Question:  Dear Greg,

            Why does Easter Sunday fall on different weeks every year?

            Sue

Answer:  Dear Sue,

            Easter is unlike Christmas in that Christmas is always celebrated on December 25.  Of course, some Christians are not aware that Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 6.  The date of Christmas was agreed upon early in the history of the church.

            However, the setting of the date of Easter was more complex, primarily because of its connection with the old covenant roots of Christianity.  Passover is, of course, the Jewish feast that Christ changed into the Lord’s Supper.  Its proximity to the resurrection caused some in the early church to want to chronologically connect Easter, the celebration of the resurrection, with the Jewish Passover, thus connecting the Hebrew calendar with the Christian calendar.  The two calendars are, in fact, somewhat related in the spring season.

            It was finally agreed that the annual celebration of Easter would be the first Sunday following the new moon that occurs on or after March 21.  The date of Easter therefore varies between March 22 and April 25.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht