Easter: a question about the date

[Oneofthewomen]

I know that Easter is celebrated, (at least Easter in my American, Latin-Rite church) on the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the vernal equinox.
Which is why Easter can be as early as March 22 or as late as April 24, which is the case this year.

So I have a few of questions…

#1- why is this “formula” used?

#2- Growing up, I had a Greek Orthodox friend who celebrated Easter usually a week of 2 later than we did. I recall hearing that it had to do with the Latin Church following one calendar (Gregorian, I believe) and the GO using the Julian calendar and that this was part of the schism between the two churches. (not sure, but I may have the calendars reversed) Is this true?

Does anyone know of where I could find some reliable information about this?
This whole thing fascinates me.
I am not sure why, it’s just my quirky thirst for what most consider pointless knowledge.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Peace!

 

[marytk]

I don’t know why.
One thing I heard about the Eastern Easter is that it can never fall before Passover. I understand why this interests you. I feel the same way. I remember years ago asking a friend how the Greeks dated Easter. She didn’t know. She was going to ask her priest, but if she did, she didn’t tell me.
I know that the Eastern Christmas is 12 days later than ours and that does have to do with the two calenders. The Gregorian calender fixed a problem in the Julian one. I think that when England finally when to the “new” calender it did things like change George Washington’s birthday.

 

[ConstantineTG]

I know that Easter is celebrated, (at least Easter in my American, Latin-Rite church) on the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the vernal equinox.
Which is why Easter can be as early as March 22 or as late as April 24, which is the case this year.

So I have a few of questions…

#1- why is this “formula” used?

Based on when the date of the Jewish Passover is. Since we know Jesus and the Apostles celebrated the passover before he was crucified, we know the date on the Jewish calendar of his crucifixion.

#2- Growing up, I had a Greek Orthodox friend who celebrated Easter usually a week of 2 later than we did. I recall hearing that it had to do with the Latin Church following one calendar (Gregorian, I believe) and the GO using the Julian calendar and that this was part of the schism between the two churches. (not sure, but I may have the calendars reversed) Is this true?

I believe its generally because of the Gregorian vs. Julian dates. I never knew it was the cause of the schism. I know a long list of theological disputes that brought about the schism but never were the calendars a part of them.

Does anyone know of where I could find some reliable information about this?
This whole thing fascinates me.
I am not sure why, it’s just my quirky thirst for what most consider pointless knowledge.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Peace!

newadvent.org/cathen/05224d.htm

newadvent.org/cathen/05228a.htm

 

[Spirithound]

I know that Easter is celebrated, (at least Easter in my American, Latin-Rite church) on the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the vernal equinox.
Which is why Easter can be as early as March 22 or as late as April 24, which is the case this year.

So I have a few of questions…

#1- why is this “formula” used?

#2- Growing up, I had a Greek Orthodox friend who celebrated Easter usually a week of 2 later than we did. I recall hearing that it had to do with the Latin Church following one calendar (Gregorian, I believe) and the GO using the Julian calendar and that this was part of the schism between the two churches. Is this true?

Dear Lady,
More precisely, the formula for the date of Easter is “the Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon”. The Paschal Full Moon occurs on the 14th day of the Paschal Lunar Month. The lunar month cycle is a 235-month cycle covering 19 years, in 29- and 30-day blocks, which are approximately faithful to the astronomical lunar cycle. The block which begins between March 8 and April 5 is the Paschal Lunar Month. This was decided for the whole Church at the Council of Nicaea, AD 325.

The former plan was to ask the Jews when they were celebrating Passover, and the Churches in Rome and Alexandria celebrated Easter on the following Sunday, while the Church in Antioch celebrated on the same day as the Jews (14 Nisan). This became an issue for conciliar discussion for a couple reasons.

First, due to poor cross-continent communications, different villages might celebrate the Jewish Passover on different days. Second, some Christians considered it simply unsuitable to mold their calendar to the Jewish calendar. I’m sure some of that was pride, but more practically, what would they do if they happened to convert all the Jews?

To “patriate” the calculations for the date of Easter, the Christians started using the calculation methods of Alexandria, which used a combination lunar-solar calendar similar in nature to the Jewish calendar, which adds a month every few years to make sure their festivals stay in the proper seasons. This took a few centuries to spread uniformly, but it caught on. For greater ease of calculation, the vernal equinox is stipulated to always be March 21.

It is true that (some, at least,) Orthodox Churches use the Julian calendar, while the Church of Rome uses the Gregorian calendar, but this was not a cause, or even an issue of the Great Schism, but a distant consequence of it. The Gregorian calendar was promulgated by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 for the Church of Rome, and was accepted by most, and then all of the governments of Europe, but probably mostly due to communication and political issues, it never made it to the East.

 

[Matthew_Holford]

I know that Easter is celebrated, (at least Easter in my American, Latin-Rite church) on the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the vernal equinox.
Which is why Easter can be as early as March 22 or as late as April 24, which is the case this year.

So I have a few of questions…

#1- why is this “formula” used?

#2- Growing up, I had a Greek Orthodox friend who celebrated Easter usually a week of 2 later than we did. I recall hearing that it had to do with the Latin Church following one calendar (Gregorian, I believe) and the GO using the Julian calendar and that this was part of the schism between the two churches. (not sure, but I may have the calendars reversed) Is this true?

Does anyone know of where I could find some reliable information about this?
This whole thing fascinates me.
I am not sure why, it’s just my quirky thirst for what most consider pointless knowledge.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Peace!

For the purpose of calculating Easter the Church uses a fixed date of 21st March, even though in nature the actual date of the vernal equinox is not always the 21st March. So we celebrate Easter following the full moon that occurs on 21st March or if there is no full moon on 21st, the first full moon following 21st March. I believe if the full moon falls on a Sunday, Easter Sunday is celebrated on the following Sunday. I am not sure that one of the causes of the Great Schism can have been about the Gregorian and Julian calendars because the Gregorian calendar did not exist at the time. There is a Wikipedia article about Easter that explains how its date is worked out at this link. This Wikipedia article explains how some Eastern Christian Churches use the Julian calendar.

 

[Oneofthewomen]

Thanks everyone for the answers so far!

And Constantine, thanks for the links!

Regarding the calendar issue as part of the cause of the “schism”, I did not think this was correct, but was never able to actually ask any of my friends relatives. They all had very definite ideas about the “Roman Church”…,
and I was lucky that they liked me, and allowed me to be friends w/ their daughter!
(think of the Grandma from “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”!!)