Why is there more emphasis on Christmas compared to Easter?

Easter is mostly ham & eggs.

But with Christmas you get infinite food, and alcohol, PLUS PRESENTS!!

What could be better proof that Jesus loves us, and wants everyone to be overserved?

Amen.

Easter is supposed to be the most holy Christian holiday.

I think Christmas is a “bigger” holiday for many because of the gift giving, which, due to commercialism, has blown it up for many people. Plus, combined with Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, has become like a month and a half of “holiday season.” Lent is also a long holiday season, but I think it’s the long holiday season combined with the gift giving which makes Christmas bigger for most people.

Retailers made it that way. MUCH more money to be made at Christmas than at Easter.

Easter is more important. Christmas seems bigger, because even non Christians participate.

•  Christmas is more fun.
•  It supports a happy event (birth) and not one of mourning (death).
•  The decorations are better.
•  The music is more relatable and singable.
•  It supports a gift-giving tradition that predates commercialization.
•  People of many cultures can relate to it—a winter-solstice celebration of lights and music and feasting—much more than the very peculiar tradition of commemorating the crucifixion of the founder.
•  It does a much better job of incorporating older traditions—Saturnalia, solstice—than Easter (fertility symbols: eggs and rabbits). Less awkward.
•  It goes better with food and drink.

Growing up in a faithful churchgoing family, I saw much effort expended in the church community to emphasize Easter, with its big themes of repentance and redemption. That was just never going to win out over the lights and sparkles and ho-ho-ho and the thrill of presents under the tree. Basket-bearing bunnies just can’t compete with a jolly big guy in a red suit with a sleigh full of toys.

In the spring we have an adorable, magical baby in a manger of straw, with animals and wizards in attendance. A few months later, he’s grown up, and now he’s in a loincloth, bruised and stabbed, hanging by his hands, begging for relief. That’s the clear image we see, and it overshadows an empty tomb. For popularity, there’s no contest.

The theology of it might be equally profound, or more so, but that’s not what ordinary people see..

^^ Sorry, I meant to say “in December,” not “in the spring,” although it’s been argued that the birth of Jesus did actually take place in the spring. Easy to see why those dates should be well separated.

Also, the second bullet should say “commemorates,” not “supports.” I was interrupted before I finished checking. So it goes.

The end of the year means time off work.

I am a Christian. I do not know the answer, but I can speculate.

Christmas is the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promise.

Good Friday is the fulfillment.

Easter is proof of the glory and power of God.

For my money, Good Friday is the most important day, but it is a day to remember the torture and physical death of Christ.

Easter is a joyful celebration of God’s word fully realized.

It is rather simple:
On Christmas, the pagan decorations are rather more impressive, especially with the obnoxious out-door lighting that is mandated by society in the darker days.
Plus, of course: Presents. Lots of presents. Toys. A fat old wizard in red. Krampus. Elves. All those centuries old Christmas songs. Snow. While the outside is blanketed with snow, and strangled by the freezing cold, the whole family, from the smallest babe to the oldest of hags, all huddled around the fireplace, bloated by the Christmas Carp, and shitfaced after emptying a cauldron of Glühwein.

What does Easter have?
An egg-laying rabbit that leaves painted eggs hidden in your shrubbery and chocolate eggs/rabbits.
That is all it has.
Can not even have a Judy Hopps themed rabbit roast, because that would make the snowflake children cry.

I always figured it is because Christmas is in the depths of winter in the northern hemisphere, and people need something happy and bright to cheer them up from the darkness.

Easter is in the middle of Spring and things are already more cheerful.

Prefacing this with the fact that I’m not religious.

But doesn’t one denomination place more emphasis on Jesus than another? (Or at least that was how it was explained to me years and years ago.) That would vary the weight that is placed on Easter.

Versus Christmas being the birth of Jesus. A fulfillment of a promise from God to give us his only son. Which has a more universal emphasis across all Christian denominations.

Then throw in your pagan holidays and a good dose of commercialism and you’re golden.

We need Christmas more as it lights up the darkest days of winter. We enjoy the Christmas lights, renew our family ties and enjoy each other’s company with the added excitement of the presents piled up at the foot of the tree. If the weather outside is foul then so much the better, for this one night at least.

Easter was always higher and more celebrated in my house growing up.

To this day Easter still means more to me thn Christmas.

It did to me too @Foreverfree.

GA’s for everyone.

I understood there is so much commercialism around Christmas that it makes Christmas seem bigger, especially for me, but your answers gave me more insight into things I didn’t think about. Like cold weather in the northern hemisphere, and the holiday season, which all makes sense to me.

Plus, the answers given by jellies who are very religious were very interesting, especially regarding Good Friday.

As I was reading I started to wonder if it has changed over the years.

Jewish holidays have changed for me since childhood. When I was little they weren’t big celebrations with an emphasis on big fun like I think of Christmas.

Now, Chanukah is an excuse to dance and have a party and give gifts, but not a huge gift giving event like Christmas. There are many more Chanukah decorations around town and on houses than when I was little. I used to think it was sad to see so much commercialization of the Christian holidays, but I’ve changed my mind about that, and I’m ok with it for Chanukah too. Some things are overboard, but overall I like it. I always loved the decorations, but the push for gift giving made me uncomfortable.

I’m in a Jewish Passover Recipe Facebook group and the women for the past month have been trading recipes (some post their great grandmother’s recipes in the original handwriting) and people ask questions where to buy ingredients. Most people are American, but many people are on other continents too. It’s nice. I wondered if that happens during the Christian holidays also, and if it’s more on one holiday than another? Special groups for the food for each holiday.

Passover is the big one for food in Judaism from my point of view. Passover is the holiday that I think of most from childhood and doing something to celebrate. My guess is most people who aren’t Jewish think it would be Chanukah. I don’t know what other Jewish people think. Also, my generation might be different than someone 30 years younger than me.

Yom Kippur is the highest holy day, and the emphasis is on asking for forgiveness from those we have hurt and from God and remembering and honoring those we have lost, and being pensive about life. The Yom Kippur holiday hasn’t really gone by the way of commercialization. I’m glad it hasn’t. I guess maybe that’s like Lent or Good Friday?

As a gentile, I thought Passover was the biggest holiday. But have since been corrected that it’s Yom Kippur.

Though agree that most people probably think it’s Hanukkah. Just happened to have a lot of Jewish friends. And college roommate too.

Was always stoked when we’d get an invite over for the holidays. Latkas were bomb! :D

@raum You can have latkes every day. Lol.

@JLeslie Yes, but not made by my college roommate’s grandmother! (We’d get invites over winter break.) :P

True!

Mmm…now I want some. There’s a decent Jewish deli in Berkeley. But can’t beat grandma’s cooking!

More emphasis is placed on Christmas in much of the West secularly (growing up in the Catholic church, I was always taught that Easter was the more important observance). And I think it is simply because the secular aspect of Christmas has more immediate appeal; the story of the Wise Men bearing gifts bolstered the tradition of gift-giving, which is something bound to make a holiday popular. It also happened to coincide with a pagan celebration, Yule, that gave rise to other popular secular aspects of Christmas (which didn’t happen with Easter to the same extent). I also just think that the symbology of the story of Jesus’ birth: the animals, the star, the three kings, the gifts, has a wider appeal than the more solemn and overtly spiritual story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. That is why there is more secular emphasis on Christmas, but within the Church there is more emphasis on Easter and Holy Week.

By whom? Easter is the most important day on the calendar for Christians. Easter and Christmas both are very important to retailers and advertisers. My clan has taken back our holidays and tuned out and turned off the retailers and advertisers.

Let me point out that Passover coincides with Easter this year (it doesn’t always!) so it’s a twofer!

@raum

“There’s a decent Jewish deli in Berkeley.”

Don’t the Goldsteins also have a Chinese restaurant there? ;)

Jewish Chinese. Lol. It’s a real thing. In Boca we had a kosher Chinese restaurant when I lived there.

Here there are also Kosher Chinese restaurants. it is a thing!

Wait…is there a kosher Chinese restaurant in Berkeley? That’s definitely a thing!

Jewish Chinese does not necessarily mean it is Kosher Chinese. We say Jewish Chinese and Bronx Chinese synonymous to mean the food tastes like the Chinese food in NY and they serve the wide fried noodles with the soup and really yummy hot tea while you wait. Those things are not consistent throughout the US.

Kosher Chinese doesn’t always taste just like NY Chinese, but you know there is no pork in the food, the kitchen is blessed by the rabbi, and they likely have pareve desserts. So, the dumplings are chicken dumplings and they might have soy or almond milk ice cream.

Yeah, I’ve been to a kosher Chinese restaurant and it was really trippy. Since Chinese restaurants usually use quite a bit of pork.

Here’s our local Kosher Asian fusion: https://www.edenwoknr.com/kosher/

Looks good! So hard to get chow fun here.

@jca2

“Here’s our local Kosher Asian fusion: https://www.edenwoknr.com/kosher/"

I see that it’s in New Rochelle, NY.
I wonder if Rob & Laura Petrie have ever dined there. ;)

@Brian1946: Very possibly, if it was around 55 years ago! :)

All I can say is that the Easter Bunny was always easier on my wallet than Santa Claus. ‘Nuff said.

The liturgical Christmas season is 12 days. The liturgical Easter season is 50 days.