Why isn't Easter on the 24th of March this year? (2019)

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Easter is supposed to fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.

That’s today.

the Equinox happened on the 20th, the full moon happened on the 21st, and today, the 24th, is the first Sunday following that Full moon.

At first I thought it was a time zone issue, but the precise time of the full moon and the precise time of the equinox are on separate days in both Greenwich Mean Time and Central European Time (Vatican’s time zone).

What gives?
 
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The Ecclesiastical Full Moon, used for calculating the date of Easter, is slightly different from the astronomical full moon. The length of the astronomical lunar month, from one new moon to the next, varies between approximately 29 days 7 hours and 29 days 19½ hours. The average duration is 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes and a few seconds, and this average is the formula the Church uses. As a result, in some years a difference of even just a few hours between the observed astronomical full moon and the ecclesiastical full moon can have the effect of shifting Easter a whole month forward.

The rabbis use a similar formula for calculating the date of Passover, but there is a slight difference between the two formulas, which, again, can sometimes mean there is a longer or shorter interval between Passover and Easter.

 
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And this is exactly what gives an opening for East and West to get away from the calendar differences, and resolve Easter with actual astronomical calculations . . .

Nice didn’t specific “ecclesiastical” new moons; the calendars are just trying to deal with this. . . .
 
This year, according to what I read, the full moon was on the 20th, a few hours after the equinox. However, the Church says March 21 is the first day of spring (it’s not a moveable feast, you might say). So, that’s why Easter wasn’t yesterday. We haven’t had a full moon on or after March 21.

Dan
 
In simple terms it is because the Church does not use the actual astronomical spring equinox and full moons.
 
Also, the event isn’t necessarily the same calendar day around the world . . .
 
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