Calendar confusion
16/01/16 05:28
The selection of dates for the celebration of holidays can be a matter of politics and controversy. When the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday was instituted, it was important to his family and friends that it be a celebration of his life and his commitment to equality rather than a day of mourning. Therefore his birthday seemed more worthy of the celebration than the date of his death. A fixed date, however, moves around the week. The holiday was established as the Monday that is closest to January 15, the actual day of Dr. King’s birthday. Subsequent legislation now has the day set as the third Monday in January. That means that the holiday is around the date of his birthday. Fixed date holidays Make it easy to plan for the disruption of business as usual.
Some holidays, of course, are on specific dates of the calendar and can occur on any day of the week. Christmas is always December 25. Religious leaders were trying for the Winter Solstice and ended up with a date that is pretty close to the solstice. There have been some intense debates over calendars in the history of the church, some of which are not fully resolved to this day.
Easter is a holiday that always lands on a Sunday, but not on a fixed Sunday. How to determine what day Easter falls on is a mystery to most people. Church leaders have tried to align both the season of the year and the phase of the moon to correspond with the actual resurrection of Jesus. According to the Bible, Jesus’ death and resurrection occurred around the time of the Jewish Passover, celebrated on the first full moon following the vernal equinox. By the end of the 2nd century, there were differences in the date of celebration, with some churches celebrating Easter on the day of Passover, others celebrating it on the Sunday following Easter.
Then, in the time of Pope Gregory, the entire calendar was revised from the more ancient Julian Calendar. The new Gregorian Calendar contained leap years and was based on more accurate observations of natural phenomena. It has been accepted by most modern societies, but is not the official calendar in all areas of the church. Today we note the difference between the celebration of Easter in Eastern and Western churches as a generality.
Our congregation follows the traditions of the western church. In 325, the Council of Nicaea established Easter as the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring after the vernal equinox. There are some exceptions to that rule, however. First of all, the council assumed that the vernal equinox always landed on March 21, and it doesn’t always fall on that day. Also, the council determined that if the full moon landed on a Sunday, the celebration of Easter is delayed for one week, except for a group of Christians who celebrate Easter on the day of the full moon when it lands on a Sunday. In those years, there can be three different dates for Easter: an Eastern date based on the Julian Calendar, the mainstream date, and the early celebration of the Quartodecimans.
Sometimes the various calendars align. In 2007, the Julain date was converted to realign the calendar with the solar cycle, so Easter landed on the same day in all traditions. The dates aligned agin in 2011 through the progression of both calendars.
If you’re confused by all of this, you’re not alone. I use official church calendars to look up the date of Easter. In our life as a congregation, the date of Easter affects lots of other celebrations. Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent is determined by counting backwards from Easter. All of the Holy Week Events - Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday - are determined by their relationship to Easter as are Ascension Day and Pentecost Sunday.
I kind of enjoy the variation in the calendar. Easter can fall as early as March 22 or as late as April 25. The super early Easter date is very rare, however, and I will never experience Easter on that date. The last time it fell on March 22 was 1818 and the next time it occurs on that date will be 2285. Late Easters are a bit more common. The last time it occurred on April 25 was 1943, before I was born, but it will land on that date in 2038 and I may be around for that celebration. It fell on April 24 in 2011, which was pretty late.
There are folks, however, who find the changing dates of Easter to be a disruption. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is leading the movement to get Christian Churches to agree on a fixed date for Easter. Technically, the Anglican Communion already has such a date. In 1928, the British Parliament passed a law allowing for Easter Sunday to be fixed on the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April. However, the church has never followed this practice. The Archbishop, however, has been engaged in talks with Pope Francis, Coptic leader Pope Tawadros, and Patriarch Bartholomew of the Orthodox church in an effort to established a fixed date for the holiday. He has even gone so far as to declare that the change will happen “in between five and 10 years time.” He has made the change one of the goals of his career. “I would love to see it before I retired.”
That would probably make it before I retire. Which would be fairly dramatic, considering the fact that the talks about the common date for Easter were begun in the 10th Century. I think that there have been more than a dozen official attempts to negotiate such deal. Some things don’t happen too quickly in the church.
So I won’t be holding my breath or making any predictions. The change may come in our lifetime. It may not. In the meantime, I’ll keep my calendars and check with others as we plan the life of our congregation.
Some holidays, of course, are on specific dates of the calendar and can occur on any day of the week. Christmas is always December 25. Religious leaders were trying for the Winter Solstice and ended up with a date that is pretty close to the solstice. There have been some intense debates over calendars in the history of the church, some of which are not fully resolved to this day.
Easter is a holiday that always lands on a Sunday, but not on a fixed Sunday. How to determine what day Easter falls on is a mystery to most people. Church leaders have tried to align both the season of the year and the phase of the moon to correspond with the actual resurrection of Jesus. According to the Bible, Jesus’ death and resurrection occurred around the time of the Jewish Passover, celebrated on the first full moon following the vernal equinox. By the end of the 2nd century, there were differences in the date of celebration, with some churches celebrating Easter on the day of Passover, others celebrating it on the Sunday following Easter.
Then, in the time of Pope Gregory, the entire calendar was revised from the more ancient Julian Calendar. The new Gregorian Calendar contained leap years and was based on more accurate observations of natural phenomena. It has been accepted by most modern societies, but is not the official calendar in all areas of the church. Today we note the difference between the celebration of Easter in Eastern and Western churches as a generality.
Our congregation follows the traditions of the western church. In 325, the Council of Nicaea established Easter as the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring after the vernal equinox. There are some exceptions to that rule, however. First of all, the council assumed that the vernal equinox always landed on March 21, and it doesn’t always fall on that day. Also, the council determined that if the full moon landed on a Sunday, the celebration of Easter is delayed for one week, except for a group of Christians who celebrate Easter on the day of the full moon when it lands on a Sunday. In those years, there can be three different dates for Easter: an Eastern date based on the Julian Calendar, the mainstream date, and the early celebration of the Quartodecimans.
Sometimes the various calendars align. In 2007, the Julain date was converted to realign the calendar with the solar cycle, so Easter landed on the same day in all traditions. The dates aligned agin in 2011 through the progression of both calendars.
If you’re confused by all of this, you’re not alone. I use official church calendars to look up the date of Easter. In our life as a congregation, the date of Easter affects lots of other celebrations. Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent is determined by counting backwards from Easter. All of the Holy Week Events - Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday - are determined by their relationship to Easter as are Ascension Day and Pentecost Sunday.
I kind of enjoy the variation in the calendar. Easter can fall as early as March 22 or as late as April 25. The super early Easter date is very rare, however, and I will never experience Easter on that date. The last time it fell on March 22 was 1818 and the next time it occurs on that date will be 2285. Late Easters are a bit more common. The last time it occurred on April 25 was 1943, before I was born, but it will land on that date in 2038 and I may be around for that celebration. It fell on April 24 in 2011, which was pretty late.
There are folks, however, who find the changing dates of Easter to be a disruption. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is leading the movement to get Christian Churches to agree on a fixed date for Easter. Technically, the Anglican Communion already has such a date. In 1928, the British Parliament passed a law allowing for Easter Sunday to be fixed on the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April. However, the church has never followed this practice. The Archbishop, however, has been engaged in talks with Pope Francis, Coptic leader Pope Tawadros, and Patriarch Bartholomew of the Orthodox church in an effort to established a fixed date for the holiday. He has even gone so far as to declare that the change will happen “in between five and 10 years time.” He has made the change one of the goals of his career. “I would love to see it before I retired.”
That would probably make it before I retire. Which would be fairly dramatic, considering the fact that the talks about the common date for Easter were begun in the 10th Century. I think that there have been more than a dozen official attempts to negotiate such deal. Some things don’t happen too quickly in the church.
So I won’t be holding my breath or making any predictions. The change may come in our lifetime. It may not. In the meantime, I’ll keep my calendars and check with others as we plan the life of our congregation.