BY TRACIE SIMER
The Jackson (Tenn.) Sun
So why is Easter so early, this year?
Blame it on the lunar calendar. The holiday can be anytime from two to 31 days after the first full moon of spring,
For the years 1875 through 2124, there are only two occurrences of a March 23 Easter, says Bill Nettles, a physics professor at Union University, a Christian liberal-arts university, in Jackson, Tenn. The first one was in 1913, and this year will be the second one.
Passover connection
Easter is tied to the Jewish holiday of Passover to some extent,
Nettles says.
Jesus was crucified during Passover, on Good Friday.
Passover is a Jewish festival that commemorates the Exodus,
which was the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian
slavery.
One question that arises when some look at the Gospels is: Why
not have Easter three days after Passover, since Christ rose in
three days?
"I think the emphasis is on Sunday, which is the first day of
the week," says Gene Davenport, chairman of the religion and
philosophy department at Jackson's Lambuth University, a college
affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
"The resurrection happened on a Sunday. Some churches consider
every Sunday Resurrection Sunday."
There was debate in the fourth century over whether the church
should have Easter on a fixed date.
"But the Passover tie was really the decisive element," he says.
"If the full moon comes the day before the first day of spring,
you have to wait until the next full moon for Passover."
If the date for Easter Sunday comes a day before Passover,
Easter is moved to the next Sunday.
Leap years do not affect where Easter is placed on the calendar,
he says.
Council picks observance
Nettles says that in 325 A.D., the Council of Nicea decreed when
Easter would be for most of the western Christian world.
The Council of Nicea was the first Ecumenical council of the
Catholic Church and resulted in the first uniform Christian
doctrine. The council was created to settle theological
disagreements. And one of the disagreements was when to
celebrate Easter.
According to Nettles, the council was asking: "Which Sunday
should it be? The Sunday closest to Passover or on different
Sundays? Nicea decided to have it on the first Sunday on the
first full moon of spring."
He adds, "Because the days of the full moon are 29 and a half
days apart, the times of the first full moon can drift around
within a month. The spring equinox will happen on either March
20 or 21. The dates for Easter float between March 22 and April
25."
This means sometimes Easter Sunday is a month before Passover,
like this year, and sometimes Easter is on or near Passover,
Nettles says.
The Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant churches celebrate
Easter according to the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian
calendar was designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to
March 21, so that the date of Easter remains correct with
respect to the vernal equinox. The orthodox Christian churches
celebrate the holiday according to the old Julian calendar.
"The orthodox churches didn't agree with Pope Gregory, who
changed the calendar to what we know today," Nettles says.
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