This article is about the Christian festival. For other uses, see Easter (disambiguation).

Easter
Depiction of the resurrectionof Jesus
by Bernhard Plockhorst, 19th century Type Christian, cultural Significance Celebrates the resurrection of Jesus 2012 date 15 April (Eastern)
8 April (Western) 2013 date 5 May (Eastern)
31 March (Western) 2014 date 20 April (Eastern)
20 April (Western) Celebrations Church services, festive family meals, Easter egghunts and gift-giving Observances Prayer, all-night vigil, sunrise service Related to Passover, of which it is regarded the Christian equivalent; Septuagesima,Sexagesima, Quinquagesima,Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Clean Monday,Lent, Great Lent, Palm Sunday,Holy Week, Maundy Thursday,Good Friday, and Holy Saturdaywhich lead up to Easter; andThomas Sunday, Ascension,Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, andCorpus Christi which follow it.

Easter[nb 1][nb 2] (Latin: Pascha; Greek Πάσχα Paskha, from Hebrew: פֶּסַח‎ Pesaḥ[1]) is a Christian festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection ofJesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion at Calvary as described in the New Testament.[2][3]Easter is the culmination of the Passion of Christ, preceded by Lent, a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance. The last week of Lent is called Holy Week, and it contains the days of the Easter Triduum, including Maundy Thursday (also known as Holy Thursday), commemorating the Last Supperand its preceding foot washing,[4][5]as well as Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus.[6]Easter is followed by a fifty-day period called Eastertide, or the Easter Season, ending with Pentecost Sunday.

Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon(the Paschal Full Moon) following the March equinox.[7]Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned to be on 21 March (even though the equinox occurs, astronomically speaking, on 20 March in most years), and the "Full Moon" is not necessarily the astronomically correct date. The date of Easter therefore varies between 22 March and 25 April. Eastern Christianity bases its calculations on theJulian calendar, whose 21 March corresponds, during the 21st century, to 3 April in the Gregorian calendar, in which the celebration of Easter therefore varies between 4 April and 8 May.

Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, as well as by its position in the calendar. In many languages, the words for "Easter" and "Passover" are etymologically related or homonymous.[8]Easter customs vary across the Christian world, but attending sunrise services, exclaiming the Paschal greeting, clipping the church[9]and decorating Easter eggs, a symbol of the empty tomb, are common motifs.[10][11][12]Additional customs include egg hunting, the Easter Bunny, and Easter parades, which are observed by both Christians and some non-Christians.[13][14][15][16]Main article: Names of Easter

The 2nd-century equivalent of Easter and the Paschal Triduum was called by both Greek and Latin writers Pascha, derived from the Hebrew termPesach (פֶּסַח), known in English as Passover, the Jewish festival commemorating the story of the Exodus.[17][18]Paul writes from Ephesusthat "Christ our Pascha has been sacrificed for us," although the Ephesian Christians were not the first to hear that Exodus 12 spoke about the death of Jesus.[19]In most of the non-English speaking world, the feast today is known by the name Pascha and words derived from it.[1][20]

The modern English term Easter, cognate with modern German Ostern, developed from the Old Englishword Ä’astre or Ä’ostre.[nb 3] This is generally held to have originally referred to the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess, Ä’ostre, a form of the widely attested Indo-Europeandawn goddess.[nb 4] The evidence for the Anglo-Saxon goddess, however, has not been universally accepted, and some have proposed that Eostre may have meant "the month of opening" or that the name Easter may have arisen from the designation of Easter Week in Latin as in albis.[24][25]

Theological significance

A stained glass window depicting thePassover Lamb, a concept integral to the foundation of Easter[20][26]

The New Testamentteaches that the resurrection of Jesus, which Easter celebrates, is a foundation of the Christian faith.[27]The resurrection established Jesus as the powerful Son of God[28]and is cited as proof that God will judge the world in righteousness.[29][30]God has given Christians "a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead".[31]Christians, through faith in the working of God are spiritually resurrected with Jesus so that they may walk in a new way of life.[30][32]

Easter is linked to the Passover and Exodus from Egypt recorded in the Old Testament through the Last Supper and crucifixionthat preceded the resurrection.[20]According to the New Testament, Jesus gave the Passover meal a new meaning, as he prepared himself and his disciples for his death in the upper room during the Last Supper.[20]He identified the matzah and cup of wine as his body soon to be sacrificed and his bloodsoon to be shed.Paul states, "Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast-as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed";[33]this refers to the Passover requirement to have no yeast in the house and to the allegory of Jesus as the Paschal lamb.[34]

One interpretation of the Gospel of John is that Jesus, as the Passover lamb, was crucified at roughly the same time as the Passover lambs were being slain in the temple, on the afternoon of Nisan 14.[35]The scriptural instructions specify that the lamb is to be slain "between the two evenings", that is, at twilight. By the Roman period, however, the sacrifices were performed in the mid-afternoon. Josephus, Jewish War 6.10.1/423 ("They sacrifice from the ninth to the eleventh hour"). Philo, Special Laws 2.27/145 ("Many myriads of victims from noon till eventide are offered by the whole people"). This interpretation, however, is inconsistent with the chronology in the Synoptic Gospels. It assumes that text literally translated "the preparation of the passover" in John 19:14 refers to Nisan 14 (Preparation Day for the Passover) and not necessarily to Yom Shishi(Friday, Preparation Day for the Passover week Sabbath)[36]and that the priests' desire to be ritually pure in order to "eat the passover"[37]refers to eating the Passover lamb, not to the public offerings made during the days of Unleavened Bread.[38]

In the Early Church

The first Christians, Jewish and Gentile, were certainly aware of the Hebrew calendar,[nb 5] but there is no direct evidence that they celebrated any specifically Christian annual festivals.[39]Christians of Jewish origin were the first to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Since the date of the resurrection was close the timing of Passover, they likely celebrated the resurrection as a new facet of the Passover festival.[17]

Direct evidence for the Easter festival begins to appear in the mid-2nd century. Perhaps the earliest extant primary source referencing Easter is a mid-2nd-century Paschal homilyattributed toMelito of Sardis, which characterizes the celebration as a well-established one.[39]Evidence for another kind of annual Christian festival, the commemoration of martyrs, begins to appear at about the same time as evidence for the celebration of Easter.[40]But while martyrs' days (usually the individual dates of martyrdom) were celebrated on fixed dates in the local solar calendar, the date of Easter was fixed by means of the local Jewish lunisolarcalendar. This is consistent with the celebration of Easter having entered Christianity during its earliest, Jewish period, but does not leave the question free of doubt.[41]

The ecclesiastical historian Socrates Scholasticus attributes the observance of Easter by the church to the perpetuation of its custom, "just as many other customs have been established," stating that neither Jesus nor his Apostlesenjoined the keeping of this or any other festival. Although he describes the details of the Easter celebration as deriving from local custom, he insists the feast itself is universally observed.[42]

Date

Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts, in that they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Juliancalendars (both of which follow the cycle of the sun and the seasons). Instead, the date for Easter is determined on a lunisolar calendar similar to the Hebrew calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the March equinox. Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned to be on 21 March (even though the equinox occurs, astronomically speaking, on 20 March in most years), and the "full moon" is not necessarily the astronomically correct date.

In Western Christianity, using the Gregorian calendar, Easter always falls on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25 inclusive, within about seven days after the astronomical full moon.[43]The following day, Easter Monday, is a legal holidayin many countries with predominantly Christian traditions.

Eastern Christianity bases its calculations on the Julian Calendar. Because of the 13-day difference between the calendars between 1900 and 2099, 21 March corresponds, during the 21st century, to 3 April in the Gregorian Calendar. Easter therefore varies between 4 April and 8 May on the Gregorian calendar (the Julian calendar is no longer used as the civil calendar of the countries where Eastern Christian traditions predominate). Also, because the Julian "full moon" is always several days after the astronomical full moon, the eastern Easter is often later, relative to the visible moon's phases, than western Easter.

Among the Oriental Orthodox some churches have changed from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar and the date for Easter as for other fixed and moveable feasts is the same as in the Western church.[44]

ComputationsMain article: Computus

In 725, Bedesuccinctly wrote, "The Sunday following the full Moon which falls on or after the equinox will give the lawful Easter."[45]However, this does not reflect the actual ecclesiastical rules precisely. One reason for this is that the full moon involved (called the Paschal full moon) is not an astronomical full moon, but the 14th day of a calendar lunar month. Another difference is that the astronomical equinox is a natural astronomical phenomenon, which can fall on 19, 20 March, or 21, while the ecclesiastical date is fixed by convention on 21 March.[46]

In applying the ecclesiastical rules, Christian churches use 21 March as the starting point in determining the date of Easter, from which they find the next full moon, etc. The Eastern Orthodoxand Oriental Orthodox Churches continue to use the Julian calendar. Their starting point in determining the date of Orthodox Easter is also 21 March, but according to the Julian reckoning, which currently corresponds to 3 April in the Gregorian calendar. In addition, the lunar tables of the Julian calendar are four days (sometimes five days) behind those of the Gregorian calendar. The 14th day of the lunar month according to the Gregorian system is only the 9th or 10th day according to the Julian. The result of this combination of solar and lunar discrepancies is divergence in the date of Easter in most years (see table).

Easter is determined on the basis of lunisolarcycles. The lunar year consists of 30-day and 29-day lunar months, generally alternating, with an embolismic month added periodically to bring the lunar cycle into line with the solar cycle. In each solar year (1 January to 31 December inclusive), the lunar month beginning with an ecclesiastical new moon falling in the 29-day period from 8 March to 5 April inclusive is designated as the paschal lunar month for that year. Easter is the third Sunday in the paschal lunar month, or, in other words, the Sunday after the paschal lunar month's 14th day. The 14th of the paschal lunar month is designated by convention as the Paschal full moon, although the 14th of the lunar month may differ from the date of the astronomical full moon by up to two days.[47]Since the ecclesiastical new moon falls on a date from 8 March to 5 April inclusive, the paschal full moon (the 14th of that lunar month) must fall on a date from 21 March to 18 April inclusive.

The Gregorian calculation of Easter was based on a method devised by the Calabriandoctor Aloysius Lilius (or Lilio) for adjusting the epacts of the moon,[48]and has been adopted by almost all Western Christians and by Western countries who celebrate national holidays at Easter. For the British Empire and colonies, a determination of the date of Easter Sunday using Golden Numbersand Sunday letters was defined by the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 with its Annexe. This was designed to exactly match the Gregorian calculation.

Controversies

Orthodoxicon of theResurrection of Jesus.

Main article: Easter controversy

The precise date of Easter has at times been a matter for contention. By the later 2nd century, it was accepted that the celebration of the holiday was a practice of the disciples and an undisputed tradition. The Quartodecimancontroversy, the first of several Easter controversies, then arose concerning the date on which the holiday should be celebrated.

The term "Quartodeciman" refers to the practice of celebrating Easter on Nisan 14 of the Hebrew calendar, "the LORD's passover" (Leviticus 23:5). According to the church historian Eusebius, the Quartodeciman Polycarp(bishop of Smyrna, by tradition a disciple of John the Evangelist) debated the question with Anicetus(bishop of Rome). The Roman province of Asia was Quartodeciman, while the Roman and Alexandrian churches continued the fast until the Sunday following (the Sunday of Unleavened Bread), wishing to associate Easter with Sunday. Neither Polycarp nor Anicetus persuaded the other, but they did not consider the matter schismaticeither, parting in peace and leaving the question unsettled.

Controversy arose when Victor, bishop of Rome a generation after Anicetus, attempted to excommunicate Polycrates of Ephesus and all other bishops of Asia for their Quartodecimanism. According to Eusebius, a number of synods were convened to deal with the controversy, which he regarded as all ruling in support of Easter on Sunday.[49]Polycrates (circa 190), however, wrote to Victor defending the antiquity of Asian Quartodecimanism. Victor's attempted excommunication was apparently rescinded and the two sides reconciled upon the intervention of bishop Irenaeus and others, who reminded Victor of the tolerant precedent of Anicetus.

Quartodecimanism seems to have lingered into the 4th century, when Socrates of Constantinople recorded that some Quartodecimans were deprived of their churches by John Chrysostom[50]and that some were harassed by Nestorius.[51]

It is not known how long the Nisan 14 practice continued. But both those who followed the Nisan 14 custom, and those who set Easter to the following Sunday had in common the custom of consulting their Jewish neighbors to learn when the month of Nisan would fall, and setting their festival accordingly. By the later 3rd century, however, some Christians began to express dissatisfaction with the custom of relying on the Jewish community to determine the date of Easter. The chief complaint was that the Jewish communities sometimes erred in setting Passover to fall before the Northern Hemisphere spring equinox.[52][53]The Sardica paschal table[54]confirms these complaints, for it indicates that the Jews of some eastern Mediterranean city (possiblyAntioch) fixed Nisan 14 on dates well before the spring equinox on multiple occasions.[55]

Because of this dissatisfaction with reliance on the Jewish calendar, some Christians began to experiment with independent computations.[nb 6] Others, however, felt that the customary practice of consulting Jews should continue, even if the Jewish computations were in error.

This controversy between those who advocated independent computations, and those who wished to continue the custom of relying on the Jewish calendar, was formally resolved by the First Council of Nicaea in 325, which endorsed the move to independent computations, effectively requiring the abandonment of the old custom of consulting the Jewish community in those places where it was still used. Epiphanius of Salamis wrote in the mid-4th century:

... the emperor ... convened a council of 318 bishops ... in the city of Nicea ... They passed certain ecclesiastical canons at the council besides, and at the same time decreed in regard to the Passover that there must be one unanimous concord on the celebration of God's holy and supremely excellent day. For it was variously observed by people ...[58]

That the older custom (called "protopaschite" by historians) did not at once die out, but persisted for a time, is indicated by the existence of canons[59]and sermons[60]against it.

Some scholars have concluded that no detailed method of determining the date of Easter was specified by the Council.[61]In any case, in the years following the council, the computational system that was worked out by the church of Alexandria came to be normative. It took a while for the Alexandrian rules to be adopted throughout Christian Europe, however. The Church of Rome continued to use an 84-year lunisolar calendar cycle from the late 3rd century until 457. It then switched to an adaptation by Victorius of Aquitaine of the Alexandrian rules. Because this Victorian cycle differed from the Alexandrian cycle in the dates of some of the Paschal Full Moons, and because it tried to respect the Roman custom of fixing Easter to the Sunday in the week of the 16th to the 22nd of the lunar month (rather than the 15th to the 21st as at Alexandria), by providing alternative "Latin" and "Greek" dates in some years, occasional disagreements from the date of Easter as fixed by Alexandrian rules continued.[62][63]The Alexandrian rules were adopted in their entirety in the 6th century. From this time, therefore, all disputes between Alexandria and Rome as to the correct date for Easter cease, as both churches were using identical tables.

Early Christians in Britain and Ireland also used an 84-year cycle. From the 5th century onward this cycle set its equinox to 25 March and fixed Easter to the Sunday falling in the 14th to the 20th of the lunar month inclusive.[64][65]This 84-year cycle was replaced by the Alexandrian method in the course of the 7th and 8th centuries. Churches in western continental Europe used a late Roman method until the late 8th century during the reign of Charlemagne, when they finally adopted the Alexandrian method. Since 1582, when the Catholic Church adopted the Gregorian calendar while the Eastern Orthodox and most Oriental Orthodox Churches retained the Julian calendar, the date on which Easter is celebrated has again differed.

The Greek island of Syros, whose population is divided almost equally between Catholics and Orthodox, is one of the few places where the two Churches share a common date for Easter, with the Catholics accepting the Orthodox date - a practice helping considerably in maintaining good relations between the two communities.[66]

Reform of the dateSee also: Reform of the date of Easter

The congregation lighting their candles from the new flame, just as the priest has retrieved it from the altar-note that the picture is flash-illuminated; all electric lighting is off, and only the oil lamps in front of theIconostasisremain lit. (St. George Greek Orthodox Church, Adelaide)

In the 20th century, some individuals and institutions have propounded a fixed date for Easter, the most prominent proposal being the Sunday after the second Saturday in April. Despite having some support, proposals to reform the date have not been implemented.[25]An Orthodox congress of Eastern Orthodox bishops, which included representatives mostly from the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Patriarch of Serbia, met in Constantinople in 1923, where the bishops agreed to the Revised Julian calendar.[67]

The original form of this calendar would have determined Easter using precise astronomical calculations based on the meridian of Jerusalem.[68][69]However, all the Eastern Orthodox countries that subsequently adopted the Revised Julian calendar adopted only that part of the revised calendar that applied to festivals falling on fixed dates in the Julian calendar. The revised Easter computation that had been part of the original 1923 agreement was never permanently implemented in any Orthodox diocese.[67]

In the United Kingdom, the Easter Act 1928 set out legislation to allow the date of Easter to be fixed as the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April (or, in other words, the Sunday in the period from 9 to 15 April). However, the legislation has not been implemented, although it remains on the Statute book and could be implemented subject to approval by the various Christian churches.[70]

At a summit in Aleppo, Syria, in 1997, the World Council of Churches (WCC) proposed a reform in the calculation of Easter which would have replaced the present divergent practices of calculating Easter with modern scientific knowledge taking into account actual astronomical instances of the spring equinox and full moon based on the meridian of Jerusalem, while also following the Council of Nicea position of Easter being on the Sunday following the full moon.[71]The recommended World Council of Churches changes would have sidestepped the calendar issues and eliminated the difference in date between the Eastern and Western churches. The reform was proposed for implementation starting in 2001, but it was not ultimately adopted by any member body.

Table of the dates of Easter

The WCC presented comparative data of the relationships:

Table of dates of Easter 2001-2021
(In Gregorian dates) Year Spring
Full Moon Astronomical
Easter Gregorian
Easter Julian
Easter Jewish
Passover 2001 8 April 15 April 15 April 15 April 8 April 2002 28 March 31 March 31 March 5 May 28 March 2003 16 April 20 April 20 April 27 April 17 April 2004 5 April 11 April 11 April 11 April 6 April 2005 25 March 27 March 27 March 1 May 24 April 2006 13 April 16 April 16 April 23 April 13 April 2007 2 April 8 April 8 April 8 April 3 April 2008 21 March 23 March 23 March 27 April 20 April 2009 9 April 12 April 12 April 19 April 9 April 2010 30 March 4 April 4 April 4 April 30 March 2011 18 April 24 April 24 April 24 April 19 April 2012 6 April 8 April 8 April 15 April 7 April 2013 27 March 31 March 31 March 5 May 26 March 2014 15 April 20 April 20 April 20 April 15 April 2015 4 April 5 April 5 April 12 April 4 April 2016 23 March 27 March 27 March 1 May 23 April 2017 11 April 16 April 16 April 16 April 11 April 2018 31 March 1 April 1 April 8 April 31 March 2019 21 March 24 March 21 April 28 April 20 April 2020 8 April 12 April 12 April 19 April 9 April 2021 28 March 4 April 4 April 2 May 28 March

Notes: 1. Astronomical Easter is the first Sunday after the Astronomical full moon, referred to the meridian of Jerusalem