| Abstract | Based on a case study of the calendrical dissociation of Easter from Passover, this paper examines the way in which social groups use calendrical means to express their distinctiveness vis-a-vis other groups. It explores the early Paschal controversies within the context of the Church's attempts to establish its own unique identity as distinct from the Synagogue, claiming that the temporal segregation of Easter from its Jewish precursor was part of a general effort to emancipate the ecclesiastical calendar from the Jewish calendar and, thus, actually to promote the social segregation of Christians from Jews. The paper demonstrates that, as a symbolic system that is commonly shared by a group of people and is unique to them, the calendar accentuates the similitude among group members--thus solidifying their in-group sentiments--while, at the same time, contributing to the establishment of intergroup boundaries that distinguish, as well as separate, group members from "outsiders."
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