BY AMANDA HEMMINGS
The date that Easter falls is different each year, but why is this?
Information from Farmers’ Almanac suggests that it’s all down to a rule that began in the Fourth Century – and the days follow a lunisolar calendar.
The religious reasons behind Easter centre around the celebration of Christ’s return from the grave following his crucifixion. But unlike other traditional holidays like Christmas, there is no set date.
The Christian holiday of Easter Sunday is set to be the first Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon - which is the first full Moon of Spring.
This means that the date of Easter is determined by the day the first full moon of Spring occurs.
Some may remember the full Moon that lit up the sky on March 20 – so why did Easter not fall on Sunday, March 24?
From the ecclesiastical perspective, the first day of spring falls on March 21.
It is said that this date was selected as the ‘ecclesiastical vernal equinox because the Church of Alexandria said that March 21 was the date of the equinox in 325 AD.
The first date of spring differs in Astronomy, too. Some years it can be March 19th, some 21st but this year it was the 20th.
There are numerous reasons for this – one of them is because the Earth’s orbit is changing its skew, so the Earth’s axis is always changing. The positional changes affect the time that the Earth reaches a 90-degree location.
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