12/16/2023 0 Comments When was easter last yearThat Easter, Passover and Ramadan major holidays in the three Abrahamic faiths converge this year hasn’t been lost on the Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities. Illustration by Alex Cochran, Deseret News. “Easter is only ever celebrated by all Christians on the relatively rare occasions when the two calendars align,” she added.Įaster last took place on the same day last year for both Christian Churches in 2017, but this will not happen again until 2034. SHARE As Ramadan, Passover and Easter converge, an interfaith trolley rolls out. “This is why even now Easter is calculated differently by the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches to the Catholic and other western Churches,” said theology and religion Professor Emma Loosely, from the University of Exeter. As neither the calendar year (365 days) nor the cycle of the phases of the Moon (29.5 days) divide evenly by the seven-day week, the date of Easter Sunday can move irregularly by up to a month, from between late March and late April.” Occasionally Orthodox churches celebrate Easter on the same date as Catholics and other western churches (Photo: Getty Images) Why do different churches celebrate Easter on different days?Įastern Churches (Greek and Slavic) and Oriental Churches (Syrian, Armenian, Coptic Egyptian and Ethiopian) continued using the Julian Calendar, named after Julius Caesar, even after Europe adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1582. “The day and night of the equinox are of approximately equal length. It decided Easter should be after the first full moon following the March equinox. Easter is a Christian holiday that celebrates the belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The Council of Nicaea was asked to resolve this. Learn how Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny fall into the holiday. Other early Christians preferred to celebrate on a Sunday because it is thought Jesus’s tomb was found on this day, according to Brent Landau, a lecturer in religious studies at the University of Texas. This correlates with March or April in the Gregorian calendar (named after Pope Gregory XIII), which is what we use today. How is the date of Easter determined Easter is a moveable holiday meaning that its date varies from year to year. Why did the Council of Nicaea need to intervene?Īs the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus happened after Passover, some early Christians decided to celebrate it then – on the 14th of the month of Nisan (from the Assyrian and Hebrew calendars). The decision on how and when Easter should fall each year was made by the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, the first major church council. Next year the equinox will take place on its usual date of 20 March, with the next full moon on 28 March – the Sunday exactly a week before Easter. “The reason for this is that Easter must occur after the biblical festival of Passover, on the full moon, when Jesus was crucified,” said Professor Sacha Stern, head of the Hebrew and Jewish Studies department at University College London. The date of Easter is calculated from the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring equinox in March. The position of Easter in the calendar depends on when the Spring Equinox falls (Photo: Getty Images) How do we work out when Easter will be?
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