When Is Easter And Why Does It Always Change?
When Is Easter? This has always been a very good question
because there was a time when Easter was moved around from day
to day. The pagan celebration of Easter occurred each year at
the same time that the Christians were celebrating the
miraculous resurrection of their savior Jesus Christ. This was
during the spring equinox. Some of the pagan beliefs centered
around Attis while others were more concerned with the coming of
the spring. But each year Easter was celebrated on a different
day of the week, sometimes it was a Sunday, others a Monday, it
has even been on a Friday and a Saturday. This was a very long
time ago, only about 300 or so years after Jesus died.
At about that time people decided that it might be a better idea
to have Easter occur on the same day of the week each year and
so it was written. This meeting happened between Constantine and
some of the other important people of the times in 325 AD. And
ever since then Easter has been on a Sunday.
To be more specific this "Easter Rule" states that Easter will
be celebrated on the first Sunday that has a full moon after the
vernal equinox. Sometimes it is on the vernal equinox as opposed
to actually after it, but you get the meaning. There is some
discord between the actual dates of the full moons and the
ecclesiastical full moons, which lead to Easter being celebrated
between the dates of March 22 and April 25 each year.
This might be confusing but it is just the way that Easter has
always been chosen. That is why we have calendars, they tell us
when Easter is going to be each year. Honestly I don't know what
I would do without mine!
The fact of the matter is that while it is important that we
know when Easter is so that we can celebrate it, the most
important thing is that we bring our families together at this
time in order to rejoice in the fact that we have family to
gather. Not everyone is so lucky, these people do not have
friends and families to share Easter with, so feel blessed and
feel hopeful, whether you are religious or not this year.