decibel45: Some interesting factoids about the Easter and the Calendar

Decibel (

decibel45) wrote,
@ 2008-03-19 23:10:00

Some interesting factoids about the Easter and the Calendar
As you may know, Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20).

This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

Found out a couple of things you might be interested in!

Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) but that is pretty rare.

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier! Here are the facts:

The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).

The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

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	goulo 2008-03-20 12:23 pm UTC (link)
	Thanks for the info! I just used this in an English lesson today. Good practice with numbers. :) (Reply to this)

	snow_white725 2008-03-20 01:10 pm UTC (link)
	I know I'm a dork...but I found this really interesting! =) (Reply to this)

ivo
2008-03-20 01:28 pm UTC (link)

Christianity states that the crucifixion happened during Passover (Luke 22:14-20). Passover itself is related to the Exodus to Egypt. The Jewish Passover will only be in April this year, because Nissan 14 5678 falls on April 19 2008.

See, the Jewish month starts with a new moon after the equinox (month of Nissan) and Passover starts 14 days later. Typically, the first full moon after the equinox equals 14 days after the first new moon after the equinox, but not always. Oh, and the new moon date is the new moon in Jerusalem, not the "astronomical new moon date", so that differs a few hours, making the whole calendar shift a month sometimes as well.

And then there's the Jehova's Witnesses, who keep with the bible and always celebrate the Last Support on Nissan 14 as per the bible passage in Luke. Which means it's typically around Passover, not Easter. But this year, the Memorial falls on March 22 anyway.

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	bsdcat 2008-03-20 01:39 pm UTC (link)
	...and Pascha, the Orthodox observance, will occur on April 27 this year, because they still use the Julian calendar. (Reply to this)(Parent)

jasolater
2008-03-21 02:38 am UTC (link)

For the last two years I've been celebrating Passover, with the breaking of unleavened bread and wine, because it has a lot more significance than "Easter", which is basically just regurgitated paganism, what with the dyed eggs and bunnies and all. A Messianic Jewish friend of mine has been helping me to learn the Jewish calendar.

Pretty sure the word "Easter" comes from "Ishtar", an ancient pagan goddess.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

uthrom
2008-03-24 04:16 pm UTC (link)

AFAIHH, Passover this year has been predicted for April 21st, or at the first new moon sighting thereafter (dependent on weather and whatnot).

For those wondering what I'm talking about, the traditional Jewish calendar (not the calculated one that Leto refers to) starts at the first new moon after the first sighting of the ripe barley.

People have been running all over Israel the last weeks looking for ripe barley, and they found it sometime in the last 2 days.

And thus, paradoxically, Jesus has risen (Easter) before he died (Passover).

o/~ Let's do the time warp again. o/~

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	captspastic 2008-03-20 06:10 pm UTC (link)
	Happy Vernal Equinox everyone! Can we just go ahead and blame the pagans? That's who traditional American society likes to blame for most things in this realm anyway, so let's make it their fault officially that Easter gets moved around. Everyone's bitching about Day Lights Saving time and Standard time anyway, so let's throw that into the mix. New Policy... Blame the Pagans! (Reply to this)

	heidinoel 2008-04-02 05:06 pm UTC (link)
	i knew it was ear.ier this year--actually, it kind of stuck up on me! but i didn't know that history-- cool deci!! (Reply to this)

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