Why do easter dates change

From then on the matter grew increasingly complex. To establish some consistency, the early church founders wanted to keep the observance of Easter in correlation to the Jewish Passover. Because the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ happened after Passover, they wanted Easter to always be celebrated following Passover.

Because the Jewish holiday calendar is based on solar and lunar cycles, each feast day is movable, with dates shifting from year to year. Now, from here, the explanation grows more complicated.

Today in the Western Christianity world, Easter is always celebrated on the Sunday immediately following the Paschal Full Moon date of the year. As astronomers were able to approximate the dates of all the full moons in future years, the Western Christian Church used these calculations to establish a table of full moon dates.

These dates would determine the Holy Days on the calendar. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Recommended Easter egg clampdown is wrong, says trade body. Already subscribed? Log in. Forgotten your password? Want an ad-free experience? View offers. List of years with earliest and latest Easter dates.

According to the Bible, Jesus Christ's death and resurrection occurred at the time of the Jewish Passover , which was celebrated on the first Full Moon following the vernal equinox.

This soon led to Christians celebrating Easter on different dates. At the end of the 2nd century, some congregations celebrated Easter on the day of the Passover, while others celebrated it on the following Sunday.

In CE , the Council of Nicaea established that Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox. Not all Christians observe Easter according to the Gregorian calendar ; most Orthodox Christians still follow the Julian calendar. Like the Easter date based on the Gregorian calendar, Orthodox Easter falls on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25 in the Julian calendar years In the Gregorian calendar, this corresponds to April 3 to May In some years, Orthodox Easter falls on the same day as western Easter.

The next time the two Easter dates coincide will be in April