When Do We Celebrate Easter?

 

                      When do we celebrate Easter each year?

There is a specific process around which we celebrate Easter each year.

It's about the equinox - that day in March when the sun crosses the  celestial equator, and day and night are of approximately equal length. This happens twice each year - around March 23 and around September 22. In March days begin to get longer after the equinox and in September they begin to get shorter. 

(It was a Greek scholar who calculated the equinox. His name was Hipparchus, and published his findings about 127 BC.)

It was a decision reached at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD when church leaders decided to unify the celebration day so that all Christians would be celebrating that great time together. So they chose to celebrate Easter Sunday on the first Sunday following the first full moon occurring on or after the spring equinox. The rest, as they say "is history!"

So that means the earliest Easter can be placed on the calendar is March 23. And that occurred on March 23, 2008, but will not occur again until 2160. The latest it can occur is April 25, which will happen in 2038.

So what determines "Ash Wednesday" and "Lent"?

Ash Wednesday, was originally officially known as Day of Ashes,  because of the practice of rubbing ashes on one's forehead in the sign of a cross. At  many times in church history these ashes came from the palm branches that were used by the  church the year before in the celebration of Palm Sunday - the reeds were burned, and the ashes kept to be used the following year on Ash Wednesday.

It was decided that for 40 days preceding Easter Christ's followers would observe a time of sacrifice, fasting and prayer, corresponding to Christ's 40 days in the wilderness when He was tempted by Satan.

During these days Christ's followers were to focus on the cross and resurrection. The 40 days would include Mondays - Saturdays only, since Sundays were already days of focus on the resurrection - each Sunday in the early church was a "resurrection Sunday."

So to determine the beginning of Lent, which starts with Ash Wednesday we count back from Easter 40 days, excluding Sundays, and we have we call Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.

So Ash Wednesday is always on a Wednesday - there is no "Ash Tuesday"or "Ash Thursday."

No matter how we count the time, it is a good time to focus on what Jesus did at the cross when He paid the penalty for our sins and overcame death for all of us with His victorious resurrection!