Find Out Why the Date of Easter Changes Every Year
Have you ever wondered why Easter Sunday can occur anywhere from March 22 to April 25? And why do Eastern Orthodox churches observe Easter on a different day than Western Orthodox churches? These are good questions with answers that need to be explained a little more.
Why Is Easter Different Every Year?
The exact date of Easter has been a source of contention since early church history. For one thing, the disciples of Jesus failed to record the exact date of Jesus' resurrection. From that point forward, the situation only became more complicated.
A Simple Explanation
A straightforward explanation lies at the heart of the problem. Easter is an ephemeral holiday. The early Christians in Asia Minor wanted to keep the Jewish Passover as the basis for Easter celebrations. Because Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection occurred after the Passover, his followers desired that Easter be observed every year after the Passover. Each feast day is movable, with dates changing from year to year, because the Jewish holiday calendar is based on solar and lunar cycles.
The Lunar Impact on Easter
Easter was traditionally observed on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal (spring) equinox before 325 A.D. The Western Church agreed to create a more standardized system for determining the date of Easter at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.
Easter is now always celebrated on the Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon date of the year in Western Christianity. Historical tables are used to ascertain the date of the Paschal Full Moon. Easter no longer has a direct relationship with lunar phenomena. The Western Church used these calculations to create a table of Ecclesiastical Full Moon dates because astronomers were able to estimate the dates of all full moons in future years. On the ecclesiastical calendar, these dates designate the Holy Days.
The table for calculating the Ecclesiastical Full Moon dates was permanently established by 1583 A.D., albeit slightly modified from its original form, and has been used to determine the date of Easter ever since. Thus, the Paschal Full Moon is the first Ecclesiastical Full Moon date after March 20th, according to the Ecclesiastical tables (which happened to be the vernal equinox date in 325 A.D.). As a result, Easter is always celebrated on the Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon in Western Christianity.
The date of the Paschal Full Moon will differ by up to two days from the actual full moon, with dates ranging from March 21 to April 18. As a result, Easter dates in Western Christianity will range from March 22 to April 25.
Eastern vs. Western Easter Dates
The Julian Calendar was historically used by Western churches to ascertain the date of Easter, while the Gregorian Calendar was used by Eastern Orthodox churches. This was one of the reasons why the dates were rarely the same.
Easter and its related holidays are movable holidays because they do not fall on a fixed date in either the Gregorian or Julian calendars. Instead, the dates are calculated using a lunar calendar that is very similar to the Hebrew calendar.
While some Eastern Orthodox Churches use the Julian Calendar, which was in use at the time of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., others use the actual, astronomical full moon and the actual vernal equinox as observed along the Jerusalem meridian. Because of the Julian calendar's inaccuracy and the 13 days that have passed since 325 A.D., Orthodox Easter cannot be observed before April 3 (current Gregorian calendar), which was March 21 in 325 A.D.
Furthermore, the Eastern Orthodox Church followed the rule established by the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea that Easter must always fall after the Jewish Passover because Christ's resurrection occurred after the Passover celebration.
The Orthodox Church eventually devised a 19-year cycle to replace the Western Church's 84-year cycle for calculating Easter and Passover based on the Gregorian calendar and Passover.
Easter Day is a common holiday but not all people know why Easter is called Easter and why the date of Easter changes every year. Easter Day is coming! It's time for us to play meaningful gifts to our loved ones. The All I Need Is A Chocolate Bunny And A Whole Lotta Jesus Shirt is one of the great Easter Day gift ideas that you should try.
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