How does easter get determined

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Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. By ThoughtCo. Cite this Article Format. How Is the Date of Easter Determined? Is the Date of Easter Related to Passover? Is Easter a Christian or Pagan Holiday? How to Determine the Date of Ash Wednesday. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for LearnReligions. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page.

These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. However, the Full Moon date in March specified by the Church's lunar calendar, also called the ecclesiastical Full Moon, was March 20, —one day before the ecclesiastical date of the March equinox, March For that reason, the Easter date was based on the next ecclesiastical Full Moon, on April This is why Easter Sunday was on April According to the Metonic cycle, the Paschal Full Moon falls on a recurring sequence of 19 dates ranging from March 21 to April Note: this applies only to years List of years with earliest and latest Easter dates.

According to the Bible, Jesus Christ's death and resurrection occurred at the time of the Jewish Passover , which was celebrated on the first Full Moon following the vernal equinox. This soon led to Christians celebrating Easter on different dates. At the end of the 2nd century, some congregations celebrated Easter on the day of the Passover, while others celebrated it on the following Sunday.

In CE , the Council of Nicaea established that Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox. Below, find out when you can expect to celebrate Easter in and how you can determine the date in the future. To figure out when Easter is celebrated, it's helpful to take a step back to the very beginning. Ash Wednesday, which is observed on Wednesday, February 17, , is the official start of Lent. The Lenten season — Wednesday, February 17, to Thursday, April 1, — leads the way for Easter, preparing believers for the Christian holiday with 40 days of penance and fasting.

Palm Sunday , which is celebrated on March 28, , kicks off Holy Week, seven days of religious significance in the Christian faith and the final countdown to Easter. Lent officially ends on Maundy Thursday, three days before Easter. Easter Sunday, of course, is the grand finale — a day where Christians rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Unlike fixed holidays like Halloween and Christmas, Easter is considered a "moveable feast and can fall anywhere from March 22 and April 25," according to The Old Farmer's Almanac. In , Easter falls on Sunday, April 4 , which is considerably earlier than last year April Something else to note: Easter will take place in April for the next two years!

Easter is traditionally celebrated on the first Sunday following the full moon — officially called "Paschal Full Moon" — that lands on or just after the spring equinox.