Christmas, Lent...pls enlighten me :)

[olyv]

when Christmas falls on 25th of December regardless of normal year or leap year, why does the Lenten Season keeps changing? What calendar are we following?

thanks in advance for the answers

 

[atsheeran]

The time of Lent is determined based on when Easter falls each year. Easter is determined by a lunar calendar. I believe it is the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox.

Christmas is not determined by the lunar calendar but has a fixed date.

 

[pazdziernik]

The Orthodox Churches use a different method of calculating Easter. (I think they calculate it to be the first Sunday after the Jewish Passover (?)). They use a different calendar as well. For Catholics and other Christians it’s the first Sunday after (on or after?) the first full moon of Spring. Every few years the dates and calendars coincide so we celebrate Easter on the same Sunday. It’s a movable feast like Penetcost. Christmas has a fixed date. It’s 9 months after March 25th, the Annunciation which is a fixed date as well.

Why is this so? The “Easter controversy” has a long history: Should it be a fixed date or a movable date? How is it to be calculated?

 

[mpav]

I don’t think the Orthodox calcualte it to be after the jewish Passover, because this year Passover isn’t until about the third week of April.

 

[tee_eff_em]

pazdziernik:

The Orthodox Churches use a different method of calculating Easter. (I think they calculate it to be the first Sunday after the Jewish Passover (?)). They use a different calendar as well. For Catholics and other Christians it’s the first Sunday after (on or after?) the first full moon of Spring. Every few years the dates and calendars coincide so we celebrate Easter on the same Sunday. It’s a movable feast like Penetcost. Christmas has a fixed date. It’s 9 months after March 25th, the Annunciation which is a fixed date as well.

To nitpick just a bit: It’s the other way around: *Pentecost *is a moveable feast like Easter. Easter is the primary feast from which (most) other moveable feasts are calculated.

Also, while the Annunciation generally falls upon a fixed date, March 25, it is translated this year due to coincidence with Good Friday, which took precedence. The Annunciation will be celebrated on April 4 this year, the Triduum and Easter Octave having intervened.

tee

 

[pazdziernik]

mpav:

I don’t think the Orthodox calcualte it to be after the iewish Passover, because this year Passover isn’t until about the third week of April.

I admit that I may be wrong about the exact Orthodox calculation. However, I’m pretty sure that it is always after Jewish Passover. Jewish Passover is Sunday April 24th this year; Orthodox Easter is Sunday May 1st.

 

[Ignatius]

mpav:

I don’t think the Orthodox calcualte it to be after the jewish Passover, because this year Passover isn’t until about the third week of April.

And Eastern Rite/Orthodox Pasca isn’t until May 1.

 

[SMHW]

olyv:

when Christmas falls on 25th of December regardless of normal year or leap year, why does the Lenten Season keeps changing? What calendar are we following?

thanks in advance for the answers

Just to put different words on what’s been said already…

Christmas is a ‘solar’ feast. So it is the same from year to year since our years are determined by the solar calendar.

Easter is a ‘lunar’ feast. It is determined by the lunar calendar as were Jewish feasts such as Passover.

Now a lunar month is usually 29 to 30 days so a ‘year’ made up of 12 lunar months will be shorter than a solar year. To make up for this discrepancy, the Jewish calendar has a kind of ‘leap month’ every few years. Passover always starts on the 15th of the Jewish month of Nissan, which moves around relative to the solar calendars, but is generally around the beginning of spring.

It took a few years before the Church agreed apon a method for determining the date for Easter. It’s kind of a compromise between the solar and lunar calendars.

The general formula for determining the date for Easter is that it is the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox. Actually the method is a bit more complex. Here’s a link that explains it better:
aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/easter.html

 

[Angels_Watchin]

pazdziernik:

The Orthodox Churches use a different method of calculating Easter. (I think they calculate it to be the first Sunday after the Jewish Passover (?)). They use a different calendar as well. For Catholics and other Christians it’s the first Sunday after (on or after?) the first full moon of Spring. Every few years the dates and calendars coincide so we celebrate Easter on the same Sunday. It’s a movable feast like Penetcost. Christmas has a fixed date. It’s 9 months after March 25th, the Annunciation which is a fixed date as well.

Don’t know if you realized it, but, this year the Feast of the Annunciation and Good Friday fell on the same day. March 25. So they actually moved the Annunciation to (I think) April 4.

Consider, the Feast of the Annunciation and Good Friday, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. On the same day, during the year of the Eucharist, which is also the Christ.

Food for thought.

Blessings,’
Angel