Astronomy, Easter, and You
Seriously, Easter in less than a week after
St. Patrick's Day?
I need it to go back to April.
Here's what I found out: Easter is a non-fixed holiday
that depends on the cycle of the moon. The moon?!
Why is a Christian holiday dependent on the moon?
And, if you look at a calendar, the idea of celebrating
the feast after the first full moon following the 21st
(the vernal equinox) makes no sense . . .
until you dig deeper and understand that we are not dealing with a simple astronomical full moon, but an eccelesiastical full moon.
(See, the vernal equinox is not fixed astronomically, but the Church fixed it on the 21st . . .)
Nah. I don't really understand it either. That's just what wikipedia tells me:
"The calculations for the date of Easter are somewhat complicated. In the Western Church, Easter has not fallen on the earliest of the 35 possible dates, March 22, since 1818, and will not do so again until 2285. It will, however, fall on March 23 in 2008, but will not do so again until 2160. Easter last fell on the latest possible date, April 25, in 1943 and will next fall on that date in 2038. However, it will fall on April 24, just one day before this latest possible date, in 2011.("Easter")
The cycle of Easter dates repeats after exactly 5,700,000 years, with April 19 being the most common date, happening 220,400 times, or 3.9% compared to a mean for all dates of 162,857 times, or 2.9%."
So, how about next year? Can we see an April? I want a 2,000 year Easter calendar.
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