Friday, September 23, 2011

How come we haveXmas on the same day every year , but easter changes?

surely easter sunday should be the exact same date as when the resurrection of santa/jesus occured. I m aware of the moon thing by the way.How come we haveXmas on the same day every year , but easter changes?Unfortunately the church could not agree on the date for easter so it was decided to be celebrated on the first full moon after the spring equinox.



\its all very complicated and I dont truely understand it so I just see when its advertised each year. \its an unusual one this year as its the earliest its been for over 90 years and wont be this early again for over 200 years.



\so enjoy your early easter and eggs as its going to be a long wait till the next one



Happy easterHow come we haveXmas on the same day every year , but easter changes?i don't know, but i never thought of that. i agree that since jesus rose on whatever day it was, that should always be easter...but the whole easter sunday thing would be a bit screwed up.How come we haveXmas on the same day every year , but easter changes?christmas is on roman winter solsticeHow come we haveXmas on the same day every year , but easter changes?Dates, calendars, facts stories have changed over generations so it's hard to tell the actual date of the resurrection of Jesus. However, Christmas, is celebrated on December 25 because the Catholic Church established it to compete with pagan traditions for winter solstice that's also celebrated near that date so it's celebrated on the same day every year.How come we haveXmas on the same day every year , but easter changes?The date of Christmas was set a long time ago, and it is most likely not anywhere near the actual date of Jesus' birth.



Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. It mixes the lunar elements with the solar elements as far as %26quot;years%26quot; are concerned. So it is near the passover, which was the last week of Jesus' life. It then throws in the Sunday, as that was the day of the week he was resurrected.



These decisions were made by old Catholic leaders, but they are still adhered to today by much of western Christianity. Orthodox folks calculate Easter differently.How come we haveXmas on the same day every year , but easter changes?Hi,i have asked myself this question,it does make you wonder if the bible is telling the truth doesn`t it? Surely if Jesus arose again on say the 25th of March then the anniversary of this should be the 25th March every year whatever the moon does.How come we haveXmas on the same day every year , but easter changes?good friday (today) is ALWAYS the first friday in march AFTER the full moon (but it's today)

so easter comes on the SUNDAY FOLLOWING

that friday :-)

christmas is always the 25th (i don't know why)How come we haveXmas on the same day every year , but easter changes?Has something to do with the moonHow come we haveXmas on the same day every year , but easter changes?The reason we've got different Easter dates is because that it's always celebrated on the Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon. This is because, in 325 A.D., astronomers calculated the dates of that year's Ecclesiastial full moons for the Western Churches. Ever since then, they have been used to determine Easter's date. It's always the first one after March 20th. (By the way, in 325, that was the date the vernal equinox occured!)

Well, I hope you have a very Happy Easter!How come we haveXmas on the same day every year , but easter changes?santa never breathed at all

Easter has to do with the equinox and counting 40 days past ash wednesdayHow come we haveXmas on the same day every year , but easter changes?Easter Day in 2008 is on March 23. Can you remember it any earlier? Well that's its date in Western churches. Eastern churches (Orthodox) this year actually celebrate Easter day more than a month later on April 27. How is Easter day worked out?



The date of Easter is calculated by the convoluted joining of different calendar systems. We can think of these two calendars by the early tale of Cain and Abel. Abel, you may remember, had the flocks, and Cain had the crops. If you are an Abel type, you will be hunting, fishing, and caring for your flock at night. This means the moon will be significant for you with its lunar cycle of 29 and a half days. Moonlight and tides will be important for you. On the other hand, if you are a Cain type, a tiller of the ground and grower of crops, then the solar cycle and the seasons will feature more importantly for you. The calculation of the date for Easter day originates with combining these solar and lunar calendars.



Jewish Passover



The Jewish calendar focuses on the moon. There are twelve lunar months. Some years an extra month is added in to keep the year in line with the solar year. The month begins with new moon, and full moon, in the middle of the month, is the obvious time for extensive parties and festivals. There's more light at night! Passover (Pesach) is the celebration of being led by Moses to freedom from slavery in Egypt. This is celebrated on the first full moon after the vernal (Northern Spring) equinox. In the Bible this is 14 Abib (Leviticus 23:5). In the Bible this celebration of Passover is commanded to be a %26quot;perpetual ordinance%26quot; (Exodus 12:14).



There is some confusion between what are called the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke), and John's gospel to determine the exact relationship between Passover and Christ's death and resurrection. Easter day, the celebration of Christ's resurrection, has always had a particular connection with Passover.



The Council of Nicaea



Some Christians in the early church celebrated Easter day on same date as Jewish Passover - whatever day of the week that fell. These were called Quartodecimans (from the Latin: quarta decima, meaning %26quot;fourteen%26quot; - a reference to the day in the Jewish month). Other Christians in the early church always celebrated Easter day on the Sunday following Jewish Passover. When Christianity became essentially the religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, the emperor Constantine demanded that the church get its act together and decide when Easter day would be celebrated. The bishops of the church gathered at Nicaea in 325 AD. They decided that Easter day would always be on a Sunday. They communicated this decision throughout the church and gave the Bishop of Alexandria the privilege of each year announcing the date that Easter Day would fall.



Part 2 will explain why East and West have ended up with different dates for Easter day.



Bosco Peters has a deep interest in spirituality. He runs a website on liturgy. This includes using the Bible in prayer within a tradition called the Liturgy of the Hours, a discipline particularly worth considering in the lead up to Easter called Lent.How come we haveXmas on the same day every year , but easter changes?The modern English term Easter developed from the Old English word Eastre, which itself developed prior to 899. The name refers to the Eostur-monath, a month of the Germanic calendar which may have been named for the goddess Eastre in Germanic paganism.[4]



In his De temporum ratione, Bede, an 8th-century English Christian monk, wrote in Latin:



%26quot;Eostur-monath, qui nunc paschalis mensis interpretatur, quondam a dea illorum quae Eostre vocabatur et cui in illo festa celebrabant nomen habuit.%26quot;



which translates as:



%26quot;Eostur-month, which is now interpreted as the paschal month, was formerly named after the goddess Eostre, and has given its name to the festival.%26quot;



Some scholars have suggested that a lack of supporting documentation for this goddess might indicate that Bede assumed her existence based on the name of the month.[5] Others state that Bede's status as %26quot;the Father of English History,%26quot; having been the author of the first substantial history of England ever written, might make the lack of additional mention of a goddess whose worship had already died out by Bede's time unsurprising. The debate receives considerable attention because the name 'Easter' is derived from Eostur-monath, and thus, according to Bede, from the Germanic goddess Eostre, though this etymology is sometimes disputed.[6]



Jacob Grimm took up the question of Eostre in his 1835 work Deutsche Mythologie. Grimm notes that Ostara-manoth is etymologically related to Eostur-monath, and in writing of various landmarks and customs that he believed to be related to a putative goddess he named Ostara in Germany.





Romance languages

In all Romance languages the name of the Easter festival is derived from the Greek name, Pascha which is itself derived from Pesach, the Hebrew festival of Passover.





Slavic languages

In most Slavic languages, the name for Easter either means %26quot;Great Day%26quot; or %26quot;Great Night%26quot;. For example, Wielkanoc and Velikonoce mean %26quot;Great Night%26quot; or %26quot;Great Nights%26quot; in Polish and Czech, respectively. Великдень (Velykden), Великден (Velikden) and Вял?кдзень (Vyalikdzyen') mean %26quot;The Great Day%26quot; in Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Belarusian, respectively.



In Croatian, however, the day's name reflects a particular theological connection: it is called Uskrs, meaning %26quot;Resurrection%26quot;. In Croatian it is also called Vazam (Vzem or Vuzem in Old Croatian), which is a noun that originated from the Old Church Slavonic verb vzeti (now uzeti in Croatian, meaning %26quot;to take%26quot;). It also explains the fact that in Serbian Easter is called Vaskrs, a liturgical form inherited from the Serbian recension of Church Slavonic. It is also known that long ago it was called Velja no? (velmi: Old Slavic for %26quot;great%26quot;; no?: %26quot;night%26quot;) in Croatian. The verb krstiti in Croatian means %26quot;to baptize%26quot;, so the words kr?tenje (baptizing) and Uskrs are supposed to derive from Christ's name, from which the word krst was later formed, now meaning %26quot;cross%26quot; (nowadays having a synonym, kri?). It is believed that Cyril and Methodius, the Greek %26quot;holy brothers%26quot; who baptized the Slavic people and translated Christian books from Latin into Old Church Slavonic, invented the word Uskrs from the word krsnuti or %26quot;enliven%26quot;.[citation needed]



Another exception is Russian, in which the name of the feast, Пасха (Paskha) is a borrowing of the Greek form via Old Church Slavonic.[7]





Celtic languages

In all modern Celtic languages the term for Easter is derived from Latin. In Brythonic languages this has yielded Welsh Pasg, Cornish and Breton Pask. In Goidelic languages the word was borrowed before these languages had re-developed the /p/ sound and as a result the initial /p/ was replaced with /k/. This yielded Irish Cáisc, Gaelic Càisg and Manx Caisht. These terms are normally used with the definite article in Goidelic languages, causing lenition in all cases: An Cháisc, A' Chàisg and Y Chaisht.





Easter in the early Church

The observance of any non-Jewish special holiday throughout the Christian year is believed by some to be an innovation postdating the Early Church. The ecclesiastical historian Socrates Scholasticus (b. 380) attributes the observance of Easter by the church to the perpetuation of local custom, %26quot;just as many other customs have been established,%26quot; stating that neither Jesus nor his Apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival. However, when read in context, this is not a rejection or denigration of the celebration—which, given its currency in Scholasticus' time would be surprising—but is merely part of a defense of the diverse methods for computing its date. Indeed, although he describes the details of the Easter celebration as deriving from local custom, he insists the feast itself is universally observed.[8]



Perhaps the earliest extant primary source referencing Easter is a 2nd century Paschal homily by Melito of Sardis, which characterizes the celebration as a well-established one.[9]





Easter controversy

See also: Quartodecimanism, Easter controversy, and Passover (Christian holiday)

Very early in the life of the Church, it was accepted that the Eucharist was a practice of the disciples and an undisputed tradition. A dispute arose concerned the date on which Pascha (Easter) should be celebrated. This dispute came to be known as the Easter/Paschal or Quartodecimanism controversy.



The term Quartodeciman (derived from the Vulgate Latin, quarta decima,[10] meaning fourteen) refers to the very early Christian practice of celebrating Easter on 14 Nisan of the Hebrew Calendar.[11] [12] Nisan 14 is the day of preparation for the Jewish celebration of Passover. Much later, during the Middle Ages, Nisan 14 was called the Paschal Full Moon.



The predominant practice in Anatolia or Asia Minor (including Antioch) was to celebrate Easter on 14 Nisan, while the practice elsewhere (Rome, Alexandria, Jerusalem) was to celebrate Easter on the following Sunday. Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna, by tradition a disciple of John the Evangelist, according to the church historian Eusebius, disputed the computation of the date with Bishop Anicetus of Rome, specifically as to when the pre-Pascha fast should end. The practice in Asia Minor at the time was that the fast ended on 14 Nisan. The Roman/Alexandrian practice was to continue the fast until the Sunday following. An objection to 14 Nisan was that it could fall on any day of the week and the Roman and Alexandrian Churches wished to associate Pascha with Sunday (regardless of the day of the calendar) and sever the link to Jewish practices. According to a rather confused account by Sozomen, both sides could claim Apostolic authority for their traditions.



Shortly after Anicetus became bishop of Rome about 155, Polycarp visited Rome and among the topics discussed was this divergence of custom. Neither Polycarp nor Anicetus was able to persuade the other to his position, but neither did they consider the matter of sufficient importance to justify a schism, so they parted in peace leaving the question unsettled.[13]



Polycarp, a disciple of John, likewise adhered to a 14 Nisan observance. Irenaeus, who observed the %26quot;first Sunday%26quot; rule notes of Polycarp (one of the bishops of Asia Minor), %26quot;For Anicetus could not persuade Polycarp to forgo the observance [of his Nisan 14 practice] inasmuch as these things had been always observed by John the disciple of the Lord, and by other apostles with whom he had been conversant.%26quot; (c. AD 180; 1.569 %26quot;Ante-Nicene Church Fathers%26quot;). Irenaeus notes that this was not only Polycarp's practice, but that this was the practice of John the disciple and the other apostles that Polycarp knew.



Polycrates (c. AD 190) emphatically notes this is the tradition passed down to him, that Passover and Unleavened Bread were kept on 14 Nisan in accord with the local interpretation of the dating of Passover: %26quot;As for us, then, we scrupulously observe the exact day, neither adding nor taking away.[14][15] For in Asia [meaning Asia Minor] great luminaries have gone to their rest who will rise again on the day of the coming of the Lord.... These all kept Pascha (Easter) on the 14th day, in accordance with the Gospel.... Seven of my relatives were bishops, and I am the eighth, and my relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven%26quot; (8.773, 8.744 %26quot;Ante-Nicene Church Fathers%26quot;).



An early example of this tension is found written by Theophilus of Caesarea (c. AD 180; 8.774 Ante-Nicene Fathers) when he stated -



%26quot;Endeavor also to send abroad copies of our epistle among all the churches, so that those who easily deceive their own souls may not be able to lay the blame on us. We would have you know, too, that in Alexandria also they observe the festival on the same day as ourselves. For the Paschal letters are sent from us to them, and from them to us - so that we observe the holy day in unison and together.%26quot;

A generation later bishop Victor of Rome excommunicated bishop Polycrates of Ephesus and the rest of the bishops of Asia Minor for their adherence to 14 Nisan custom. The excommunication was rescinded[citation needed] and the two sides reconciled upon the intervention of bishop Irenaeus of Lyons, who reminded Victor of the tolerant precedent that had been established earlier.



The 14 Nisan practice, which was strong among the churches of Asia Minor, became less common as the desire for Church unity on the question came to favor the majority practice. By the 3rd century the Church, which had become gentile-dominated and wishing to further distinguish itself from Jewish practices, began a tone of rhetoric against 14 Nisan/Passover (e.g. Anatolius of Laodicea, c. AD 27How come we haveXmas on the same day every year , but easter changes?The method used to determine the date of Easter - that is, the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the Venal Equinox..

That is why it changes every year..

And if you are aware of %26quot;the moon thing%26quot; then you should know!!

Brightest Blessings.. )O(