Easter - why the ever-changing date?

[bspider]

I said, in a reply in the main forum:



I'd *love* to abolish the Easter holiday and replace it with something more sensible. Something that occurs at the same time each year would be a start...

Boris.


I was told that the groundswell of opinion would be against such a move.
I thought it best to take it over to OT, so:

Why? and Where?

Boris.

[Estelle]

As for why, Boris, I can't remember the exact details but it's something like the first Sunday after the first new moon after some other important date in the christian calendar.

Which is another example of St Augustine taking over pre-existing non christian festivals and bend them to his own purposes. Like placing Xmas a few days after Winter Solstice.

New Moon? That's pagan isn't it? Also rather feminine for THAT old misogynist!

Estelle

[~*~ k a t e ~*~]

I love eating a big piece of egg-shaped chocolate to celebrate Jesus's death... :lol:

(seriously, what were the Christian's thinking??)

[Wet Pacific Northwest]

Gotta give them credit - nothing like a sales pitch to those
rascally pagans to get them to buy the 'new model' :-)
"Why yes, sweetheart - WE have new moon stuff TOO! And
while we're talking, your October 31 sabbat also happens to
coincide with our ALL SOULS DAY! So how about placing an
order?"

I'm Jewish - Hannukah always starts on the TWENTY FIFTH of
the Hebrew month of Kislev.... coincidence? I think not!

Dave
WPNW

[bspider]

I'm aware of the reason why the date of Easter changes. Why on earth we continue to move the holidays around to suit a minority interest in this way completely beats me, though.

Boris.

[Estelle]

Me too.

How about making PJ Harvey's birthday a National Holiday!!

Or mine!!!!!!

Estelle

[Ape]

I'm aware of the reason why the date of Easter changes. Why on earth we continue to move the holidays around to suit a minority interest in this way completely beats me, though.

Boris.

Because that minority control such things - which is the same reason why business rules the world, taxation is kept low, green politics are ignored, countries go to war etc...

[aquarian]

Don't worry people,

I can assure you all, that when I am prime minister and finally emperor of the galaxy, these commercial absurdities will be abolished, and perhaps replaced with panty-wetting festivals. Less money, and far more fun.

Moreover, it can be embraced by all faiths. All the world can be included in a massive wee soaked orgy. But yes, the link between resurresction, and novelty shaped chocolate eggs is somewhat weak.

Mike

[Indigo]

Easter moves because the Last Supper which Jesus shared with his disciples was the Passover; and the Passover isn't celebrated by the Jews on a fixed date but on a date when the phase of the moon will be the same as it was on the night of the Passover. Since the moon does not complete an exact number of orbits of the earth in the time it takes the earth to orbit the sun, the date of teh Passover celebration cannot be a fixed date.

Early Christians were all converts from Judaism. They accepted Passover as a moveable feast, and it was therefore natural to them that their commemoration of the events of Holy Week should also be a moveable feast, linked to the Jewish celebration of Passover so that they could take advantage of the Rabbis' calculations of the correct date for celebrating Passover (as the early disciples were all ordinary, illiterate folk, you will recall).

The modern method of fixing the date for Easter was agreed upon at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. Easter is celebrated on (wait for it) ... the first Sunday after the full moon which occurs next after March 21 (got that one??).