Debunking Zeitgeist 16: Easter

After botching up the idea of Christmas royally, Zeitgeist then turns to the subject of Pascha (Easter):

However, they did not celebrate the resurrection of the Sun until the spring equinox, or Easter. This is because at the spring equinox, the Sun officially overpowers the evil darkness, as daytime thereafter becomes longer in duration than night, and the revitalizing conditions of spring emerge.

The first problem here is that after spending so much time explaining why Christmas was about the sun rising after three days in the grave, now we are told that it actually would not be celebrated until spring. This is simply a desparate attempt to avoid the obvious objection that their explanation of Christmas has nothing to do with the Nativity narratives but the Paschal narratives and hence is misguided. Now we are told that they put off the celebration until spring but no sufficient reason is given. The argument is at this point clearly just a series of ad hoc presuppositions attempting to avoid the obvious contradictary assertions.

Next, of course, is that the celebration did not occur on the spring equinox but on the Sunday following the first full moon on or after the Spring equinox. The reason was to mimic not a pagan celebration but a Jewish one: the feast of Passover occurred on 14 Nissan which is the middle of the first spring month. Since Jewish months begin on a new moon, the 14th would be a full moon and hence it would occur on the first full moon on or after the spring equinox or the first full moon of spring. Then you go to the Sunday after the passover begins which would be the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox and you have the resurrection date.

Thus the Paschal date for Christians was rooted in the calendar of the Old Testament and not pagan spring feasts. Once more Zeitgeist has come up empty.