Surely you thought about the origin of Easter, and why each year Easter is celebrated on different days, and also when there was the earliest Orthodox Easter. We will try to answer all of these questions in this article.
The Origin of Easter
All, of course, know that Easter is celebrated in honor of the resurrection of Christ. But not everyone remembers that the holiday of Easter goes back to the Jewish holiday Pesach (Peisah) - the day of the Jewish exodus from Egypt. Later, during the early Christianity, Easter (as well as Christmas) was celebrated weekly. More solemn these holidays were during the period of the Jewish Passover. But approximately to the second century this holiday becomes annual. Later, between Rome and the churches of Asia Minor, disagreements began about the traditions of celebrating Easter and the date of this holiday.
Why is Easter celebrated on different days?
The answer to this question follows from the history of the Easter holiday. After the disagreement between the different churches, repeated attempts were made to regularize the Easter celebrations (both traditions and dates of celebration). But confusion still could not be avoided. Some churches decided to count the dates of the celebration according to the Julian calendar, and some on the Gregorian calendar. That is why the dates for the celebration of Easter Catholic and Orthodox coincide rarely - only in 30% of cases. Most often, the Catholic Easter is celebrated (in 45% of cases) before the Orthodox Easter for one week. It is interesting that the difference between the dates of Catholic and Orthodox Easter does not happen at 3 and 2 weeks. In 5% of cases, the difference between them in 2 weeks, and in 20% - a five-week difference.
Can I calculate when I celebrate Easter on my own? It is possible, but it is necessary to remember the school lessons of mathematics and take into account all the rules of calculation. The main of them, common for the Orthodox and Catholic churches - Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the spring full moon. And the spring full moon, this is the day of the first full moon, which came after the spring equinox. This day is not difficult to find, but to calculate the full moon day, we must perform a number of mathematical calculations.
First find the remainder of dividing the selected year by 19 and add one to it. Now multiply this number by 11 and divide by 30, the remainder of division will be the base of the moon. Now calculate the date of the new moon, for this from 30 subtract the base of the moon. Well, the last action is the date of the full moon - by the date of the new moon we add 14. It's easier to use the calendar, do not you think so? But that's not all. If the full moon falls on the date before the vernal equinox, then the Passover full moon is the following. If the Easter full moon falls on Sunday, Easter will be celebrated next Sunday.
When was the earliest Easter?
In what month can the earliest Easter be? Based on all the church rules, the date of Easter can not be earlier than March 22 (April 4) and later April 25 (May 8), according to the old style, and even Easter day must be after the 14th of the month Nisan is according to the Jewish calendar. That is, in the twenty-first century, the earliest Easter was celebrated in 2010 (April 4), and the latest - in 2002 (May 5). And if you pay attention to the old style, then the earliest Easter was celebrated on March 22, as many as 13 times, beginning with 414 years. Also on March 22, the Bright Resurrection of Christ was celebrated in 509, 604, 851, 946, 1041, 1136, 1383, 1478, 1573, 1668, 1915 and 2010. But if you look at the new style, the earliest Easter, April 4, was celebrated only 9 times, in 1627, 1638, 1649, 1706, 1790, 1847, 1858, 1915 and 2010.