If our grandmothers clearly understood that what will mark the Bright Resurrection, we learn about it from the Internet. And we are very surprised that Christmas, the Annunciation, Christ is celebrated every year on the same day, and the day of Easter changes every year. Why is it depends and how to calculate it?
Why do we celebrate Easter on different days
There are long-standing and common to all religions rule: Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon. And the first full moon following the vernal equinox - March 22.
IMPORTANT.There are two exceptions to the uniform rules of the celebration of Easter Sunday:
• the first full moon falls on a Sunday - Easter is transferred to the next;
• Christian Easter is not celebrated on the same day as the Jewish.
Easter 2017: how to calculate the date of Easter
We focus on the lunar calendar, which is 354 days (sunny - 365 or 366 days if leap year). It is also important to understand that the lunar month consists of 29.5 days, so the full moon occurs every 29 days.
It turns out that the first full moon after the vernal equinox (March 21) occurs on different days, so shifting the date of Easter.
IMPORTANT. Since the vernal equinox occurs on the night of 21 on March 22, Easter is celebrated on or after April 4, and no later than 8 May.
Determination of the date of the celebration of Easter according to the formula
This simple formula proposed Carl Gauss in the early 19th century:
1. Year (his number) to which you want to know the date of the great day divided by 19. The residue = A
2. Number of the year divided by 4 =
3. Number of the year divided by 7 = C
4. (19 * A + 15) = 30 numbers and the residue = D
5. (B + 2 * 4 + 6 * C * D + 6) 7 = integer. The residue is E =
6. D + E <= 9, then Easter will be March 22 + days if>, in April: the resulting number - 9
Why Easter is celebrated on different days in different religions
It has long been calls to celebrate the Catholic and Orthodox Easter on the same day, because these churches produce chronology according to different calendars (Orthodox - Julian, and Catholics - for Gregorian).
In 2017 - the exception, and we celebrate Easter on the same day - April 16. But the situation will be in 2018 and beyond.
Orthodox Easter 2017 - April 16
Catholic Easter 2017 - April 16
Orthodox Easter 2018 - April 8
Catholic Easter 2018 - April 1
Orthodox Easter 2019 - April 28
Catholic Easter 2019 - April 21
Orthodox Easter 2020 - April 19
Catholic Easter 2020 - April 12
Orthodox Easter in 2021 - 2 May
Catholic Easter 2021 - April 4
Orthodox Easter 2022 - April 24
Catholic Easter 2022 - April 17
Orthodox Easter 2023 - April 16
Catholic Easter 2023 - April 9
Orthodox Easter in 2024 - 5 May
Catholic Easter 2024 - March 31
Orthodox Easter 2025 - April 20
Catholic Easter 2025 - April 20
The reason for this difference goes far 325 years, when the first ecumenical council held rule calculation of the day of Easter: in Rome (Catholics) - the vernal equinox on March 18 in Alexandria (Orthodox) - March 21.
IMPORTANT.On Passover (Pesach) is much simpler: it always occurs annually on the 15th day of the month of Nisan. This is the date of the Jews out of Egypt, but the beginning of the month in the lunar calendar Jews favor the new moon, the lunar month lasts - 28 days.
