The Date Of Easter

WHY DO WE CELEBRATE EASTER ON A DIFFERENT DATE EVERY YEAR?

Christmas is always on December 25th. Reformation Day is always on October 31st. And Easter Sunday is always on ... hey, wait a minute. What's going on here? Why don't we celebrate Easter on the same date every year (March 25th, for example), or at least on the same Sunday (the fourth Sunday of every March, for instance)? Sometimes Easter is the fourth Sunday in March. Sometimes it's in April. Why is that?

If you've poured over a calendar looking for the date of Easter, or if you've ever planned an event only to discover that you accidentally planned it on Easter, you know the frustration of wondering why the church doesn't just pick a date for Easter and then stick with it.

But the fact remains that our celebration of the Lord's resurrection varies from year to year. We do know that it always falls sometime in March or April, but we just never know exactly when. Take heart, by the time you finish this brief article you will not only know why it varies from year to year, but you will know how to calculate when Easter is going to fall on any given year.

First, some background. We know that our Lord was crucified on the Friday before the celebration of the Jewish Passover. That the Bible makes very clear.  This has special significance for Christians, because Passover was the day the people remembered when God rescued Israel from Egyptian bondage. Male lambs, without blemish, were sacrificed and their blood, painted on the doorframes of the houses, saved the Israelites from the angel of death (Exodus 12). It was no accident that Jesus, "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" died during the Passover, that His blood might save us from the bondage of sin and death. It was God's plan that Passover and our Lord's Passion should be so linked together.

We also know that the Passover was a festival that changed dates from year to year, according to the God's own command to His Old Testament people. The key, then, to understanding why Easter "moves" is to understand that the church has decided to keep our Lord's death and resurrection on the same schedule as the Passover and, by doing so, to forever keep the two linked together.

To discover when Easter will fall in any given year, we need to determine when the Jewish Passover will fall in that year. The Jews had a formula they followed in determining the date of Passover.  Passover was to be celebrated on the Sabbath (Saturday) following the first full moon in the Jewish month of Nisan (the month, not the automobile!). Nisan was the month that contained the vernal equinox (the first day of spring). Hence Passover would occur on the Saturday following the first full
moon following the first day of spring. Got it?

So here it is -- here is how you can determine when Easter will fall:

1.  Find the first day of spring (that's easy, because the first day of spring is always March 21st).

2.  Now find the first full moon that will occur after March 21st (that might not be so easy, but many calendars show when there will be a full moon).

3.  Find the first Sunday after that first full moon of spring. That's Easter Sunday!

Since a full moon occurs approximately once a month, Easter can fall anywhere from March 22 to April 25.

Jesus is our Passover Lamb. On whatever date Easter falls, what a joy it is to celebrate Christ's victory over death! He is Risen!