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Why does Easter come when it does?

Have you ever given any thought to the date of Easter? We all recognize that it moves from year to year, unlike Christmas. Folks will even say, "Easter is early this year" or "Easter is late this year." Ever wonder how the date of Easter is set? The current rules for setting the date of Easter date back to the reign of the Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.

The statement, "Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox" is only actually partially correct. The moon that is referred to in this sentence is not the astronomical moon, but the Ecclesiastical moon, which is determined based on tables. However, the two do not differ significantly.

The official rules on setting Easter are as follows:

1. Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox;
2. This particular ecclesiastical full moon is the 14th day of a tabular lunation (new moon); and
3. The vernal equinox is fixed as March 21.

Easter can never occur before March 22nd and can never occur after April 25th.

Now, the western church uses a different calendar and table to calculate the ecclesiastical full moons. Our dates are based on the Gregorian calendar while the Eastern Orthodox church uses the older Julian calendar. Therefore, their celebration of Easter is on a different day than ours.

Here are the dates for Easter from 1980 through 2024 (just in case you ever wanted to know):

1980 April 6 1995 April 16 2010 April 4

1981 April 19 1996 April 7 2011 April 24

1982 April 11 1997 March 30 2012 April 8

1983 April 3 1998 April 12 2013 March 31

1984 April 22 1999 April 4 2014 April 20

1985 April 7 2000 April 23 2015 April 5

1986 March 30 2001 April 15 2016 March 27

1987 April 19 2002 March 31 2017 April 16

1988 April 3 2003 April 20 2018 April 1

1989 March 26 2004 April 11 2019 April 21

1990 April 15 2005 March 27 2020 April 12

1991 March 31 2006 April 16 2021 April 4

1992 April 19 2007 April 8 2022 April 17

1993 April 11 2008 March 23 2023 April 9

1994 April 3 2009 April 12 2024 March 31