Easter/Passover?

Poststructural Pub
1

Does anyone here know why Easter and Passover don’t always occur on the same weekend? Both are derived from a lunar calendar and often they are pretty close, but this year, Passover isn’t until 4/23.
If the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, why isn’t Good Friday always on the eve of Passover? Somewhere along the last 2000 years, the dates diverged for some reason.

2

AFAIK, Easter is not quite based on a lunar calendar. I believe it is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring equinox. So really it is reckoned on a solar event. Good Friday is reckoned from the date of Easter. I suppose this is what happens when Christianity tries to absorb Pagan celebrations :smiley:

Cheers,
David

3

From http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/easter.html:

The ecclesiastical rules are:

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

resulting in that Easter can never occur before March 22 or later than April 25.

The site also contains a good explanation of the history behind these rules.

Cheers,
John