Confused on how the Date of Easter is Determined

[DM25]

What confuses me is this... The death of Jesus Christ was supposed to be on the night of Passover (today). But Jesus died and rose again on the third day... So wouldn't his resurrection actually be Monday then? How come Easter is on Sunday? if Easter is supposed to be the day of his resurrection? And another question I have is how come on some years, Easter and Passover do not coincide at all? Passover may be 6 days before Easter, and this doesn't make sense according to the timeline of Jesus dying on the Passover day and then getting resurrected on the third day. Can someone explain.

 

[thecolorsblend]

How is Easter Sunday determined? Palm Sunday? Ash Wednesday?

 

[-Sasha-]

Friday (day 1), Saturday (day 2), Sunday (day 3)..

 

[DM25]

Friday (day 1), Saturday (day 2), Sunday (day 3)..

Gotcha, math is obviously not my strong point lol. But how does that explain some years, like in 2017, where Passover is set as 6 days before Easter Sunday? That part confuses me the most...

 

[ViaCrucis]

What confuses me is this... The death of Jesus Christ was supposed to be on the night of Passover (today). But Jesus died and rose again on the third day... So wouldn't his resurrection actually be Monday then? How come Easter is on Sunday? if Easter is supposed to be the day of his resurrection? And another question I have is how come on some years, Easter and Passover do not coincide at all? Passover may be 6 days before Easter, and this doesn't make sense according to the timeline of Jesus dying on the Passover day and then getting resurrected on the third day. Can someone explain.

Sunday is the third day from Friday.

Friday: 1st day.
Saturday: 2nd day.
Sunday: 3rd day.

In the early church there wasn't a standardized way to determine Easter, and so different churches used different methods of calculation. However, in the 4th century, the Council of Nicea (325 AD) decided it might be beneficial for the whole Church to use one method of calculation, and what they went with was already pretty common.

The method of calculation proposed at Nicea: Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the calendar northern spring equinox. That is, the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after March 21st. So for 2019 (on the Gregorian Calendar) that means Easter falls on April 21st, as the Ecclesiastical Full Moon this year was yesterday, April 18th (note that the Ecclesiastical Full Moon can differ from the astronomical full moon, it's quirky, but basically a notational lunar calendar is kept to help keep Easter calculations consistent).

Things are kept fairly easily trackable because Paschal Tables are a thing. Using fixed dates and a notational lunar calendar to keep track of ecclesiastical full moons, it's easy to know when Easter falls on any given year.

This method seems perhaps kind of strange, but it came from one of the ancient methods of antiquity, which was that Easter falling on the first Sunday after the Jewish Passover; the council fathers decided instead of relying on the Jewish calendar, to come up with a method that was similar, but independent of the Jewish calculation of Passover. Hence using a fixed spring equinox calendar date, and a notational lunar calendar.

Editing to add: This is also why Easter often happens on different days for Western and Eastern Christians. As the spring equinox is a fixed date of March 21st for computational purposes, and there is a disparity between the Gregorian Calendar used in the West and the Julian Calendar used in the East. If I'm doing my math right (and good chance I'm not), then that would mean the Julian Ecclesiastical Full Moon falls on the Julian calendar day of April 8th (April 21st on the Gregorian Calendar), and the first Sunday after would be the Julian calendar day of April 15th (April 28th on the Gregorian calendar).

And when I use Google, yep, Orthodox Easter is on April 28th (Gregorian), which translates to April 15th Julian.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[-Sasha-]

Gotcha, math is obviously not my strong point lol. But how does that explain some years, like in 2017, where Passover is set as 6 days before Easter Sunday? That part confuses me the most...

I'm coming at this from Eastern Orthodoxy, so our celebration date is usually different than the one (Western) Easter falls on. For example, we will be celebrating Palm Sunday this weekend, and Easter (Pascha) next Sunday. I'm not entirely sure how the date is calculated but here is my possibly flawed understanding: Pascha is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal (spring) equinox (the day the sun is exactly above the equator and day and night are almost exactly the same length). Passover used to be calculated this way, but I think it is calculated differently now which would lead to the celebrations not lining up.

As for why our date is sometimes different from the Western Easter date, I believe there was a council which decided to use a set date of March 21 as the vernal equinox in Eastern Orthodoxy, while the West actually calculates it by when the sun is actually above the equator.

Edit: the post above mine is probably more accurate!

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

I'm coming at this from Eastern Orthodoxy, so our celebration date is usually different than the one (Western) Easter falls on. For example, we will be celebrating Palm Sunday this weekend, and Easter (Pascha) next Sunday. I'm not entirely sure how the date is calculated but here is my possibly flawed understanding: Pascha is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal (spring) equinox (the day the sun is exactly above the equator and day and night are almost exactly the same length). Passover used to be calculated this way, but I think it is calculated differently now which would lead to the celebrations not lining up.

As for why our date is sometimes different from the Western Easter date, I believe there was a council which decided to use a set date of March 21 as the vernal equinox in Eastern Orthodoxy, while the West actually calculates it by when the sun is actually above the equator.

Edit: the post above mine is probably more accurate!

Actually, I think it is Gregorian Calendar that us used for calculation in some Orthodox Church vs. Julian Calendar; hence the difference.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

Sunday is the third day from Friday.

Friday: 1st day.
Saturday: 2nd day.
Sunday: 3rd day.

In the early church there wasn't a standardized way to determine Easter, and so different churches used different methods of calculation. However, in the 4th century, the Council of Nicea (325 AD) decided it might be beneficial for the whole Church to use one method of calculation, and what they went with was already pretty common.

The method of calculation proposed at Nicea: Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the calendar northern spring equinox. That is, the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after March 21st. So for 2019 (on the Gregorian Calendar) that means Easter falls on April 21st, as the Ecclesiastical Full Moon this year was yesterday, April 18th (note that the Ecclesiastical Full Moon can differ from the astronomical full moon, it's quirky, but basically a notational lunar calendar is kept to help keep Easter calculations consistent).

Things are kept fairly easily trackable because Paschal Tables are a thing. Using fixed dates and a notational lunar calendar to keep track of ecclesiastical full moons, it's easy to know when Easter falls on any given year.

This method seems perhaps kind of strange, but it came from one of the ancient methods of antiquity, which was that Easter falling on the first Sunday after the Jewish Passover; the council fathers decided instead of relying on the Jewish calendar, to come up with a method that was similar, but independent of the Jewish calculation of Passover. Hence using a fixed spring equinox calendar date, and a notational lunar calendar.

Editing to add: This is also why Easter often happens on different days for Western and Eastern Christians. As the spring equinox is a fixed date of March 21st for computational purposes, and there is a disparity between the Gregorian Calendar used in the West and the Julian Calendar used in the East. If I'm doing my math right (and good chance I'm not), then that would mean the Julian Ecclesiastical Full Moon falls on the Julian calendar day of April 8th (April 21st on the Gregorian Calendar), and the first Sunday after would be the Julian calendar day of April 15th (April 28th on the Gregorian calendar).

And when I use Google, yep, Orthodox Easter is on April 28th (Gregorian), which translates to April 15th Julian.

-CryptoLutheran

Beat me to it with a better explanation!!

 

[-Sasha-]

Actually, I think it is Gregorian Calendar that us used for calculation in some Orthodox Church vs. Julian Calendar; hence the difference.

I'm not sure whether that is true or not. All I know is that sometimes the Easter/Pascha date is the same for both, sometimes it is weeks apart. If it were only a matter of the calender I would expect a standard variance, but I could be wrong about that!

 

[Knee V]

Actually, I think it is Gregorian Calendar that us used for calculation in some Orthodox Church vs. Julian Calendar; hence the difference.

That there is most of the difference. The Orthodox calculation assumes March 21 to be the Equinox, and that is March 21 on the Julian Calendar.

The other difference comes from a calculated cycle of full moons, which, in the 4th century, was thought to be a very reliable. I think it is something like a 19-year repeating cycle. It is a couple days off now (I don't know if the modern Catholic Church still uses that cycle or if they use more modern calculations for the full moons).

A Julian March 21 Equinox and a predetermined cycle of full moons makes the Western and Eastern Pascha/Easter dates divergent.

 

[ViaCrucis]

There is a slight difference between the Julian and Gregorian lunar cycles, but I'm still rather fuzzy on it, even after having tried reading about it several times now. But what I do know is that when using the Paschal Table to get Julian Easter one takes the year and adds one before dividing by 19.

So the Gregorian method was (Current Year) ÷ 19, the Julian method was (Current Year + 1) ÷ 19.

In both cases I just used the Paschal Tables from this pdf to get results (using an online calendar converter to convert the Julian date to the Gregorian date or vice versa):
http://www.stgeorgesofforesthill.co...12/09/Newsletter_Insert_Easter2012_PRESS1.pdf

-CryptoLutheran

 

[prodromos]

There is also a canon that the date calculated cannot be before or on the same day as the Jewish passover. If it is then it gets moved back a week. I can't remember which council this was from though.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

There is also a canon that the date calculated cannot be before or on the same day as the Jewish passover. If it is then it gets moved back a week. I can't remember which council this was from though.

This makes sense because ocassionally, Orthodox Churches that use the "new" calendar celebrate Easter on a different date than the western Church.

This year, for instance, the Passover began at sun-down, Good Friday, I believe.

 

[Mockingbird0]

What confuses me is this... The death of Jesus Christ was supposed to be on the night of Passover (today). But Jesus died and rose again on the third day... So wouldn't his resurrection actually be Monday then? How come Easter is on Sunday? if Easter is supposed to be the day of his resurrection? And another question I have is how come on some years, Easter and Passover do not coincide at all? Passover may be 6 days before Easter, and this doesn't make sense according to the timeline of Jesus dying on the Passover day and then getting resurrected on the third day. Can someone explain.

The conditions for Easter since the 4th century have been (1) the equinox, (2) the 14th day of the first lunar month of Spring, and (3) Friday, the Sabbath, and the Lord's Day. And Christians since the 4th century have been calculating their lunar calendar independently of the Jewish calendar. It is still done independently, so that the 14th day of the moon in the Rabbinic Jewish calendar is not necessarily the 14th day of the moon in the Gregorian lunar calendar. Nor does the lunar month in which Easter falls always line up with the lunar month in which Rabbinic Unleavened Bread falls. Rabbinic Unleavened Bread is normally at the first full moon after the Spring equinox, but in 3 years out of every 19--the 3rd, 11th, and 14th years of the Gregorian 19-year cycle--Rabbinic Unleavened Bread is at the second full moon after the equinox. This is due to a slight solar drift in the Rabbinic Jewish calendar. This year, 2022, is the 9th year of the Christian cycle, so the next time Easter and Unleavened Bread are a month apart will be in 2024.

When Easter and Unleavened Bread are around a week apart, it is because the Christian festival must always be on Sunday in the third week of the Paschal lunar month. For example, Sunday, March 27, 1994 was the 15th of the lunar month in the Rabbinic Jewish calendar, and so was the first day of Unleavened Bread, but it was only the 14th of the lunar month in the Gregorian lunar calendar. Since Easter must be the 3rd Sunday in its lunar month, it could not fall on March 27, 1994 which was only the second Sunday in the Gregorian lunar month. Easter had to wait until the following Sunday.

 

[Filippus]

What confuses me is this... The death of Jesus Christ was supposed to be on the night of Passover (today). But Jesus died and rose again on the third day... So wouldn't his resurrection actually be Monday then? How come Easter is on Sunday? if Easter is supposed to be the day of his resurrection? And another question I have is how come on some years, Easter and Passover do not coincide at all? Passover may be 6 days before Easter, and this doesn't make sense according to the timeline of Jesus dying on the Passover day and then getting resurrected on the third day. Can someone explain.

Well Scripture is very clear, yet generally ignored or misunderstood.

And Christianity has defined it clearly through the council of Nicaea.

Easter or Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the Full moon, after equinox.

On the Gregorian calendar equinox is pinned to 21 March with small variation.

Therefore we look for the Full moon after 21 March, which identifies 14 Nisan/Abib, and the first Sunday after the Full moon identifies the day of resurrection or Easter Sunday.

This also proves that Jesus did not die on the 14th like most Christians claim today, because Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples, again ignored or rejected by many.

Hope this helps

Shalom

 

[Mockingbird0]

This also proves that Jesus did not die on the 14th like most Christians claim today, because Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples, again ignored or rejected by many.

According to the synoptic Gospels, Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples.

According to the Gospel of John, Jesus was crucified on the 14th of Nisan (the day of the slaughter of the Passover lambs) and rose on the 16th of Nisan (the day of waving the sheaf).

John's account is theologically neater, which argues that it is not the original account.

But the synoptic Evangelists seem to want to derive the Eucharist from the Passover meal, which argues that their account is not the original account.

There is also the question of whether the Roman governor would stage an execution during the days of Unleavened Bread, an act which might be thought to enrage popular opinion. This argues for John's dating.

In the end there is no solution for this contradiction, though Roger T. Beckwith has tried to explain it away by means of sophistry--unsuccessfully, in my view.

 

[Mockingbird0]

There is also a canon that the date calculated cannot be before or on the same day as the Jewish passover. If it is then it gets moved back a week. I can't remember which council this was from though.

There is no such canon.

There are two canons which forbid using the Jewish calendar to calculate the date of Easter. They are Canon 1 of Antioch and Canon 7 of the Apostles:

If any bishop, presbyter, or deacon, shall celebrate the holy day of Easter before the vernal equinox, with the Jews, let him be deposed.

Whosoever shall presume to set aside the decree of the holy and great Synod which was assembled at Nicea in the presence of the pious Emperor Constantine, beloved of God, concerning the holy and salutary feast of Easter; if they shall obstinately persist in opposing what was [then] rightly ordained, let them be excommunicated and cast out of the Church; this is said concerning the laity. But if any one of those who preside in the Church, whether he be bishop, presbyter, or deacon, shall presume, after this decree, to exercise his own private judgment to the subversion of the people and to the disturbance of the churches, by observing Easter with the Jews, the holy Synod decrees that he shall thenceforth be an alien from the Church, as one who not only heaps sins upon himself, but who is also the cause of destruction and subversion to many.

Both these canons are referring to the same thing: Celebrating the festival before the Spring equinox. They forbid Christians from setting Easter the the Sunday in the Jewish week of Unleavened Bread (this was the original custom in Christianity), if doing so would place the festival before the equinox. The Sunday of Easter, according to the Council of Nicea, was to be calculated independently of the Jewish calendar.

The Easter computus that eventually prevailed, the Alexandrian computus, calculates a Christian month of Nisan and sets Easter to the third Sunday in that lunar month; so the age of the moon at Easter had to be greater than or equal to 15 days and less than or equal to 21 days. Now the third Sunday in Nisan is the same thing as the Sunday after the 14th of Nisan. So the rule for setting Easter to the third Sunday in Nisan was often expressed as a rule that, if the 14th of Nisan was a Sunday, Easter was to be "postponed" to the following Sunday (the 21st). This is the rule that the Julian and Gregorian computi still follow: Easter is the Sunday after the 14th of Nisan, or, saying the same thing, the third Sunday in Nisan.

 

[Filippus]

According to the synoptic Gospels, Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples.


According to the Gospel of John, Jesus was crucified on the 14th of Nisan (the day of the slaughter of the Passover lambs) and rose on the 16th of Nisan (the day of waving the sheaf).


John's account is theologically neater, which argues that it is not the original account.


But the synoptic Evangelists seem to want to derive the Eucharist from the Passover meal, which argues that their account is not the original account.


There is also the question of whether the Roman governor would stage an execution during the days of Unleavened Bread, an act which might be thought to enrage popular opinion. This argues for John's dating.


In the end there is no solution for this contradiction, though Roger T. Beckwith has tried to explain it away by means of sophistry--unsuccessfully, in my view.

So this is interesting that you propose that there is no solution, in fact are you proposing that we need to question the authenticity of Scripture?

Rather than to question the present day interpretation of Scripture?

Even though the mistake is clearly with our interpretation of scripture.

Now in the synoptic gospels we have 3 books of the Bible not 3 verses, but large portions in chapters explaining exactly, in great detail, the same event.

These chapters confirming that Jesus ate the Passover and was alive and well on the evening of the 15th.

And yet your conclusion is that we have to question this, because of one verse in the book of John which is taken out of context?

This very verse doesn't even claim the 14th, like you are implying, but is mis represented.

Now I choose to believe scripture which is the true Eyewitness account of the event, and I see no contradiction between the synoptic gospels and the book of John.

In fact Palm Sunday, good Friday and Easter Sunday is the evidence required to prove that even in 325 a.d., the council of Nicaea also viewed that Jesus died after the evening of the 15th.

And the way that palm Sunday Good Friday and Easter Sunday has been placed was derived from John 12.

The very book you propose is in conflict with the synoptic gospels.

The only thing that has changed is our understanding of the festivals.

Shalom

 

[Filippus]

There is no such canon.

There are two canons which forbid using the Jewish calendar to calculate the date of Easter. They are Canon 1 of Antioch and Canon 7 of the Apostles:





Both these canons are referring to the same thing: Celebrating the festival before the Spring equinox. They forbid Christians from setting Easter the the Sunday in the Jewish week of Unleavened Bread (this was the original custom in Christianity), if doing so would place the festival before the equinox. The Sunday of Easter, according to the Council of Nicea, was to be calculated independently of the Jewish calendar.

The Easter computus that eventually prevailed, the Alexandrian computus, calculates a Christian month of Nisan and sets Easter to the third Sunday in that lunar month; so the age of the moon at Easter had to be greater than or equal to 15 days and less than or equal to 21 days. Now the third Sunday in Nisan is the same thing as the Sunday after the 14th of Nisan. So the rule for setting Easter to the third Sunday in Nisan was often expressed as a rule that, if the 14th of Nisan was a Sunday, Easter was to be "postponed" to the following Sunday (the 21st). This is the rule that the Julian and Gregorian computi still follow: Easter is the Sunday after the 14th of Nisan, or, saying the same thing, the third Sunday in Nisan.

Well the key is the full moon.

The Full Moon falling on the 14th of Nisan to be precise. Infact the full moon identify exactly the transition between the 14th and 15th of Nisan.

The Council understood this when they decreed that Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon in Spring or after the Spring Equinox.

Today we would say, the first Sunday after the first full moon that falls after 19-21 March, 19-21 March being the Equinox pinned on the Gregorian calendar.

What this clearly highlights is the fact that the council understood that Easter Sunday, the Resurrection day, fell after the 15th or the full moon.

Hope this helps.

Shalom

 

[Mockingbird0]

Today we would say, the first Sunday after the first full moon that falls after 19-21 March, 19-21 March being the Equinox pinned on the Gregorian calendar.

In the church's tables, the equinox is always March 21 regardless of the astronomical equinox.