Happy Easter!  Welcome to my second blog post!  Now I’m an old pro at this thing.  I’m still working on a few ideas for some future posts, but since today is Easter, I’m dedicating this one to Easter.

This year, Easter might have a different feel to it, due to our current social distancing guidelines.  If you are used to attending Easter church services, I’m guessing that’s not happening for you this year, at least not in the traditional sense.  Other events may be cancelled as well, like family gatherings or Easter egg hunts.  You may have questions on your mind, like how you are going to celebrate this Easter and how this year will compare to previous years.  I’m sure we all have other questions in our minds as well, like when we can live our lives normally again and how much toilet paper we have left.  But a big question I know is on everyone’s mind is this: Why does the date of Easter fluctuate so much from year to year?

This year, Easter falls on April 12.  Obviously, it falls on a Sunday every year, which makes sense, as it’s to commemorate Christ’s resurrection that took place on the first day of the week.  But it’s never on the same weekend, and it’s not even always in the same month.  Usually it’s sometime in April, but occasionally it’s in March.  In fact, right now, as you are reading this sentence, I’m guessing you don’t have the slightest idea what the date of Easter 2021 is going to be.  You’re going to google “Easter 2021” right now, aren’t you?  Fine, go ahead, but then come right back.  I’ll wait.

Now that you’re back, I’m going to assume you just looked up the date for Easter next year, and that you noticed that it’s not on the same weekend as this year.  And now you’re asking, why is that?  But instead of going back to google right now to look that up, please keep reading.  If you start googling everything, you’re never going to finish reading this.

Apparently (according to my research), Easter is the Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.  Incidentally, this is why you always see a full moon during Holy Week – the week between Palm Sunday and Easter. Hence the picture of the full moon at the top, taken earlier this week.

The vernal equinox falls on March 21.  Therefore, the earliest date on which Easter can fall is March 22.  Since the moon cycle is about 29 days, supposedly that means the latest date on which Easter can fall is April 25.  I imagine those earliest and latest possible dates would be rare though.  I do remember Easter falling on March 23 once (2008) and also once when it fell on April 24 (2011).  But these Easter dates on the extreme ends of the spectrum don’t happen often – you will usually find Easter fall somewhere toward the middle of that time frame, often in early April.

In fact, if you’re bored and you’d like something to do, here’s a fun math problem.  After you finish reading this, feel free to look up the dates for Easter for the last 100 years (1921-2020) and then figure out the average date.  (Yes, I used to be a math teacher.)  You might also be interested to find out which date appears the most often.  But before you do, try to guess which one. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

So that’s how the date for Easter is determined.  But you still may be asking, why do we use the lunar cycle to determine the date?  After all, we know when every other holiday is because it’s always on the either the same calendar date or the same day of the week on a pre-determined week.  For example, Christmas always falls on December 25 and the Fourth of July always falls on July 4^th.  Or, even though the calendar date for Thanksgiving varies, it’s always on the 4^th Thursday of November, so we still know when it’s going to be without really having to look it up.  So why do we determine Easter so differently than all the other holidays?

Well, I’m afraid I don’t have much insight as to why we do it this way; just the fact that we do.  Feel free to do some more research on that after reading this.  Personally, I say that whoever decides these things should change how the date is determined and proclaim that Easter will be officially celebrated on the same weekend every year going forward – say, the 2^nd Sunday of April.  But I don’t decide these things, and I doubt that it actually gets changed.

Anyway, I’m not here to launch into a rant of negativity against Easter, as I’m happy to celebrate it on whatever date it falls.  It’s just something that has intrigued me.  Since Easter is today, I would encourage us take some time today to reflect on the true meaning of Easter and celebrate the resurrection of Christ.  In fact, since we can apparently observe Easter on different days anyway, feel free to celebrate all year around.

But let’s at least keep the official date of Easter on a Sunday.

Matthew 28:1-10