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Easter is not a festival confined to a single day, however. It is spread over a considerable length of time, starting with Lent, a period of spiritual preparation for Easter. In some countries, those in which Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion in particular, Easter celebrations begin with Carnival. Carnival is called Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday”) in French-speaking countries. ■ When Easter Is Celebrated Easter is called a “movable feast,” because it is celebrated on different dates every year. The Western and Eastern Churches celebrate Easter at different times because they use different methods to schedule the holiday. Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches of the West schedule Easter using a complicated system of rules that date to the Council of Nicea. At that meeting in 325, church leaders came up with a number of rules about how the Christian Church should work. One thing they decided was that the Church should hold a holiday to commemorate the day on which Jesus rose from the dead. Because they didn’t know when this happened, they decided that Easter would be celebrated on the Sunday after the first full Moon following the spring equinox. Helpful astronomers created a chart that plotted out their estimates of the dates of full Moons for many years to come. The Church formally adopted these dates as what are called “ecclesiastical full Moons.” They noted that the spring equinox fell on March 20 in 325, so they made that an official date. From then on, the rule for scheduling Easter was that Easter should fall on the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full Moon after March 20. The result of this complicated scheduling is that the Western Easter can fall anywhere between March 22 and April 25. The Eastern Orthodox Easter usually comes after the Western Easter. There are several reasons for this. First, the Eastern Churches do not use the same calendar as the Western Churches. Western Churches use the Gregorian calendar, which is the calendar that is used in Canada, Europe, the United States, and most of the world. The Eastern Churches use the Julian calendar, which was the calendar in place when the rules for scheduling Easter were first set. The Julian calendar is currently 13 days ahead of the Gregorian calendar. Second, Eastern Churches use the actual first full Moon after the spring equinox to set the date of Easter. They do not use the ecclesiastical full Moons. Third, the Orthodox Easter must fall after the Jewish holiday of Passover. This is to remain faithful to the Bible’s claim that Jesus died after Passover. With these regulations, April 3 is the earliest date on which the Eastern Churches can celebrate Easter. Sometimes the Eastern Orthodox Easter falls on the same date as it does for Western Churches. In other years it might be as many as five weeks later.

Easter, Passover & Festivals of Hope

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