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Easter's Date
Unlike festivals such as Christmas, Easter has been
celebrated without interruption since New Testament
times. The dates of all movable feasts are also
calculated around the date of Easter. According to
the Encyclopedia Britannica:
Western Christians celebrate Easter on the first
Sunday after the full moon (the paschal moon) that
occurs on or next after the vernal equinox on March
21. If the paschal moon, which is calculated from a
system of golden numbers and epacts and does not
necessarily coincide with the astronomical full
moon, occurs on a Sunday, Easter is the following
Sunday.
The U.S. Naval Observatory's Astronomical
Applications Department says that Easter is
determined by the "ecclesiastical moon" as defined
by church-constructed tables to be used permanently
for calculating the phase of the moon. This full
moon doesn't necessarily coincide with the
astronomical full moon, which means, Navy
researchers say, that Easter is not necessarily the
very next Sunday after a full moon. It could be the
next Sunday after the ecclesiastical moon. This
happened in 1876.
These calculations say that Easter can fall between
March 22 and April 25. This was decreed by Pope
Gregory XIII in 1582 as part of the Gregorian
calendar.
Modern-day Easter is derived from two ancient
traditions: one Judeo-Christian and the other Pagan.
Both Christians and Pagans have celebrated death and
resurrection themes following the Spring Equinox for
millennia. Most religious historians believe that
many elements of the Christian observance of Easter
were derived from earlier Pagan celebrations.
The equinox occurs each year on March 20, 21 or 22.
Both Neopagans and Christians continue to celebrate
religious rituals linked to the equinox in the
present day. Wiccans and other Neopagans usually
hold their celebrations on the day or eve of the
equinox. Western Christians wait until the Sunday on
or after the next full moon. The Eastern Orthodox
churches follow a different calculation; their
celebration is often many weeks after the date
selected by the Western churches.
During New Testament times, the Christian church
celebrated Easter at the same time as the Jews
observed Passover. (The first of Passover's eight
days is Nissan 15 on the Jewish calendar. Passover
observes the flight and freedom of the Israelites
from slavery in Egypt.) By the middle of the second
century, Easter was celebrated on the Sunday after
Passover. The Council of Nicaea decided in 325 A.D.
that all churches should celebrate it together on a
Sunday.
The Eastern Orthodox church may celebrate Easter up
to a month later, as its calculation of the date is
based on the Julian calendar, which is currently 13
days behind the Gregorian calendar. In 1865 and
1963, Easter observance in both Eastern and Western
churches coincided.
In some countries, Good Friday and the Monday after
Easter are national holidays. In the United States,
these two days are not federal holidays and
observance varies from state to state.
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