Why is Easter on Random Sundays?
By: Rusty Wise – Wise News Network
I’m sure many of you have asked “Why does Easter come on different Sundays every year?” I know I have, so I did a little investigating. I remember learning about Easter in Sunday school a while back, but I needed a refresher course on why the date changes.
First, we have to look at the stars or the moon to be exact. Easter is based on the Paschal Full Moon. The Paschal Full Moon means Passover Moon in Aramaic, which is an ancient Semitic language. The date of Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon which can occur on or after March 21. Why March 21?
March 21 is a fixed date that is on the Christian Calendar as the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. The Spring Equinox marks the beginning of Spring, where there are 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. The actual Spring Equinox can vary between March 19-21, however, March 21 is the date set by the Western Christian Church. The “ecclesiastical” Christian Church dates and the “Astronomical” dates are not the same.
The Paschal Full Moon date isn’t the same as the full moon we see in the sky. It’s figured out using a math formula based on a cycle of 19 years. This helps it match up better with our regular calendar dates. This is called the Metonic cycle. These 19-year civil calendars are divided into 235 lunar months of 30 and 29 days each. A formula called the “Golden Number” is used. For example, 2024 divided by 19 is 106 with a remainder of 10. Add 1 to the remainder and that gives you 11. So, this year is the eleventh year of the Metonic cycle, which has a full moon on March 25. So, the next Sunday is March 31, which is Easter this year 2024.
The earliest Easter Sunday can be March 22 and the latest is April 25.
In a nutshell, the main reason for Easter is to celebrate the resurrection of Christ in the Christian faith. The exact date of the resurrection is unknown. However, it is known that Jesus was crucified in the week of the Jewish Passover Feast holiday. Passover has used the Metonic cycle and the Passover full moon since at least 1,000 BC. So Resurrection Easter Sunday will always have to be after that estimated timeframe.
By now your head is hurting reading this and of course, humans make things much harder than they should be.
Where do the eggs and the Easter bunny come in? Well, that’s a whole other story but German folklore and tradition play a part.
Anyway, I vote for a set date every year for Easter and be done with it just like Christmas. What are your thoughts?
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