This is why Easter lands on a different date every year

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May 16, 2017 9:51 AM

It was originally all to do with the moon.

easter

Have you noticed that Easter feels quite late this year?

Maybe you didn't realise, but the Easter weekend actually falls on a different date every year, any time between March 22 and April 25.

As a Christian holiday, you might expect it to have a set date like Christmas. However, Easter is actually determined by the Jewish calendar. This is because in the Bible, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ happened after the Jewish festival of Passover, and followers wanted it to be celebrated as such.

However, this is slightly tricky because the Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles, whereas Christian culture is based on the sun. A solar year is just over 365 days and a lunar year is about 354 days, so collaborating the two can be complicated.

Passover also changes every year, because it's calculated by the first full moon following something called the vernal equinox — a day in spring when night and day are exactly the same length.

An article on ThoughtCo says that in the early days of the Christian Church, Easter would fall on the first Sunday immediately after the vernal equinox. However, to establish a more standardised system, in 1583 a table was recorded by astronomers to determine all the future Ecclesiastical full moons. These land on the 14th day of the lunar month.

Ever since 1583, the Passover full moon — or Paschal full moon — has been determined from these historical tables, and is the first full moon date after March 20. Easter is always celebrated on the Sunday immediately following it, so as a result, it no longer directly corresponds to the moon.

The Paschal full moon can vary as much as two days from the date of the actual full moon. This is why the dates can range from March 21 to April 18, and Easter falls between March 22 to April 25 in Western Christianity.

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