Why Easter falls on different dates. Why is Easter celebrated at different times? How to calculate the date of the Bright holiday

Being a dignified "why", I try to be interested in everything in the world: it is nice to know what others do not suspect or do not think about. I got carried away by the Orthodox theme, even went to church a couple of times to think deeply about the essence. After talking with Pope Nicholas, I found the answer to one pressing question: why Easter every year in different days, and I will gladly share the information with you.

How the celebration of Easter is connected with the solar-lunar calendar

What do we know about the Bright Resurrection of Christ, not counting the fact that this particular title is Easter, which is celebrated constantly on Sunday, but different dates? Easter is considered one of the main passing events of the Orthodox calendar, immediately tied to the indescribably complex lunar-solar reckoning adopted among the Jewish people.

Easter: Date Conversion Over the Centuries

Many years ago, Jesus Christ accepted the crucifixion for the sins of the world's population and was resurrected on the 3rd day. The lunar calendar, used in ancient times, predicted the celebration of Christ's day on Sunday, which was considered the first day of the week, and was celebrated on the 14th day of the original month of spring. Before the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, this month was called Aviv, afterwards - Nisan. There was no general chronology, therefore the Israelites used the lunar calendar, the Egyptians and Romans determined the time according to the solar one.

The main properties of the lunar and solar calendars

What is the lunar calendar:

Includes 12 months;
A month consists of 29 or 30 days;
The calendar year lasts 354 days.

Solar calendar personalities:

Divides the year into 12 months;
Any month for 30 days;
The total number of days in a calendar year is 365.

You see, the difference in the length of the calendar year is 11 days, because in order to balance the total number of days, the Jewish people invented to add Ve-Hadar to the "accumulated" month once every couple of years. In our usual understanding of the world, this year would fall on what we call "leap".

The Jews, even at the moment, did not change the traditions that had developed over the centuries: Nisan 14 is calculated from the equinox day, which takes place in the springtime, according to the Julian, and not the Gregorian calendar adopted in the world. Due to this circumstance, Easter of Catholics and Jews can coincide, and the 1st can even precede the 2nd, disrupting the natural course of biblical history.

Representatives of some other peoples took it for the truth that the calendar year contains only 10 months, only 304 days. The beginning of the year was listed in March (January and February were listed as extreme in the year).

How the dates of the Holy Resurrection of the Lord change

The Resurrection of Christ took place on the day when the Jews celebrated their Passover. She contacted the final from the Egyptian country. In their version of the calculation, Easter is not considered rolling. The celebration takes place on the 14-21th of Aviv (Nisan). The 14th day coincided with the first full moon since the equinox. At the time of the earthly existence of Jesus Christ, this event, as at the moment, took place on March 21 according to the reckoning of the Julian calendar (he received the title in honor of the Roman leader and ruler Julius Caesar).

The modern reckoning of time strictly limits the scope of the probable celebration of the rolling Easter: in Orthodoxy 4.04 - 8.05 according to the new style and according to the old 22.03 - 25.04 (with a difference of 13 days between the Julian and Gregorian styles) for Roman Catholics, Jews and most Protestants.

The Passover of the Jews in today's times is held on the day of the first full moon after the equinox. It is striking that the date is determined according to the Julian calendar .. Christians celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord on the day after the Jews (but if March 21 turned out to be Sunday, and even with a full moon, Easter should be scheduled for March 28).

Usually, the day of the first full moon falls in the light from 21.03 to 18.04. But if the full moon, Sunday and the date of April 18 coincide, Christians will have to celebrate the holiday only a week later - on the 25th, since the biblical chronology and church rules require the celebration of the Jewish Passover before the Resurrection of Christ.

As for me, all this is very confused, but the rules are installed by the Church, and it's not for me to judge them.

Easter date: how to calculate

After listening to the little confused story of the priest, I concluded that determining the date of Orthodox Easter is a very difficult task, I did not try it myself, but I will tell you the theory at the moment.

The alternation of the dates of the Bright Resurrection of Christ is connected with the difficult moments of agreeing dating according to the solar and lunar calendars, therefore, the clearance from 4.04 to 8.05 is subject to a number of laws.

A small number of years for which Easter perceives all probable time positions is 532. This array is called the Great Indication, after which the day and month of Easter will alternate, so to speak, "on the roll," in the same order, because if you have at your disposal there is a completely calculated Paschalia, it will not be difficult to follow the progress of subsequent configurations.

For those who are too lazy to calculate such a large layer of dates, I suggest using the formula of Karl Gauss, derived in the 19th century. What and how to create is shown in the figure.

In addition, I am sharing a small cheat sheet for those who wish to keep abreast of the dates of Easter for the next couple of years.

I hope that now you, like me, will know the answer to the question "Why Easter on different days?", And share your knowledge with loved ones.

Why is Easter celebrated every year in different time?

The priest Mikhail Vorobiev, the rector of the temple answers
in honor of the Exaltation of the Holy Life-giving Cross of the Lord in Volsk

Easter, or Bright Christ's Resurrection, is the main rolling holiday of the church calendar. This feature of the holiday is determined by the fact that it is tied to an extremely difficult solar lunar calendar adopted by the Jews. The Resurrection of Christ took place on the days when the Jews celebrated their Passover, which for them was a memory of the exodus from Egypt. The Jewish holiday of Passover is not a rolling holiday in the Jewish calendar: it was always celebrated from the 14th to the 21st day of the month of Aviv (Nisan). Nisan 14 in the Hebrew solar-lunar calendar by the very meaning of this calendar was the first full moon after the day vernal equinox... In the era of the earthly life of Jesus Christ, the vernal equinox fell on March 21 according to the Julian (named after Julius Caesar) calendar. Therefore, the Jewish holiday of Passover, already in the system of the Julian calendar, became transferable: it fell on the first full moon after March 21, and christian easter celebrated on the first Sunday after this day. (If March 21 coincided with the full moon and Sunday, then Christian Easter was celebrated a week later, on March 28.)

The first full moon after the vernal equinox can fall on the time interval from March 21 to April 18. If the full moon of April 18 falls on a Sunday, then Christian Easter is celebrated a week later on Sunday 25 April, since the sequence of events in biblical history requires that the Resurrection of Christ be celebrated after the first day of Jewish Passover.

Thus, the Orthodox Easter holiday can be celebrated on any day from March 22 to April 25 according to the Julian calendar (old style), or (in the XX and XXI centuries, when the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendar is 13 days) from April 4 to May 8 inclusive of the new style.

However, the alternation of dates on which Orthodox Easter is celebrated, within the interval from April 4 to May 8, is subject to difficult rules associated with the difficulty of coordinating the solar and lunar years. The minimum period of time in which the dates of the Easter holiday occupy all possible positions is 532 years. This huge time span is called the Great Indication. After the Great Indication has passed, the dates of Easter begin to alternate in the same order. Therefore, it is enough to have one calculated Easter for a period of 532 years, after which everything will be repeated.

The time period from April 4 to May 8 defines the Easter holiday in the Orthodox Church. The Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant denominations calculate Easter, focusing on the date of the vernal equinox on March 21 in the Gregorian calendar (new style). This starting point in Easter calculations gives completely different dates for the Easter holiday. Therefore, Easter for the Roman Catholics and Protestants of the West occurs in the period from March 22 to April 25 according to the Gregorian calendar. In rare cases, it coincides with Orthodox Easter. Since the Jews, unlike Western Christians, did not change their historical calendar, their 14 Nisan is still counted from the vernal equinox on March 21 according to the Julian (April 3 according to the Gregorian) calendar. In this way, Catholic Easter in some years it may coincide with the Jewish one and even precede it, which contradicts the sequence of events in the earthly life of Jesus Christ.

In fact, the answer is quite simple - it just happened historically. And also because it should traditionally fall on Sunday. But alas, the number 365 is not divisible by 7, so the dates of Sundays are also shifted. But it's not that simple. Therefore, the site will tell you why Easter is celebrated on different days.

A small historical excursion

What is Easter in general, and how could people even determine when it was supposed to be celebrated? All this is described in some detail in the Bible. Yet a more effective source of information regarding early Christian traditions cannot be found. And according to these data, Jesus Christ was captured, condemned and executed immediately after the celebration of the Jewish holiday of Passover, dedicated to the departure of the Jews from Egypt under the leadership of Moses.

Only this holiday was tied not to the solar calendar, but to the lunar calendar, therefore, it also shifted every year. But what prevented Christians from simply clinging to this particular Passover and celebrating Easter the next Sunday after it? The answer is simple - the attitude towards the Jews.

Alas, despite their common historical and religious roots, these two religions could not exist peacefully for a very long time. Therefore, no one wanted to tie the bright holiday of the resurrection of the Son of God to something Jewish.

Why is Easter celebrated on different days?

And at the First Ecumenical Council of 325, when all prominent Christian leaders gathered to finally jointly decide what the dogmas of Christianity, the main holidays, features of worship, and so on, the issue of celebrating Easter was also discussed.

And it was decreed that it should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first new moon following the vernal equinox. Moreover, if the full moon falls on Sunday, then it does not count, and Easter falls on the next.

So. The spring equinox is also floating here - most often it falls on March 20, 21 and 22. The full moons are, again, floating. The lunar calendar with the solar, in principle, weakly coincides. That is why Easter can be celebrated from April 4th to May 8th. In 2018, for example, this event will be on April 8th. And next year, 2019 - April 28.

However, the debate about the celebration of Easter did not end there. In 664, there was a real conflict between the Christians of the city of Whitby, where Easter was traditionally celebrated from the 14th to the 22nd lunar day, albeit on Sunday, and the official church authorities. The dispute ended in favor of the orthodox tradition, and the locals had to submit.

We also believe that you would be interested to know why Easter is not always celebrated on the same day either. Except 2025 - then the dates of Easter will coincide again.

Few Christians know why Easter is on different days. To understand this issue, you need to remember the history of the holiday and the basis for calculating its date. Statistics show that even experts on this topic cannot summarize its essence in a nutshell, so many important events are intertwined here.

The Great Resurrection is one of the most important Christian holidays, which is revered by millions of believers, therefore it is so important to at least theoretically know why Easter is at different times. Indeed, in modern world you don't have to bother with it. Church calendars are issued indicating the dates of all holidays, and the Internet also comes to the rescue, in which there are ready-made formulas (you just need to put the year for the calculation or find the appropriate topic).

How is the holy day calculated?

The day of the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ falls on a new date every year. It is calculated using special formulas, some of which are variable ...

Christian Easter is celebrated in spring, but the day of the celebration is not fixed, but is determined according to the lunisolar calendar, reports irusalimprayer.blogrus.ru.

Calculating the date for Easter is tricky. The general rule is: "Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the spring full moon." The spring full moon is the full moon that occurs after the vernal equinox.

Thus, the following factors are involved in the calculation:

The revolution of the Earth around the Sun (solar calendar);

The revolution of the Moon around the Earth (lunar calendar);

The set day of the holiday is Sunday.

If the full moon occurs before March 21 (the day of the vernal equinox), then the next full moon is considered Easter. And if the Easter full moon falls on a Sunday, then Easter is celebrated the next Sunday.

But since the Orthodox and Catholic Churches use different calendar systems, then the dates of Easter and related holidays ...

One of the greatest Orthodox holidays is Easter. Her date is constantly changing. It is known that it directly depends on the lunisolar calendar. Every year, experts calculate the date of Easter using a special formula.

Many people do not understand why Easter is changing, or rather, its date changes every year. Easter is a great Orthodox holiday. Orthodox Christians celebrate it the next Sunday after Easter.

The date of this bright holiday changes every year. Many people do not understand at all why the date of Easter depends. After all, sometimes it is celebrated in March, and sometimes in May. Obviously, scientists are calculating the date of Catholic Easter, and the date Orthodox holiday is determined automatically, because the holiday starts exactly one week after Palm Sunday.

Some people think that these dates are somehow connected with Christmas or other Orthodox and Catholic holidays... But this is absolutely not the case. In order to find out the exact date of the holiday in each ...

Backstage at the Rockettes' Radio City Christmas Spectacular Sagan Rose: “This is our reindeer costume, which is how we start the show. This is the only costume that we get in our dressing rooms upstairs. All of these bells are hand-applied - everything is so custom, they do an amazing job for us. The leggings have an ...

Once again, the vastness of the Internet is agitated by the next "revelatory" pseudo-Orthodox heresies, the newly appeared "donkeys"; now there are thoughts about the Paschal and their calculations.

One evening, after the all-night service in the house of an elderly priest, the owner himself and several of his young assistants gathered for conversation and late tea drinking. At first, the conversation revolved around immediate plans, then they turned to discussing the upcoming celebration of Easter, which was inexorably approaching and already teasing with thoughts about the solemnity of church decoration, the splendor of divine services and the opportunity to break the fast after a long Lent. One of the altar attendants asked: "Father, how to calculate Easter, its day and date, and who does it at all?" “Well, sonny, this is actually not an easy matter, you cannot answer in a few words. But if it’s so interesting, then I’ll try, because of my feeble mind, to explain what’s what ”.

Calculating the date of Easter in antiquity

Question:

How to calculate the date of Easter? My grandmother knew how to calculate the date of Easter by some method.

The rules governing the time for celebrating Easter were worked out in the III century by the Alexandrian Church and enshrined in the decrees of the I Ecumenical (325) and local Antioch (341) councils. This establishment remains in force to the present day: to celebrate Easter on the first Sunday with the full moon on the day or immediately after the vernal equinox. At the same time, the Holy Fathers strictly determined to perform this main Christian holiday only after the Jewish Passover. If there is a coincidence, then the rules dictate to move to the next month's full moon. Therefore, Easter cannot be earlier than the day of the equinox, i.e. March 21 (April 4 Gregorian) and no later than April 25 (May 8). In the ancient Church, the calculation of the Easter day was entrusted to the Bishop of Alexandria, because the Alexandrians used the most accurate 19 ...

Instructions

Despite the fact that the date of Easter changes from year to year, there is a certain period beyond which it cannot go. This is the interval between March 22 and April 25, according to the old style, and between April 4 and May 8, according to the new style. This holy day for Christians follows immediately after the end of Lent and falls on the first or second Sunday after the Easter full moon.

You can determine when it will be Easter using special tables called Easter. They are made up of clergy for several years ahead. However, you can calculate this day yourself. You just need to strictly follow the given algorithm and be careful. Consider the calculation procedure for a specific year, for example 2012.

There is a formula that includes two unknowns. They are calculated by arithmetic division, and it is not the results of these actions that matter, but the resulting remainders. In the absence of a remainder, it is assumed to be zero.

Write down the main ...

Easter

In 2014, Easter will fall on April 20. This big church holiday is an important event for every believer. Easter or the Resurrection of Christ is the brightest, most joyful day that gives people hope and faith and love. Easter closes Great Lent and the resurrection of Jesus triumphs. Everyone knows that every year the day of the celebration of Easter is shifted. This is the so-called moving date of the church calendar.

Why the Easter date changes from year to year

The date of the celebration of Easter is calculated according to the lunar calendar and is determined by additional factors. So the date of Passover should not coincide with the Jewish Passover, it should be celebrated only after the vernal equinox and after the full moon. All other floating dates of the church calendar are dated and counted from the day of the celebration of Easter.

Easter story

The very word "Passover" came to us from the Jews. They associate this day with the deliverance of their ancestors from slavery and their exit from Egypt….

How could it happen that the date of Christian Easter is celebrated all the time at different times, why the bright Resurrection of Christ for Catholics and the Orthodox comes at the same time, sometimes not, but it happens that it also coincides with Jewish Passover. This pattern remains unclear for many. With Christmas the whole thing is easier. At the beginning, the Catholic is celebrated, and exactly two weeks later the Orthodox. Moreover, many are used to celebrating both. Largely the reason for the mismatch church holidays understandable. Holidays not included in the Easter cycle are celebrated according to different calendars.

It is customary to call the Gregorian calendar Catholic, and the Julian - Orthodox, this is not entirely true. The Gregorian style was approved in early October 1582 in honor of Pope Gregory XIII. Some eastern local Orthodox churches live according to this style - Alexandria, Constantinople, Antioch and eight more. Monasteries of Athos, as well as Russian, Serbian, Georgian, Jerusalem and ...

"Due to the fact that this year Easter falls on Sunday, the following Monday is declared a day off." This phrase, which later became an anecdote, they say, really came out several years ago from the pen of the Cabinet of Ministers. Now our officials have become more careful in their wording, but the anecdote lives on as a tribute to the surprise of rational consciousness at the fact that the holiday is “transient”.

How did it happen that Easter constantly "falls" now on one day, now on the next, why the celebrations of the bright Resurrection of Christ by Orthodox and Catholics sometimes coincide, sometimes not, and sometimes (like, for example, this year) they also coincide with Jewish Passover, for many of us remains unclear. After all, how simple everything is, for example, with Christmas - first we celebrate with Catholics, and two weeks later Catholics celebrate with us.

The reason for the discrepancy between Christmas and other holidays that are not included in the Easter cycle, in general, is understandable - this is due to the discrepancy between the calendars. And ...

It was always very interesting how the date of Easter is calculated, why Orthodox and Catholic sometimes coincide, sometimes quite large gap between them ... but everyone did not get around to see it on the internet.

Today I finally read

The date of Easter is determined from the ratio of the lunar and solar calendars (lunisolar calendar).

The complexity of the calculation is due to the mixing of independent cycles:
The revolution of the Earth around the Sun (date of equinox);
The revolution of the moon around the earth (full moon);
The established day of celebration is Sunday;

The rule sounds like "Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the spring full moon." The spring full moon is the first full moon after the vernal equinox.

Both the Alexandrian and Gregorian Paschalis are based on this principle.

To calculate the date of the full moon in year Y, you need to find the circle of the moon - its position in the 19-year cycle of full moons (Meton cycle);
In 1 AD….

Hello, Nadezhda Nikolaevna!
The holiday of Christmas, like most other holidays, the dates of which occur annually on the same date, are called fixed holidays, since they are celebrated according to the solar calendar that has been commonly used since ancient times in Europe. But in the Asian East, the lunar calendar was used, which has its own rhythm and in different years unstable relative to the sun.
Read more here: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Calendar
Easter as deliverance from Egyptian slavery, according to the ancient Jews, was to be celebrated from the 14th to the 15th of the first lunar month of Nisan (Avib). This date fell on the full moon immediately after the vernal equinox. On the same day, our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, according to the Gospel of John (on the eve of Saturday). And on the third day Christ was resurrected - this day began to be called Sunday. Accordingly, subsequently, at the first Ecumenical Council of 325, it was ...

The date of Orthodox Easter changes annually: it is at the end of March, then in mid-April.

Didn't the church calendar give a special number to Easter?

After all, this is the main Christian holiday!

How is it determined which day is Easter?

In fact, what day is Easter is determined by the ratio of the lunar and solar calendars.

Old Testament Passover, which is a type modern holiday, celebrated on the night of the 14th to 15th of the month of Nisan (the first month of the Jewish lunisolar calendar).

New Testament Easter retained its dependence on the lunar calendar, partly by tradition, and partly because there is no specific indication in the New Testament regarding the date of the Resurrection of Christ according to the solar Julian calendar.

Easter calculation rules

In the year 325, at the First Ecumenical Council, the holy fathers made a decision on how to calculate Easter. Since then, the date of Orthodox Easter falls on Sunday, but always after Easter ...

Many are interested in the question of why Easter is constantly shifting in date. According to the church rule, the date for the celebration of Easter is set on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. Since the date of the equinox does not change, and the full moon naturally occurs every year at different times, the date of the holiday is also shifted accordingly for this period.

Initially, the Jews began to celebrate the Easter holiday, investing in this holiday a completely different meaning. About five thousand years ago, during Easter, the beginning of the harvest and the calving of livestock was celebrated. Much later, after the crucifixion of Christ, Christians borrowed the name of the holiday from the Jews, but put in it a completely different meaning.

Previously, Orthodox and Catholic Easter were celebrated on the same day, but due to the transition of the Catholic Church to the Gregorian calendar, the date of Easter for Catholics began to differ from the Orthodox. The Orthodox Church adheres to ...

Easter is the main holiday of all Orthodox Christians and Catholics. There is nothing more important to the true believer than the day of the Lord's Resurrection. An Orthodox or a Catholic cannot have any other joy than the remembrance that Christ atoned for sins. After all, this made it possible to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. On the day before Easter, Saturday, Christ descended into hell and freed everyone who had previously sat there.

Certainly an important holiday for all Christians. But the dates of its celebration differ significantly depending on the denomination. Catholics usually celebrate Easter earlier than Orthodox. In particular, this is due to a different chronology system. They have more complex rules for calculating the date of the celebration of this day. Among the Orthodox, Easter can be celebrated both later than Catholics and on the same day. Why is it getting so complicated? Can't you just celebrate on the same day? There are motives for this that are shown in the Bible.

When is Easter?

This holiday is always celebrated on one day of the week - Sunday. Actually, this name comes from the expression "Little Easter", which means the seventh day of the week of our calendar. In the weekly circle of worship, every day means something. So, Wednesday symbolizes the betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas, therefore this day is considered fast, even in "short" periods of time.

The same goes for Friday, when the church remembers the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Of course, not in the same detail as it is done in Holy Week. But it is also essential. But every Resurrection, Orthodox and Catholics remember the moment when Jesus Christ became alive again (in fact, according to Orthodox doctrine, he did not die at all). This only happened to his human nature while the Divine remained alive.

But after the resurrection, he again had a full-fledged human body. This is evidenced by how the unbeliever Thomas himself put his fingers into His wounds and became convinced of their authenticity. But the most important of them is only one - this is Easter. Why is it celebrated every time at a different time?

Jewish and Christian Easter

The Jews also have their own holiday, which is exactly what they call it. But it is important to distinguish between their essence. The Jews call Passover the deliverance of this people from the Egyptian slavery by God. For Christians, this holiday marks the deliverance of a person by God from the slavery of the devil through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus

Christ. Although, of course, in some ways the two Easter are similar to each other. The template has remained the same.
It's just that the main thing after the Resurrection of Jesus is Christian Passover, and not Jewish, which was only its prototype. Nevertheless, there are some differences in the very structure of the celebration. Jews celebrate this holiday according to the lunar calendar, not the solar one. The Orthodox use a completely different system of calculating the date of their main holiday. But their calculation of the day of Passover is still tied to the Jewish one.

The deliverance from Egyptian slavery is described in the thirteenth chapter of the book "Exodus" in the Old Testament. This event is really important not only for the entire Jewish people, but also for Orthodox countries. It is worth noting that on the eve of Easter, chapters from this book are read very actively, because this event among the Jews is the prototype of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And not only among the Jews. They just still believe in the coming of the Lord, while the Orthodox claim that it happened.

See for yourself the parallels. Even in advance, the Lord warned the Jews that only by killing every first-born in the family can the Egyptians be liberated from the Jews.

He told them to slaughter the best lamb, and smear their door with blood, so that when the angel passed by, he would not touch such a room. And after the murder of all the firstborn, Pharaoh allowed the Jews to leave Egypt and return to their land. And since that time, an Easter lamb is laid every year.

In the same way, the prophets foreshadowed the coming of the Savior of all mankind, who with his blood would atone for the sins of all people and free them from the bondage of the devil, like the lamb that was slaughtered as a sacrifice to redeem them from the bondage of Egypt. The parallels are very interesting, aren't they.
This lamb becomes a type of our Lord, who also, with his blood, freed the souls of men from the devil. Of course, a lot also depends on us. It all depends on whether he wants to let God in or not. Many deliberately deny Christ, although he wants to go into the upper room, which is closed in a person's soul. Because if this desire is not there, the devil takes possession of the soul in the same way as the Jews could return voluntarily to Egyptian slavery. And he will already do everything possible so that God does not fall into the soul of even the very words of a believer. Moreover, as the Jews were crossing the Red Sea, and the Egyptians were catching up with them, so the devil is chasing us, and we need to hide from him with the help of God.

You can't be faint-hearted. After all, this quality human soul gives absolutely no way to be saved. You need to have a certain courage to resist the devilish invasion and faith in God, so that he would help in this endeavor. After all, he was crucified for our sins. He acts as a Jewish lamb, and this is directly written in the Gospel. It is important to understand that the crucifixion on the eve of the Jewish Passover is completely accidental. This is natural.

When was Christ crucified?

According to the Hebrew calendar, it was Nisan 14. That is, on the full moon after the vernal equinox. And three days later he was resurrected. That is why the third day after the crucifixion is called the resurrection. So the Jewish and Orthodox Easter are interconnected. About three centuries of the course of the history of Christianity there were 2 dates at once when Easter was celebrated. Consequently, the people were divided into those celebrating Nisan 14 together with the Jews, and the second group - three days after the death of Jesus as evidence of his Resurrection. But the final date for the celebration of Easter was set at the first Ecumenical Council.
It became the beginning of the formation of a unified Christian liturgical system. Then it was also determined which basic provisions of this religion and which dogmas should be considered basic. Simply put, it was the beginning of explaining to the people what to believe. In particular, at the first ecumenical council, the Symbol of Faith was also proposed, which explained in a laconic and accessible form what every Christian should believe. This chant is sung at every liturgy so that people never forget who they are.

When is Easter celebrated?

At this ecumenical council, it was established that Easter must be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon, which follows the vernal equinox. This date is calculated using a complex formula, and modern technologies allow us to foresee the day of Easter for many decades to come.

Julian and Gregorian calendars

In general, after the first ecumenical council, all Christians began to celebrate Easter on the same day. But in 1054, a split occurred: the Orthodox and Catholic Christian churches appeared. Nothing has changed in the date of the celebration of the Resurrection. But the modifications happened in 1582. Then the Julian calendar, generally accepted at that time, began to be considered not entirely accurate. Therefore, Pope Gregory the 13th in 1582 introduced the Gregorian calendar.

Due to its greater astronomical accuracy, most countries still use it. But the Orthodox still use the Julian calendar, despite its narrow-mindedness, because Christ lived in those days. Although recently there has been active talk about the transition of all churches to the Gregorian chronology. Where it leads? Yes to positive shifts. So, Orthodox Christians and Catholics will celebrate Christmas on December 25. The fast will end before the New Year and the Orthodox will not break it.

So, this calendar says this: The Resurrection of the Lord comes immediately after the Jewish Passover, the next day. But according to the Gregorian calendar, Catholic Easter may even be earlier Jewish. Therefore, the discrepancy in numbers can be quite significant, since taking into account a different calendar system. Hence, another day of the vernal equinox. Easter for Catholics can be thirteen or more days earlier. Although the blessed fire descends on Easter day according to the Orthodox calendar, not the Catholic one.