This week includes the last week of Lent...Holy Week (ending Sarurday night). "Easter"...the joyful celebration of the act that reconciled a sinful mankind to a Holy God. Old Testament prophecy had to be fulfilled in all detail; so, all "players" were part of that fulfillment, and none should be condemned. If anyone is "at fault" for the death of Jesus, it is mankind (which includes you & me). A quote, "Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay there." Neither the Romans, the Jews, or any other group or army could arrest Jesus and put him on the Cross...nor did the nails keep Him on the cross: it was His love for mankind and love of and obedience to His Father that took Him to the cross & held Him there (Matthew 26:53-54; John 19:11) The days:
      [date calculators & history]
      • Palm Sunday (Sunday of the Passion): The Sunday preceding Easter Sunday...in remembrance that Jesus entered Jerusalem on that day, on the back of a humble colt, the road strewn with palm leaves by joyous on-looking followers (John 12:12-19). He pauses at the Mount of Olives, views Jerusalem across the small Kidron valley and weeps. Between Sunday & Thursday, he otherwise went by foot back and forth to Bethany (the home of Lazarus, 2 miles from Jerusalem). 
      • Monday: Jesus returns to Jerusalem and the Temple and turns over the tables of the money changers for a second time. The powers that be are becoming more worried. Again, he went by foot back and forth to Bethany to the home of Lazarus, 2 miles from Jerusalem. 
      • Tuesday: Jesus returned to Jerusalem & back to the Temple. He is seriously confronted by tyhe religious authorities & outwits them. On the way back to the home of Lazarus in Bethany, 2 miles from Jerusalem, he stops for reflective time at the Mount of Olives. He lets his disciples know that, because of him, they will all die in due time. Judas wants no part of this. 
      • Wednesday: Jesus uses this day to rest at the home of Lazarus in Bethany 2 miles from Jerusalem. They eat supper at the home of Simon the leper. Judas Iscariot makes his decision and rebels openly when Lazarus' sister, Mary, annointed the head of Jesus with the very expensive perfume, nard. Jesus rebukes Judas, and Judas leaves & goes to the home of the high priest, Caiaphas to cut a deal to betray Jesus. Then he returns to Lazarus' home for the remainder of the night.  
      • Maundy Thursday: Commandment (the Latin is "maundy") Thursday (John 13:34 = a new commandment about loving one another as Jesus has loved them)...in memory of "The Last Supper" (the 1st Lord's Supper of the church) which occurred the evening prior to the crucifixion of Jesus (Luke 22:14-23)...during which He did foot washing (John 13:1-17)...and with much discourse (the 5 chapters, John13-17). The meal was in the lower city on the second floor of a building near the Pool of Siloam. Near meal's end, Jesus lets Judas know that he knows that Judas is bent on betrayal; Judas leaves. They leave this area and Jerusalem and stop at the Mount of Olives. Jesus prays some three times in the Garden of Gethsemane, the last time even undergoing an intense anxiety reaction of sweating blood (hematihidrosis). And he was arrested there late that night (John 18:12) and taken during the night to Caiaphas (the 2 chapters, John 18-19).
      • Good Friday: this designation is likely from the old English "Godes Friday" ("God's Friday...in much the same way that the saying, "goodbye" is a contraction of the old term, "God be with you". Just past midnight, very early into Friday, a pack of Temple guards is lead by Judas to confront and capture Jesus. It is the day of the reconciliation-price payment...Friday. That day (John 18:28), He was brought before the Roman leader Pilate...flogged (John 19:1)...at "the 6th hour" (11-12AM). He was sentenced to be crucified (John 19:4-16)... the day on which "The Lamb of God's" blood was spilt (John 19:34) during His (Jesus') crucifixion. He died about the "9th hour"...2-3PM (Matthew 27:45-50).  Death on the cross occurred on the 14th day of Nissan, the day of the Feast of Passover...exactly parallel to the lamb blood which had to be painted over the door of the Israelites in Egypt the evening prior to the Exodus of the Jews...their rescue, their deliverance, their salvation...from Egypt, protected by "the blood". In the greatest love blessing ever on mankind, God willed that the blood of Jesus was spilt for the "good" (the atonement and salvation) of mankind. A Good Friday (or Saturday) Tenebrae service symbolizes the darkness that fell (Luke 23:44-45) on the face of the earth while the Son (Sun) of justice was hung upon the cross, and it is a darkening of the church sanctuary toward the end of that particular church service [tenebrae = Latin word for "shadows"]. 
      • Passover: Christians tend to casually think(incorrectly) that Passover is the Friday of the Christian week leading up to Easter Sunday. In that inaccuracy, Passover (Pesach) Day...begins at dusk on Friday and ends at sundown of Shabbat, and that Shabbat begins the week-long Feast or Festival of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:4-8) in memory of the Egyptian Passover (Exodus 12:1-30) resulting in the Israelite race-saving exodus from Egypt and the unleavened bread they ate that evening (Exodus 12:14-20). The feast began on the 15th day of Nissan, the day after Jesus on Calvary. The feast is otherwise also known as Spring Festival and Festival of the Paschal Lamb. Any dead must be buried or in the tomb by sundown. They didnot have enough time to apply the burial preservative spices to Jesus before they put Him in the tomb. 
      • Holy Saturday: the day after Good Friday and the first day of 7 days of Jewish Feast of Unleavened Bread. 
      • Easter Sunday: the first day of the week (Sunday) following the Passover Friday, the day of the resurrection of Jesus...as the first fruit of the resurrection...from death in the tomb (John 20). It is the 1st Sunday following the ecclesiastical full moon which occurs on or next after March 21st. That Sunday of the weekend of the death of Jesus, the Jewish Feast of First Fruits started (was on the 16th day of Nissan...the very day Jesus arose)! Official Jewish Passover is based on the Jewish calendar, a lunar calendar that has twelve 28-day months. Every two or three years, there is a thirteenth month called Adar II included in the calendar. Over the course of a 19-year cycle, this "extra" month occurs in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years. The year 2008 was one of those years with an extra month. Passover occurs from the 15th to the 21st of the month of Nisan - which is the month right after the "extra" month of Adar II. The inclusion of the "extra" month in the lunar calendar thus caused Jewish Passover to fall nearly 30 days after Easter in 2008. [ Easter dating, military site] 
        • Sunday dawn empty tomb: As the women came with the burial preservative spices, Mary Magdelene, a woman, (then Peter & John) was the first to find that Jesus was "gone". And Jesus spoke/appeared (John 20:1-18) to her there! The word of a woman had absolutely no standing or value legally in those days. The killing of Jesus was a HUGE political calculation and event. If anything were to be fabricated by the "Jesus believers" as a narrative to make Him appear to be Divine, such plotters would NEVER have used a woman to declare Jesus missing. And, the Roman government...with the Jewish leaders...would have NEVER let a lapse happen so that the body could be stolen to fabricate a lie. Of the disciples, Peter ran to the tomb to verify the story (Luke 24:12).
        • Sunday afternoon on Road to Emmaus: after going through all of scripture concerning the prophecy of Himself and breaking bread with the two men, their eyes were opened so that they could realize that He was Jesus & Jesus vanished (Luke 24:13-35).
        • Sunday night: the two immediately return to Jerusalem & tell the event to the 11; Jesus appears to them (John 20:19-21) and "breathed" the Holy Spirit into those apostles/disciples (a larger group?) in His farewell discourse.
      • A week later: Jesus appears to "doubting" Thomas (John 20:24-29).
    • Next Sunday after Easter: some call it  "Doubting Thomas Sunday". Thomas would not believe the resurrection until he put his hand into Jesus' side. John ends that chapter by declaring that Jesus is the Messiah...the Christ (John 20:24-31). 
    • The Annunciation, March 25th: If Jesus was born December 25th, then the angel Gabriel would have announced Jesus' pending birth to Mary on about this date 9 months prior to 12/25. 
    • Ascension Day: celebrates...40 days after Easter Sunday...the day, after having appeared resurrected to the disciples (and over 500 other witnesses), the disciples witnessed Jesus' ascension up into the clouds/sky (Luke 24:51; Acts 1:3) back to Heaven. Whitsunday is the Sunday following.
  • JEWISH Passover: this true Passover begins at dusk on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, which typically falls in March or April of the Gregorian calendar. Passover is a spring festival, so the 15th day of Nisan typically begins on the night of a full moon after the northern vernal equinox.  
  • Pentecost: Pentecost is originally from the great festival of the grain harvest (Shavout)...the day of the Feast of Harvest...at the end of the 7 weeks following Passover Friday. For the Jews, this seven week period is the Feast of Weeks, in celebration of the giving of The Law by God to Moses at Mt. Sinai. For the Christian, Pentecost (Greek, "50th day") refers to the particular Pentecost festival 50 days following Passover & subsequently also to the resurrection of Jesus, at which time the Holy Spirit began the process of personally being available for the coming to, and indwelling (spiritually baptizing into being fully saved) of, each believer (Acts 2:1-4). Now The Trinitarian God is available to all who would truely believe Jesus. This began the "Church Age". The Spirit came to the about 120 disciples that day & birthed the Church Universal. Now, we celebrate Pentecost Sunday as the seventh Sunday following Easter Sunday; some Christian churches refer to that celebration Sunday as Whitsunday.  
  • Trinity Season: also called the Pentecost Season. Goes for months from Pentecost to Advent and intends plenty of time for study and contemplation on The Trinity: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. It includes Reformation Day, 31 October and All Saints Day, November 1st.  
  • Rosh Hashanah: is the Jewish New Year and the start of their Ten Days of Penitence.  
  • Feast of Trumpets: is on the first day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar and originally was a special day of rest (Leviticus 23:23-25). It currently remembers the prophecy of the re-gathering of the Jews in their promised land which began in 1948 after their scattering in 70 AD.  
  • Yom Kippur: is the sacred Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:26-32) on the 10th day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar.  
  • Feast of Tabernacles: the Sukkot is for 7 days, beginning on the 15th day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar, in memory of the type of dwellings they used during the 40 years in the wilderness upon their exodus from Egyptian slavery (Leviticus 23:33-36).  
  • All Saints Sunday: the Sunday immediately following the first day of November, the first day of November being All Saints Day, HERE.  
  • Thanksgiving Sunday: the Sunday immediately following USA Thanksgiving Day, the 4th Thursday in November.  
  • Christ the King Sunday: this is the last Sunday of the Trinity or Pentecost Season & the Sunday just before the first Sunday of Advent. Since it is the day for proclamation of Jesus as our King, one would think that it would rank with Christmas & Easter.  
  • Advent Season: Advent ("the coming") begins with the 4th Sunday prior to Christmas Day; a joyful period of anticipation of the coming birth of Jesus. Advent is a season of gifts and new things and somewhat opposite of the humbling-down of the Lent Season.  
  • Christmas Day: The day of celebrating and honoring the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ (the long-awaited Messiah...divinity cloaked in humanity)...by convention, 25 December.That date was chosen during the reign of Roman emperor Constantine. As he made Christianity the religion of the empire, the anual conclusion of of an orgiastic pagan holiday time known as Saturnalia was on that date. Christanity was predominantly under catholicism. As the lascivious ways of those times was set aside, Dec. 25th was made the date of "Christ's Mass", the day of commemoration of the birth of the Savior of mankind. But, based on the discription of "shepherd's abiding in their fields" and the star over Bethlehem (Researchers have found Chinese wrirings indicating a star in the west [looking west from China] that was present 70 days in what would have been March of 5 B. C. if scholars have a fully correct means of translating dates from culture to culture over the past 3000 years...AND, check THIS explanation), the actual date of birth of Jesus may have been in the spring time.

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[posted 20 February 1999; latest addition/modification 1 March 2017)