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THE CHRISTIAN ORIGINS OF EASTER
Past disputes over the date of Easter
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When have Christians celebrated Easter?
The Encyclopedia Britannica states: "There is no indication
of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament or in the
writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity of special times was an
idea absent from the minds of the first Christians." 1
According to BibleWorld.com, "Some church historians assert
that Easter observance began in the first century (CE), but they must
admit that their first evidence for the observance comes from the second
century." 2,3,4
There was no consensus within the second century church about when to
celebrate Easter. "...the early Christians had followed the Jewish
calendar and celebrated the resurrection on the Passover which was the
fourteenth of Nisan, the first month of the Jewish year...." 5
"By the end of the 2nd century some churches celebrated Easter/Pascha
on the day of the Jewish passover, [sic] regardless of the day of the
week, while others celebrated it on the following Sunday." 6
The Council of Nicea in 325 CE later set the
date as the first Sunday after Passover. That is, if Passover was on a
Sunday, then Easter was delayed by seven days. Thus, it was observed on a
date between the fifteenth and twenty-first day of the Jewish month of
Nisan. 5 Eventually, the date of Easter was set as the
first Sunday after the first full moon (the Paschal Moon) on or after the
nominal date of the vernal (spring) equinox: MAR-21. The church celebrated
Easter between the 15th and 21st day of Nisan.
However, this did not achieve harmony within Christianity:
 | Local differences "differences in the mechanics of determining the
date of Easter/Pascha remained even after Nicea" 6 "...by
the 6th century the mode of calculation based on the
studies of Alexandrian astronomers and scholars had gained universal
acceptance." |
| The Celtic Church did not delay Easter in the event that Passover
occurred on a Sunday. Thus, they celebrated Easter on a date between the
14th and 21st day of Nisan. In about one year in
seven, their observance would be one week before the Roman church. This
practice continued for the remnants of the Celtic Church at Iona in what
present-day Scotland until 716 CE. The Welsh church
did not adopt the Roman dating until 768 CE. 5 |
| The Julian calendar, which
was used by the entire Christian Church until the mid 16th
century was in error about 11 minutes and 14 seconds each year. This
accumulated to form a full day error every 128 years. By the late 16th
century, this error had accumulated to an intolerable 10 days. Pope
Gregory XIII commissioned a study to decide how to correct it and how to
prevent it from drifting in the future. The solution was to make most of
the century years into non-leap years; only those which were evenly
divisible by 400 (e.g. 1600, 2000, 2400 etc.) were to be leap years.
Roman Catholic countries corrected the calendar by
making 1582-OCT-15 CE
follow 1582-OCT-4. England delayed the adoption of the Gregorian calendar
until the mid 18th century. They made an 11 day correction; the day
following 1752-SEP-2 was SEP-14.
Eastern Orthodox Churches continue to
use the Julian calendar. It is currently 13 days later than the Gregorian
calendar. Since 1923, the
Romanian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox churches have adopted the Gregorian
calendar. However, they continue to use the Julian calendar for Easter
calculations.
The gap between the two calendars continues to grow. Most Greek Orthodox
churches currently celebrate Christmas on JAN-7 and New Year's Day on
January 14 (according to the Gregorian calendar). This gap
generally causes Easter to be celebrated on the same Sunday in the Roman
Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches only about once every three or four
years. In other years, the Orthodox Easter -- called Pascha -- is delayed
by one, four, or five weeks: 7
| Year |
Easter
(Gregorian calculation) |
Easter
(Julian calculation) |
Matching dates? |
| 2001 |
APR-15 |
APR-15 |
Yes |
| 2002 |
MAR-31 |
MAY-5 |
|
| 2003 |
APR-20 |
APR-27 |
|
| 2004 |
APR-11 |
APR-11 |
Yes |
| 2005 |
MAR-27 |
MAY-1 |
|
| 2006 |
APR-16 |
APR-23 |
|
| 2007 |
APR-8 |
APR-8 |
Yes |
| 2008 |
MAR-23 |
APR-27 |
|
| 2009 |
APR-12 |
APR-19 |
|
| 2010 |
APR-4 |
APR-4 |
Yes |
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References:
- Encyclopedia Britannica, VIII:859. Cited in Reference 5.
- Schaff, "History of the Christian Church," II:207. Cited in
Reference 5.
- Latourette, "A History of Christianity," I:137. Cited in
Reference 5.
- Ferrell Jenkins, "Should Christians Observe Easter?," at:
http://www.bibleworld.com/easter.pdf. You need software to read these files. It can be obtained free from:
- "[Synod of] Whitby," at:
http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~snlrc/britannia/
- "Toward a Common Date for Easter," World Council of Churches /
Middle East Council of Churches Consultation, 1997 at:
http://www.elca.org/ea/ and
http://www.wcc-coe.org/
Copyright 2003 by Ontario Consultants
on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2003-APR-20
Latest update: 2003-APR-20.
Author: B.A. Robinson
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