The rule of thumb for determining the date of Easter is that it is the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. Sunday, April 17, was the first full moon of the spring. But on rare occasions, the complicated formula developed by the Council of Nicaea in A. The council, a gathering of religious leaders, was aiming to help unify Christians and they wanted to standardize a holiday that was being celebrated on different dates.
The formula is based on the lunar calendar, which is why the rule of thumb almost always holds. Palm Sunday is 29 March. Good Friday is 03 April. Western Easter Sunday is 05 April. Orthodox Easter Sunday is 12 April. Ash Wednesday is 10 February.
Western Easter Sunday is 27 March. The precise date of Easter has at times been a matter for contention. It is probable, though, that no method of determining the date was specified by the Council. No contemporary account of the Council's decisions has survived. Epiphanius of Salamis wrote in the mid-4th century:. They passed certain ecclesiastical canons at the council besides, and at the same time decreed in regard to the Passover that there must be one unanimous concord on the celebration of God's holy and supremely excellent day.
For it was variously observed by people It took a while for the Alexandrian rules to be adopted throughout Christian Europe, however. The Church of Rome continued to use an year lunisolar calendar cycle from the late third century until The Church of Rome continued to use its own methods until the 6th century, when it may have adopted the Alexandrian method as converted into the Julian calendar by Dionysius Exiguus certain proof of this does not exist until the ninth century.
Early Christians in Britain and Ireland also used a late third century Roman year cycle until the Synod of Whitby in , when they adopted the Alexandrian method. Churches in western continental Europe used a late Roman method until the late 8th century during the reign of Charlemagne, when they finally adopted the Alexandrian method.
However, with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar by the Catholic Church in and the continuing use of the Julian calendar by Eastern Orthodox Churches, the date on which Easter is celebrated again deviated, and the discrepancy continues to this day.
However, this does not reflect the actual ecclesiastical rules precisely. One reason for this is that the full moon involved called the Paschal full moon is not an astronomical full moon, but the 14th day of a calendar lunar month. Another difference is that the astronomical vernal equinox is a natural astronomical phenomenon, which can fall on March 20 or 21, while the ecclesiastical date is fixed by convention on March In the case of Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches, which continue to use the Julian calendar, their starting point in determining the date of Orthodox Easter is also March 21 according to the Julian reckoning, resulting in the divergence in the date of Easter in most years.
The actual calculations for the date of Easter are somewhat complicated, but can be described briefly as follows:. The lunar year consists of day and day lunar months, generally alternating, with an embolismic month added periodically to bring the lunar cycle into line with the solar cycle. In each solar year January 1 to December 31 , the lunar month beginning with an ecclesiastical new moon falling in the day period from March 8 to April 5 inclusive is designated as the Paschal lunar month for that year.
Easter is the 3rd Sunday in the Paschal lunar month, or, in other words, the Sunday after the Paschal lunar month's 14th day. The 14th of the Paschal lunar month is designated by convention as the Paschal full moon, although the 14th of the lunar month may differ from the date of the astronomical full moon by up to two days.
Since the ecclesiastical new moon falls on a date from March 8 to April 5 inclusive, the Paschal full moon the 14th of that lunar month must fall on a date from March 21 to April 18 inclusive. It last fell on March 22 in , and will not do so again until It fell on March 23 in , but will not do so again until Easter last fell on the latest possible date, April 25, in and will next fall on that date in However, it will fall on April 24, just one day before this latest possible date, in The cycle of Easter dates repeats after exactly 5,, years, with April 19 being the most common date, happening , times or 3.
All affiliated churches celebrate Easter in accordance with these tables. See Also :. Have you ever wished for a classic Easter special to show your kids? R esources:. Top Photo by:. Major Holidays. A look into Related Holidays. Easter Related Pages. Moveable Feasts. Movable Holidays.
Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts, in that they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars both of which follow the cycle of the sun and the seasons. Instead, the date for Easter is determined on a lunisolar calendar, as is the Hebrew calendar. Monthly Holidays. Eastern churches, including the Eastern Orthodox Church, use the Julian calendar , therefore the date usually differs from the Gregorian calendar, even though the dates are computed in a similar way.
The date of Easter is determined as the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon falling on or next after the spring equinox March 21 — a fixed date not the real, astronomical equinox. The Paschal full moon refers to the 14th day of the ecclesiastical lunar month and not the real, astronomical Full Moon, and its date is determined from tables. However, most often the two dates coincide, and between the year and there are only 18 differences between the dates calculated using the two methods.
A well-known method of calculating the date of Easter was given by Carl Friedrich Gauss, however a simpler method was described by Jean Meeus in [1].
The first Christians followed the biblical Hebrew calendar and timed the observance of Easter in relation to the date of the Jewish Passover.
Passover was celebrated by the Israelites to commemorate their deliverance from the slavery in Egypt. The Passover meal was eaten at sunset on the 14th day of Nisan Aviv. Jesus was crucified on the 14th and rose from the dead some time before sunrise on the 16th day of Nisan. Because the Jews got away from the biblical Hebrew calendar in AD and further in AD , and because the Christians wanted the date to be independent of the Jewish calendar, the First Council of Nicaea AD established the independent and uniform calculation of the Easter date.
In many countries, Easter is a public holiday , and as it always falls on Sunday, some countries also have Easter Monday as a public holiday, including Australia, Germany and Ireland. Although, Easter is the most important Christian holiday it is not as popular as Christmas. It joins two important events of which the first is profoundly sad and dramatic while the other is just the opposite.
The first one is, of course, the Crucifixion and Death of Christ after which his body was placed in the tomb. Three days later he Resurrected beating death. Resurrection is a triumph of life and even more astonishing than the miracle of Christ birth. In addition to religious celebrations involving Church services, Easter is celebrated in several ways in the United States, Europe and other parts of the world.
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