It last fell on March 22 in 1818, and will not do so again until 2285. Thus, according to a detailed article in Wikipedia, "Gregorian Easter can fall on 35 possible dates. Therefore, Easter cannot fall earlier than March 22 or later than April 25. Our present reply will flesh out what we said on that occasion.Įaster follows a lunar-solar, rather than a solar, calendar and is celebrated on the Sunday that follows the first full moon after March 21, the vernal (spring) equinox. We had already dealt briefly with the question of the date for Easter on Feb. It was only several decades later that the system used in Alexandria became generally accepted. Nicaea decreed a single date but left no precise indications regarding the criteria for calculating the date. Thus Easter was often celebrated on different days in Antioch and Alexandria. Christians in Syria generally held Easter after the Jewish Passover whereas most other Christians within the Roman Empire calculated Easter with no thought for the Jewish festival. The fact that this happens gave rise to the belief that this was a rule, but the historical evidence does not seem to support this.Īs our reader points out, early Christians calculated Easter using different criteria. It probably stems from the fact that the drift caused by the Julian calendar's miscalculation of the solar year means that Easter now always falls after the start of the Jewish Passover. It would appear that this provision was first proposed by the 12th-century Byzantine canonist Joannes Zonaras. Can you tell us why the Western Churches have chosen to neglect this order and will celebrate Pascha before or during Passover, as they did this year, while the Orthodox will still honor the rule and wait? Or can you tell us why the West, as is the case in some years, will celebrate Pascha on the Sunday when the full moon is Saturday night, which liturgically is Sunday? - G.J., Houston, TexasĪ: First of all, it would appear that the supposed rule that Easter must be celebrated after Passover does not hail from the Council of Nicaea. Then with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar this changed somewhat but, even if the imperial order was still honored in the West, we would still be celebrating Pascha together. To have unity within the empire, Constantine added the caveat, "But shall not precede or coincide with Passover," and for more than 1,000 years, this worked and we all celebrated Pascha on the same Sunday. The rule of the Council of Nicaea says, "The first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox." However, in the notes on the council it tells us that, even using this calculation - there being no common calendar in the empire at the time - Christian churches were celebrating the feast on different Sundays based on when they calculated the equinox and full moons based on their particular calendars. As you know, the Catholic (Western) Churches and the Orthodox celebrate Pascha on different Sundays most of the time. Q: I am an Orthodox reader and I have a question. Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
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