Why Does Easter’s Date Change?
If it’s Christian and controversial, it always comes back to Constantine
Much of the Western world celebrates the birth of Jesus on the same date every year - so you might be wondering, why don’t the same people celebrate His death and resurrection the same way?
Easter, the celebration of renewal and rebirth, happens in the springtime between March 22nd and April 25th. For northern areas that means the celebration is often still buried under several feet of snow!
Once upon a time, Pascha, or Easter, was celebrated by Christians at the same time as the Jewish people celebrated Passover. This lasted until the year 325, when Roman Emperor Constantine I convened the Council of Nicea to remove the overlap between the two celebrations. He decreed that Easter was the more important celebration and that Eastern and Western Christians would celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on the same date.
The council decided that Easter would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon following the Vernal Equinox, according to the Julian calendar. If the full moon were to fall on a Sunday, Easter would be celebrated on the following Sunday in order to avoid coincidence with Passover. But issues arose with this arrangement due to the difference between the lunar and the solar calendar, and the fact that Eastern Churches refused to bend to the council’s way.
It was not until the reform of the Julian calendar in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII that a more universal system was developed. The Gregorian calendar clearly defined the ecclesiastical year, and set Easter on the first Sunday following the Vernal Equinox, which is fixed on March 21st. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar by Great Britain and Ireland in 1752 solidified the universality of the system.
According to the U.S. Naval Observatory, the actual Vernal Equinox is “determined by the motion of the Sun as seen from the Earth” and so cannot be fixed to a specific date. Because of the difference in determination of the Vernal Equinox between the Gregorian calendar and the Julian calendar, Easter is usually celebrated on a different Sunday by Western Churches than by Eastern Churches. The last year these dates coincided was 2004. Although some attempts to fix a specific date for Easter have gained a lot of support, to this day all have failed.
