Red Dog

I'm no theologian, but does it strike anyone else as odd that this movie is shown every Easter. After all, Easter is based on New Testament material and the 10 commandmants are Old Testament material.

freedexter

Tradition?

The only other things on are the Bob Hope Special on NBC, and a TV movie with Susan Sarandon on CBS, plus the normal FOX and WB stuff.

Vision Society

I guess it's the same reason they show Ben-Hur.

shaggybrown

I believe it might be because Passover and Easter occur near the same time.

SuperJim88

That has nothing to do with it. Passover and Easter both has to do with Jesus. Moses has nothing to do neither of those important events.

Make another guess, please

jmaxlow

Am I blind to sarcasm, or do you not realize that the Passover is one of the main events depicted in The Ten Commandments?

wildcatlh

And that Passover is an Old Testament thing and it has nothing at all to do with Jesus... but he HAS to be sarcastic, right?

Seeker

Or he just isn't aware and hasn't read much of the Old Testamant?

(shrug)

mikehunt

it's always on and I still haven't seen the whole movie

al_bundy

Passover is from Wednesday thru Sunday. My fiance is Jewish and her family always has dinner on Sunday to celebrate Passover. In my case and her cousin's husband they also call it Easter dinner, but it's mostly Jewish food on the table. Besides The Ten Commnadments is so long that it has to be shown on a weekend.

For all of you religiously challenged, I forgot what Passover is all about. On the Christian side on Wednesday when it starts is the day of The Last Supper. Good Friday is the crusifiction and Easter Sunday is the resurrection.

JasonF

My God, you people are ignorant!

Passover commemorates the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. The movie The Ten Commandments depicts (more or less) the first half of the book of Exodus. The second half is made up of various laws God gave to the Israelites, and would make a boring movie.

The story, in brief, is this: the Jews are slaves in Egypt. The Pharoah commands all male babies be killed, and the infant Moses is placed in a basket in the Nile in the hopes that some Egyptian will find him. Pharoah's daughter find him, and raises him as her own. When Moses murders an overseer, he flees to the desert where God commands him to go demand the release of the Jews. Moses does so, but Pharoah refuses to let them go. God sends the plagues, and Pharoah eventually lets the Jews go.

Every year, Jews commemorate this story with Passover. The Passover seder is a ritualistic meal that is traditionally eaten the first two nights of Passover. During the seder, Jews tell the story of Passover and eat food that symbolizes the various parts of the Passover story.

About 1500 years after Moses, a Jew named Jesus and his followers had just finished their Passover seder when jesus was arrested and crucified. As a result, that seder was his Last Supper.

rskinfn

It is shown on Easter Sunday because it is the only thing that ABC can repeat that gets decent ratings.

Red Dog

This actually makes more sense than the religious explanations.

GuessWho

<---thinks they should show King of Kings or Jesus of Nazareth on Easter Sunday

Passover started Thursday night, right? Show 10 Commandments then.

Iron Chef

GuessWho

Thanks for the history lesson, but you're the ignorant one for thinking we don't know the story just because we're questioning the choice of airdate.

Your diatribe still doesn't explain why the movie was shown on the Christian holiday (Sunday) instead of the Jewish holiday (Thursday)

Rascal

GuessWho, if you read the preceding posts, some were confused with Easter/Passover. Iron Chef was clarifying for everyone.

I agree with you that there is no reason to show the movie on Easter in particular, other than it is religious, must get high ratings for whatever reason, increases studio's revenues. I never question their logic; it hurts too much.

ljp99

Passover began Wed nite Apr 16th and ends Thurs afternoon Apr 24th

If you dont want to watch 10 Commandments cause of length, watch Prince of Egypt - which is the same story.

Also - TLC had a documentary on last nite (to be repeated this coming Thurs nite) about Moses and the Exodus, and how all the events could be explained by scientific facts - interesting show.

resinrats

The term 'Pass-over' is from when the Angel of Death passed over the hebrew homes when killing the first born children. The Hebrew homes had lambs blod on the door to let the Angel know not to stop there and pass over to the next home.

Why it is shown on the weekend is stated above. Passover happens the week before Easter. The movie is so long it works the best on a Sunday when network shows start earlier. It just happens to be Easter. Besides, since Easter is a religious holiday and both Jews and Christians have the passover story in their religions, they can both enjoy it.

Dr. DVD

I think aside from the Oscars, this is ABC's only special that acknowledges starting around 6:00 PM and not ending until the neighborhood of 10:30 PM, and that's with a known ending point in site!

I really do love this movie as it is pure Hollywoodized story of true events to the nth degree. You have glamourous stars, glitzy effects, large sets, and no one ever smears their make-up! My favorite moment is when Moses saves the daughters at the well by using his staff ninja bo style. I AM NOT JOKING, THIS IS IN THE MOVIE!!! Do I hate the movie for this, not at all, it's everything you would want and expect from a Cecil B. DeMille epic circa 1954 or whenever it was made.

Charlie Goose

"The Pharaoh is yella, see? Moses, tell him to let your people go, see?"

Honk!

adamblast

Because The Last Tempation of Christ would upset Grandma.

Pants

Mr. Hand: "What are you people...on dope?"

SuperJim88 you should be ashamed of yourself...and so should some of the rest of you.

Bottom Line: The 10 Commandments isn't shown on the Sunday that happens to be Easter. It is shown on the nearest Sunday to Passover. This day just happens to be Easter. Since it's the story of Passover they show it around Passover. They don't show it on Thursday (or whenever Passover happens to be each year), they show it on Sunday because ABC shows a movie EVERY sunday. Sunday is movie night on ABC.

If you want to see an Easter movie, Jesus of Nazareth was on the History Channel.

SuperJim88

Jeez, calm down...........

Anybody see my ?? I though that is commonly known as just kidding. But, I guess I should be more careful from now on.

GeoffK

Actually is commonly known as sticking your tounge out at someone. J/K is more widely known as 'Just Kidding'. But it's a perfect example of how sarcasm breeds negativity.

Good rule of thumb - Would you make your post as a comment in a mixed crowd of friends and strangers? If so.... shouldn't you think twice about posting it? Usually the more sarcastic posts would never see the light of day in a real conversation.