The Date of Easter
John enlightened me this weekend on some new information (Easters relation with the vernal equinox) I did not know about, which helped explain to me why Easter is so early this year....I thought I would share it with you.
In 1582, Gregory XIII (Pope of the Roman Catholic Church) revised the calendar for use by people all across Christendom, resulting in a new set of dates for Easter. Universal adoption of the Gregorian calendar occurred slowly. By the 1700's, though, most of western Europe had adopted what came to be known as the Gregorian Calendar.
The rules for determining the date of Easter are:
Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox; the vernal equinox is fixed as March 21. There are some highly technical rules for determining the actual date of the full moon, but when you take all this into account the result is that Easter can never occur before March 22 or later than April 25.
The following are dates of Easter from 2007 to 2015:
2007 April 8; 2008 March 23; 2009 April 12; 2010 April 4; 2011 April 24; 2012 April 8; 2013 March 31; 2014 April 20; 2015 April 5
This is all great to know since Caleb's birthday is right in the middle of this time frame. His birthday will fall on Easter in 2010, when he is turning 5.
In 1582, Gregory XIII (Pope of the Roman Catholic Church) revised the calendar for use by people all across Christendom, resulting in a new set of dates for Easter. Universal adoption of the Gregorian calendar occurred slowly. By the 1700's, though, most of western Europe had adopted what came to be known as the Gregorian Calendar.
The rules for determining the date of Easter are:
Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox; the vernal equinox is fixed as March 21. There are some highly technical rules for determining the actual date of the full moon, but when you take all this into account the result is that Easter can never occur before March 22 or later than April 25.
The following are dates of Easter from 2007 to 2015:
2007 April 8; 2008 March 23; 2009 April 12; 2010 April 4; 2011 April 24; 2012 April 8; 2013 March 31; 2014 April 20; 2015 April 5
This is all great to know since Caleb's birthday is right in the middle of this time frame. His birthday will fall on Easter in 2010, when he is turning 5.
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