To Speak Now of God: The Dating of Easter

Friday, March 4, 2011

The Dating of Easter

“Shouldn’t Lent have started already?” a friend asked me last week.

Most years the answer would have been “Yes,” but not this year. This year Ash Wednesday is on March 9, as late as it can be.

The reason is connected with the date of Easter, which in 2011 falls on April 24. Why is that? Odd as it may seem, the celebration of Easter is related directly to the phase of the moon and the spring equinox. Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon, following the equinox.

The equinox, the first day of spring, happens between the 20^th and 23^rd of March. This means that in a year when equinox, full moon and Sunday all arrive on March 21^st, Easter would be on the 21^st. Pushing in the other direction, Easter can fall as late as April 24, which it does this year.

In 2011 spring arrives on Sunday, March 20. The next full moon is on April 18, and the next Sunday is April 24.

Why all these calculations tied to equinox and moon? Aren’t those pagan practices? Why would Christian celebrations be calculated that way?

The answer is tied to the date of Passover. The ancient Israelites’ calendar was a lunar calendar, one that is still in use in modern Jewish practice. In that calendar the date for Passover is determined by moon and equinox. Pesach or Passover is an eight-day long celebration that begins on the night of the fifteenth day of the month of Nissan of the Hebrew calendar, this year April 18. Since the events of Holy Week and Easter coincide with Passover, the early church set the dating of Easter accordingly.

With this explanation one would think that Easter and Passover would always come together. However, they do not. Our present calendar is based on the earth’s rotation around the sun, which divides neatly into 12 months of 30 – 31 days each. The lunar calendar, on the other hand, is based on the revolution of the moon around the earth, 13 months of 28 days. This often results in different positioning of month, equinox and phase of moon, though most years Easter and Passover do fall within a week of one another.

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Welcome and Memorial

This blog was founded in November, 2010 by two ordained ministers in the United Church of Christ, colleagues and friends for over 40 years, beginning when we served neighboring parishes in Maine. When we first met we both recognized understandings held in common regarding the life of faith and the doing of pastoral ministry. We also discovered that we often looked at the world through a humorous eye, which helped keep us focused on those matters of faith that are of critical importance to living out our baptism in service to Christ and his Church.
The offerings in the blog at times reflected our different perspectives on particular topics. Such perspectives were informed by the varied paths that each of us took in our years of ministry. They were not disagreements, but simply different parts of a larger whole. We enlightened and informed one another over many years of friendship, and found this mutual endeavor to be a joyful, profound, and often amusing adventure. At the beginning we invited you to join us on the pilgrimage.
On the afternoon of February 7, 2012 Richard lost a gallant three-year battle with a debilitating medical condition. He died peacefully in the company of his beloved bride Barbara and listening to an orchestral piece by Mozart.
Richard left a few as-yet unpublished blog postings, and these will appear in the appropriate seasons. The shape of the blog was always a work in progress, but there was a trajectory becoming clear to us both, and I shall carry that on as long as it seems to have a purpose. I invite your thoughts and suggestions, either as comments in response to specific postings, or in email to hmacmullen@gmail.com.