Comments 9
Good Easter :)
復活祭おめでとう！
I've always disliked the term "Easter" but not heard any other short and sweet alternative names for it. "ふっかつさい" is actually pretty decent. :)
You could call it ペシャア in the Jewish manner :D (pesaḥ פסח... unfortunately the ḥ sound isn't easy to make into katakana :D)- (Hebrew, not Jewish... my bad. In Italian we say it in the same way)
Easter is not the same thing as Pesach or Passover. Just thought I should pipe up on that. They're from 2 different religions. They may occasionally fall on the calendar at the same time, though. In Judaism, we use a Lunar calendar, so every year it'll be 'different' on the regular calendar. (Exact same on our calendar.) @DS25, you were right, Pesach is in Hebrew, but the people who celebrate it are Jews. I'm one of them.- Hebrew and Jewish is the same word in Italian? Interesting.
For Japanese, the dictionary lists these terms for Pesach/Passover:
ペサハ
パスオーバー
過越 (すぎこし)
Back to English though, some people I know have no issue with using the terms "Passover" or "Pesach" to refer to Resurrection Sunday (Easter). In many ways I agree with still calling it Passover, even if the term is only being used to refer to Jesus' resurrection rather than the original Passover of Moses' time.
The main problem I have with using the word "Passover" for Easter is that it doesn't seem the most logical naming choice to describe the event, whereas it described the event in Moses' day perfectly. It also causes confusion as to which of the two events you are talking about... although it is good that the connection between the two events is obvious too. I just think the term used should in some way at least refer to the meaning "resurrection" (but using less syllables). - Hebrew and Jewish shouldn't be the same in Italian. One's a language, and one's a people. I don't personally know Italian, though. Ummm...For Jews it's close to insult to say Passover and Easter are the same. I know that Christians have a 'seder' at some point. But, it's not the same to what we have. Passover lasts for 8 days. It's a holiday about being freed from Egypt. Focusing on freedom, and to remember we were once slaves. Has absolutely nothing to do with Jesus. Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus. It's in a totally different religion. We're not the same.
- @anzuI know: i teach catholic religion and history of religions at university ^^
As for the "offensiveness" of associating the terms, remember that we share a common origin. I have the maximum respect, as a catholic, for jewish religion. It wasn't my intention to associate the two events in any other way than lexically.
And yes, in italian "ebreo" is used for everything. We don't really use "giudeo" (which is "jew").
@mog: actually the term refers to resurrection as 復活 is "revive, resurrect". It doesn't really have big philological depth as the term we use, but I've noticed that it's true for many things related to christianity in Japan. - Yeah, it was mostly towards mog. We may share a common origin, but the religions are still quite different. I mean Christianity, Catholicism, and all it's other branches are based on Jesus. He's the central figure. We don't have that, and that alone makes a big difference. I can't remember who it was, but someone made a bunch of reforms to Christianity as a whole to make it as far removed from Judaism as possible. It verges on hilarity to me when people say they are the same, and are just 'branches' of the same tree. That we're the older one so we're 'archaic'. We've changed a lot over the years too. With all that being said, I do have a lot of friends who are Christians, and hope they can celebrate their holidays happily, too. :D
