Have you ever wondered how it's decided and who decides when Easter will be? Since this year's (2008) Easter was the earliest one I remember, March 23rd, I decided to find out. Apparently, March 22nd is the earliest it can come and April 25th is the latest.
Easter mostly falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. The vernal equinox, or first day of Spring, occurs when the center of the sun is directly over the equator. The dates for Easter were calculated using a complex mathematical formula to work out the future dates of the full moon and the equinox. They were developed by bishops at the Council of Nicea, convened in 325 AD by Emperor Constantine, who wanted to set a common Sunday for Easter celebrations around the world and to know in advance when they would be.
So in 2008 the first day of Spring, or the vernal equinox, was March 20th. The full moon was the 21st and the Sunday after that, Easter Sunday, was the 23rd.
1 comment:
That is very interesting! Thanks for posting this Mom. I'll have to refer back to it, :)
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