Easter falls March 22, this year.

I read that Easter can never be earlier than this date, and that it is extremely rare for it to come so early: it last happened in 1818, and it won't happen again until 2285.

How is the date of Easter calculated?

um.... March 27th...

As to how it is calculated:

http://www.smart.net/~mmontes/ec-cal.html

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/easter.html

The Date of Easter

Prior to A.D. 325, Easter was variously celebrated on different days of the week, including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In that year, the Council of Nicaea was convened by emperor Constantine. It issued the Easter Rule which states that Easter shall be celebrated on the first Sunday that occurs after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. However, a caveat must be introduced here. The "full moon" in the rule is the ecclesiastical full moon, which is defined as the fourteenth day of a tabular lunation, where day 1 corresponds to the ecclesiastical New Moon. It does not always occur on the same date as the astronomical full moon. The ecclesiastical "vernal equinox" is always on March 21. Therefore, Easter must be celebrated on a Sunday between the dates of March 22 and April 25.

THIS is one of the twenty-three MILLION hits that came up when I entered "easter" into Google.

Sheesh! Just to add to the confusion, the calculation depends on whether you're Western or Eastern Orthodox! I bet the Druids didn't make it so complicated! Line up a notch in Stonehenge with the rising sun and it's party time!

Line up a notch in Stonehenge with the rising sun and it's party time!

I know you're kidding, but Stonehenge predates the druids.

quote:

Line up a notch in Stonehenge with the rising sun and it's party time!

Seems a far better idea to me. After all, the dates of religious festivals (all of them) are based on nothing more than rumour, guesswork, myths and half-truths. If Easter were to be celebrated on any day of the year it would have just as much (or as little) connection with the event it celebrates.

Much better, to my mind, to celebrate actual and provable days like midsummer, the equinoxes and the shortest day rather than base one's celebrations on mythical events that have relevance only to the religion that happens to believe in them.

quote:

I know you're kidding, but Stonehenge predates the druids.

As do so many other less famous sites.

To quote a line form a Mel Brooks movie: "Funny, you don't look Druish!"

Druid is cognate with the Greek word for oak and the English word true.

quote:

Originally posted by jheem:
Druid is cognate with the Greek word for oak and the English word true.

Yes, that's truid.

Now, Asa, don't be ruid.

Oh, Jammerkatz, you've runed my silly pun!