Do Seventh-day Adventists Observe Easter-Related Holidays?

Jesus Christ’s resurrection, celebrated on many Easter-related holidays, is central to the beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. And that means we seek every opportunity to remember it.

However, we don’t have any set rules on what holidays we should keep or avoid.

Rather, we encourage each member to make these decisions based on biblical principles and conscience.

We’ll look more at those principles as we answer the following questions:

• How do Adventists decide which holidays to celebrate?
• What do Adventists believe about various Easter-related religious holidays?
  • Passover
  • Lent and Ash Wednesday
  • Palm Sunday
  • Good Friday
  • Easter
• What holidays do Adventists keep?

Because holiday celebration is a personal decision, we can’t account for every viewpoint. But keep reading to get an idea of what most Adventists do for these various holidays.

How do Adventists decide which holidays to celebrate?

Bible principles and conscience guide Adventists in deciding which holidays to celebrate. After all, the Bible doesn’t directly address most modern holidays. What’s more, holidays are largely based on cultural context, meaning that various holidays are celebrated differently depending on the part of the world.

That’s why evaluating a holiday starts with checking whether the purpose of the holiday aligns with Christian principles. Then we can look at what the observance of that holiday looks like and how it might impact our relationship with Jesus Christ.

To make this decision, we might ask ourselves the following questions:

• How does this holiday relate to my beliefs? (John 4:24; 1 Thessalonians 5:5; 1 John 1:6).
• How does observing this holiday affect my behavior? (Galatians 5:13-14; Romans 12:1-2).
• How does observing this holiday affect the way I treat others? (Philippians 2:3-4; Romans 12:10-13).
• How does observing this holiday affect my relationship with God? (Matthew 6:33; Romans 8:7-10).

And holiday observance isn’t a one-size-fits-all situation because each person might answer these questions differently. The way one person observes a holiday might lead them to become greedy or excessive. Meanwhile, the same holiday might encourage someone else to share their blessings with others and reflect on all the good things God has given them.

For this reason, the Adventist Church hasn’t made any official rules about holiday observance. It’s not about a denominational standard but personal conviction.

That being said, let’s take a look at how most Adventists view popular holidays connected with Jesus’ resurrection.

What do Adventists believe about various Easter-related religious holidays?

Adventists appreciate that many Easter-related religious holidays draw attention to Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary. His death and resurrection form the foundation of our faith in Him as our promised Messiah and give us hope that we, too, can be free from sin’s power and receive eternal life.

As Paul says:

“But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty” (1 Corinthians 15:13-14, NKJV).

In light of the importance of the resurrection, here’s how we typically relate to the following holidays.

Passover

Most Adventists don’t celebrate Passover, though we still recognize and appreciate its valuable lessons. God gave this feast to the Israelites to remind them of their deliverance from Egypt (Exodus 12). At the same time, it also foreshadowed the coming Messiah and His sacrifice.

Let’s go back to when Passover was first kept.

The Israelites had been in slavery in Egypt. But things were changing as God guided Moses to request their release from the Pharaoh of Egypt. When Pharaoh refused, God sent ten different plagues upon Egypt.

The final plague was the death of every firstborn in Egypt. In preparation for this tragedy, God instructed the Israelites to kill a lamb and spread its blood over the doorposts of their homes. When the angel of death passed through Egypt, God spared, or “passed over,” every home that had the blood painted on their doorposts.

Thus, Passover became a memorial of how God saved His people (Exodus 12:14-17). And God also intended for the Passover to remind the Israelites that He would deliver them from sin and death once and for all through the blood of the Son of God (Acts 4:12).

The blood of the Passover lamb symbolized the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God (John 1:29).

Now, though, Christians no longer sacrifice animals as was done in the Old Testament because Jesus fulfilled those sacrifices and the feasts associated with them. These include:

• Passover
• The Feast of Unleavened Bread
• The Feast of Firstfruits
• Pentecost
• The Feast of Tabernacles

The entire purpose of many of these festivals in the Old Covenant law was to point forward to the soon-coming Christ. Jesus’ death brought about the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:6, 13; Romans 8:1-4), doing away with the requirements of the law of Moses, such as keeping these feasts or practicing circumcision (Acts 15; Colossians 2:14).

They didn’t need to point toward Jesus’ coming anymore because Jesus had already come.

In fact, Jesus established a new ceremony in place of Passover called the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper, otherwise known as the Last Supper, serves to remind us of Jesus’ death and point forward to His second coming (Luke 22:15-20).

Adventists keep the Lord’s Supper, which we often call Communion, for this very reason.

Lent and Ash Wednesday

Keeping Lent or Ash Wednesday is quite uncommon among Adventists—mainly because we feel these holidays connect to concepts that deviate from Bible principles, such as salvation by faith in Christ alone.

Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent, which is a 40-day-long fast that commemorates Jesus’ fast in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11).¹ This day is all about preparing for this fasting process. One way participants do this is by having their foreheads marked with ash by a priest to signal their commitment to Lent.² During the 40-day period, they may avoid certain foods (like meat) or give up some kind of pleasure on certain days (like sweets or social media).

Adventists wholeheartedly believe in participating in spiritual practices just as Jesus did, whether fasting or prayer.

But we also feel the motive behind these practices is key.

What gives us pause is that Lent and Ash Wednesday tend to promote a saved-by-works mentality. These holidays can go so far as teaching participants that fasting and observing Ash Wednesday are sacramental acts, which play a part in helping them earn their salvation.³ Those who observe Holy Week understand sacramentals as actions that give a person grace or make a person holy.

In contrast, we believe that salvation is a free gift given by Jesus, obtained when we accept His sacrifice, which pays the cost of our sin. We can’t earn it—no matter how hard we try.

For us, spiritual practices are simply expressions of faith and commitment to follow God.⁴ We desire to keep holidays in which we feel we can support this biblical view of spiritual practices.

This comes into play with other holidays associated with Holy Week, too.

Palm Sunday

Just as most Adventists don’t celebrate Ash Wednesday or Lent, we also don’t celebrate Palm Sunday. Again, the main reason is the saved-by-works mentality it tends to emphasize.

Palm Sunday marks the first day of the week for Holy Week.⁵ On this day, Christians celebrate Jesus’ entrance into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey when people recognized Him as the Messiah (Matthew 21:1-11).⁶ People waved palm branches and placed them on the road before Jesus (Matthew 21:8), so a big part of Palm Sunday involves processions where people wave palm branches.⁷

Like Ash Wednesday and Lent, people view Palm Sunday as a sacramental practice.⁸ This means that it may encourage them to pursue sacraments for the sake of salvation. Some even believe that the palms they use can grant them holiness.⁹

In this way, the general emphasis of Palm Sunday takes our attention away from Jesus and puts it on symbols and ceremonies—even to the extent of making something holy that the Bible doesn’t designate as such.

So, are there any days during Holy Week that Adventists more commonly celebrate?

Good Friday

Because of our deep value for Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf, Adventists see Good Friday as one opportunity to reflect on this event. We typically celebrate differently than most churches, though.

Many churches spend this day fasting as they mourn the death of Christ.¹⁰ And most Catholic churches spend it reflecting on Christ’s sacrifice as they walk through the stations of Christ, or images of Christ’s journey to the Cross.¹¹

The celebration of Good Friday is a bit more understated in Adventist communities.

Most of our Good Friday celebrations are reserved for Friday night vespers. Vespers is a worship service Adventist congregations host to celebrate the beginning of the Sabbath. These services generally feature music, prayer, and a spiritual message.

On Good Friday, the vespers program may have a special emphasis on the Easter story. Some churches might read Bible passages about it before having some prayer time. These programs could also include a light potluck or even a Communion service.

Easter

Easter celebrations are quite common among Adventists. Though we may not hold Sunday worship services on Easter, we usually commemorate the Easter story during our regular Sabbath services.

Of course, we believe in regularly reflecting on what Jesus did for us and drawing closer to Christ. But because society recognizes this holiday, it’s a wonderful opportunity to reach out to and serve our community.

Aside from that, some Adventists may enjoy typical Easter activities, such as family dinners or Easter egg hunts. This will depend a lot on family tradition and personal choice.

On the other hand, some Adventists may choose not to celebrate Easter because they feel uncomfortable with the pagan origins of some of its traditions. Again, this doesn’t mean they don’t celebrate the Resurrection—they just choose to do so in other ways apart from the cultural aspects of Easter.

To get a full understanding of what Adventists think about Easter, check out “Do Seventh-day Adventists Celebrate Easter?”

What holidays do Adventists keep?

As we’ve mentioned, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has no official rules regarding what holidays we keep. Instead, we decide whether to observe certain holidays based on our individual consciences.

You will find that most Adventists do celebrate popular holidays like Christmas and New Year. We also get involved in national holidays—Thanksgiving and Fourth of July for those in the United States.

And as we mentioned in this article, celebrating Good Friday and Easter is also quite common among Adventists.

But in the case of many holidays, observing them has a lot to do with culture. As long as a certain holiday aligns with the principles we understand from the Bible, we will enjoy that cultural practice. We may even integrate our religious practices and beliefs into it.

To see what this looks like with other holidays, head on over to