Passover and Easter couldn’t be more different from each other in the foods, rituals, and traditions that surround each holiday. But, surprisingly, the seasonal overlap between these two holidays is no accident. Unlike the overlap between Hanukkah and Christmas, which is basically a seasonal coincidence, Passover and Easter are intimately linked. Here are some little-known connections between Passover and Easter that will change the way you look at both of these holidays.

1. The events that Easter celebrates took place in Israel during Passover.

The written accounts of Jesus’ life—known as the gospels—record that the events of the last week of his life all took place in connection with Passover. He came to Jerusalem that week in response to the command in the Torah to appear at the Temple in Jerusalem for the feast and celebrated Passover with his closest friends.¹

The next day, as the Passover week continued, Jesus died. On the third day of Passover week, the eyewitness accounts from his followers claim that Jesus rose from the dead. This miraculous resurrection is what has been celebrated for over two thousand years by Christians as the holiday of Easter.

2. Passover is mentioned 28 times in the New Testament.

It wasn’t just Jesus who celebrated Passover; it was all his early followers as well. Paul, one of the first rabbinic scholars to become a follower of Jesus, taught extensively on the significance of Passover, referring to Jesus as “our Passover Lamb,” and drawing out the connection between Jesus’ death and the sacrifice of the perfect, spotless Passover lambs each year (1 Corinthians 5:7–8).

Easter wasn’t a thing yet, but Jesus’ followers did celebrate his resurrection each Sunday because he rose on the first day of the week (Luke 24:1–7). And that tradition continues in the church today.

3. There is a surprising “lamb connection” between the Jewish Passover and the Christian Easter.

In Sephardic Jewish tradition, the afikomen—a fragment of the middle matzah—is understood to represent the Passover lamb. Before eating the afikomen, all participants are required to say, “In remembrance of the lamb.” This is very much like what Jesus said when he held up a piece of unleavened matzah the night before his death and said, “This is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).

As the Jewish writers of the New Testament later elaborated, Jesus identified himself with the sacrificial lamb of Passover. This explains why lamb is often a traditional menu item at Easter. Also, using bread this way to remember him is still performed by followers of Jesus across the globe in what is typically known in Christianity as the communion service. Many church liturgies today even reference Passover directly every time this celebration is observed.

To see seven more links between Passover and Easter, visit “10 Crazy Links Between Passover and Easter.”

 

Endnotes

1. Joseph Klausner, Jesus of Nazareth: His Life, Times, and Teaching, Herbert Danby (New York: Macmillan, 1925), 328–330.