The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1796 page)

 
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(Aramaic,
pas
a
, ‘Passover’). Of or relating to the Jewish
Passover
or more usually the Christian
Easter
. ‘Paschaltide’, or Eastertide, is the period in the Christian year from Easter to
Pentecost
. The ‘paschal candle’ is a large candle used in W. churches during Paschaltide.

 
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Paschal lamb
.

The lamb sacrificed in the Temple as part of the Jewish
Passover
festival. The paschal lamb was sacrificed on 14 Nisan, roasted whole and eaten by the community (Exodus 12. 1–28; Deuteronomy 16. 1–8). In Christianity, Jesus became identified with the paschal Lamb.

 
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Paschal mystery
.

The Christian understanding of human salvation concentrated in Christ, dead, risen from the dead, and ascended to heaven, who is the
paschal
Lamb of the new Passover.

 
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Pasha
.

Turkish military and civil title denoting someone of high rank. The title persists in some Arab countries for more local authorities.

 
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(Lat.,
passio
, ‘suffering’). The events of Jesus' last days as recounted in the
gospels
, culminating in his crucifixion. From at least the 4th cent. the passion was recited with musical settings in churches during
Holy Week
; by the Middle Ages, the chant was
plainsong
, with motet choruses added in the 15th cent. The
St John Passion
(1723) and
St Matthew Passion
(1729) of J. S. Bach are among the most familiar of these Passions.
Passion Sunday is the 5th Sunday in Lent, a week before
Palm Sunday
, but Passion Sunday is now fused with Palm Sunday.
Passion plays are enactments of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus which served, originally, important didactic purposes. The best known of these is a late example, the play at Oberammergau in Bavaria. According to tradition, the village was spared from plague in 1633, and vowed, in gratitude, to perform a passion play once every ten years. The term ‘passion play’ is also used of dramatic reenactments, by Sh
‘a Muslims, of the martyrdom of
al-Husain
(and
al-Hasan
): see
TA‘ZIYA
. For a text, see L. Pelly,
The Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain
(1879).