Sunday 1 April 2018

Why does the Easter date vary so much?

In the Western church (Catholic and Protestant churches) Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. Spring equinox occurs around March 21 but can occur a day earlier. For the church's purposes the equinox occurs March 21. The full moon can occur from March 21 and up to 29 days later.

The Eastern* church (Orthodox church) uses a similar formula but follows the older Julian calendar, and defines certain days. Thus "full moon" occurs on the 14th day of the month, not when the moon is full.

Jesus died at Passover. Passover begins Nisan 14† which is during the first month of the Jewish year. The Jewish calendar is lunar-solar which means that the months all begin at the new moon. Months are 29 or 30 days long. Because there are more than 12 lunar months in a year the Jewish year occasionally has an extra month. The Jewish New Year starts about the time of the spring equinox (northern hemisphere).

So Jesus was crucified on a Friday during a full moon. The Easter date is designed to have Good Friday and Easter Sunday land close to the first full moon after the spring equinox (which approximates the Jewish New Year) while maintaining the days of the week so that every year the crucifixion and resurrection days land on Friday and Sunday respectively.


*Some Eastern churches use the Western date.
†Modern Jews use Nisan 15.

1 comment:

  1. Folks. I can clarify the MISUNDERSTANDING of Easter as being the time of the death of Christ with simple "intelligence". Here you go. Let's say YOUR dad died on Sunday, March 15, 1975. Now then. When would you commemorate his death in the future? Would you commemorate his death on the CLOSEST Sunday to 3/15 or would you remember his death on the DATE OF HIS DEATH? March 15? The DATE of his death NEVER CHANGES. The day of the WEEK has nothing to do with commemorating an event. Pearl Harbor happened on Sunday, 12/7/1941. We do NOT memorialize that memory on the CLOSEST Sunday to 12/7 each year. Nope, we use good ol common sense and remember 12/7. ALWAYS. Try to convice a veteran to observe Pearl Harbor on Sunday 12/9 one year and see what happens ......

    ReplyDelete

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