The timing of Easter, each year (Jesus, priest, Moses, exodus)

[The Great Architect]

Why is Easter held at a slightly different time, each year? How is that time determined?

[UltraViolet]

I can't remember EXACTLY anymore
(because it's been a while)
but after christmas/epiphany on the roman catholic calander
begins a non feast season called "ordinary time".
The specific date that the lent season begins fluxtuates each year
depending on where ordinary time lands it.
If I recal (though I try not to) ash Wednesday kicks off lent.
Then there are the prescribed number of sunday's in Lent
ending in Palm Sunday, which preceeds Easter by exactly one week.

Bottom line, it's the Roman Catholic calander cycle that determines the date of easter each year.
It has to do with counting sundays through ordinary time basically,
then following lent through to easter.

It's the yearly church merry-go-round.

[doppelgänger]

In most western traditions, Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.

[Francine]

Originally Posted by doppelgänger

In most western traditions, Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.

The problem is the West uses a "church" Vernal Equinox, which is always March 21 on the Gregorian Calendar (the East uses the Julian Calendar), when the real one bounces between March 20-21 and slowly drifts through the calendar at the rate of one month per 2000 years (currently it is moving from Pisces to Aquarius, the dawning of the "Age of Aquarius"). There are suggested reforms which will make it the second Sunday in April every year, but they go nowhere.

[michel]

http://www.tondering.dk/claus/cal/node3.html#SECTION003132000000000000000

2.13.2 When is Easter? (Long answer)

The calculation of Easter is complicated because it is linked to (an inaccurate version of) the Hebrew calendar.
Jesus was crucified immediately before the Jewish Passover, which is a celebration of the Exodus from Egypt under Moses. Celebration of Passover started on the 15th day of the (spring) month of Nisan. Jewish months start when the moon is new, therefore the 15th day of the month must be immediately after a full moon.
It was therefore decided to make Easter Sunday the first Sunday after the first full moon after vernal equinox. Or more precisely: Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the ``official'' full moon on or after the ``official'' vernal equinox.
The official vernal equinox is always 21 March.
The official full moon may differ from the real full moon by one or two days.
(Note, however, that historically, some countries have used the real (astronomical) full moon instead of the official one when calculating Easter. This was the case, for example, of the German Protestant states, which used the astronomical full moon in the years 1700-1776. A similar practice was used in Sweden in the years 1740-1844 and in Denmark in the 1700s.)
The full moon that precedes Easter is called the Paschal full moon. Two concepts play an important role when calculating the Paschal full moon: The Golden Number and the Epact. They are described in the following sections.
The following sections give details about how to calculate the date for Easter. Note, however, that while the Julian calendar was in use, it was customary to use tables rather than calculations to determine Easter. The following sections do mention how to calculate Easter under the Julian calendar, but the reader should be aware that this is an attempt to express in formulas what was originally expressed in tables. The formulas can be taken as a good indication of when Easter was celebrated in the Western Church from approximately the 6th century.

[Willamena]

Looking in Barbara Walker's Encylopedia of Myths and Secrets, Easter was a holiday dedicated to Astarte's north-eastern version, Eostre or Ostara (similar in Egypt to Hathor), a goddess of the peoples who eventually became known as Saxons. She was thought to be connected with the goddess Kali in India. Beowulf spoke of "Ganges' waters, whose flood waves ride down into an unknown sea near Eostre's far home."[1]

At this festival time, the moon-hare sacred to the Goddess, "laid the Golden Egg of the sun. Germans used to say the hare would lay eggs for good children on Easter Eve."[2]

"Easter shows its pagan origin in a dating system based on the old lunar calendar. It is fixed as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, formerly the 'pregnant' phase of Eostre passing into the fertile season. The Christian festival wasn't called Easter until the Goddess's name was given to it in the late Middle Ages."[3]

"The Persians began their solar New Year at the spring equinox, and up to the middle of the 18th Century they still followed the old custom of presenting each other with coloured eggs on the occasion. Eggs were always symbols of rebirth, which is why Easter eggs were usually coloured red --the life colour --especially in eastern Europe. Russians used to lay red Easter eggs on graves to serve as resurrection charms."[4]

In Bohemia, Christ became honoured on Easter Sunday, and his pagan rival on Easter Monday, "which was the Moon-day opposed to the Sun-day. Village girls, like ancient priestesses, sacrificed the Lord of Death and threw him into water, singing 'Death swims in the water, Spring comes to visit us, with eggs that are red, with yellow pancakes, we carried Death out of the village, we are carrying Summer into the village.'[5]"

"Another reminant of the pagan sacred drama was the image of the god buried in the tomb, then withdrawn and said to live again. The church instituted such a custom early in the Middle Ages, apparently in hopes of a reported miracle. A small sepulchral building having been erected and the consecrated host placed within, a priest was set to watch it from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Then the host was taken out and displayed, and the congregation was told Christ was risen."[6]

"Germany applied to Easter the same title formerly given to the season of the sacred king's love-death, Hoch-Zeit, 'the High Time.' In English, too, Easter used to be called, 'the Hye-Tide.'[7] From these titles came the colloquial description of any festival holiday as a high old time."

[1] Goodrich, Norma Lorre, Medieval Myths
[2] de Lys, Claudia, The Giant Book of Superstitions
[3] Smith, Homer, Man and His Gods
[4] Gaster, Theodor, Myth, Legend and Custom in the Old Testament
[5] Frazer, Sir James, The Golden Bough
[6] and [7] Hazlitt, W. Carew, Faiths and Folklore of the British Isles

[tomspug]

THANK you, michel. I can't believe how many people have no idea how Easter is dated. There are even some people out there that actually believe that Easter STARTED with some pagan calender. It's based on Passover, guys. Christ died and rose again on specific days in the Passover celebration, so it's pretty easy to date Easter according to that.

[Willamena]

Well, it's a darned good thing that a "lunar calendar" would be the same for each of them, then, isn't it?

*dances the happy dance of Eoster's sacrifice of the king*