Question first
appeared on March 13, 2005
Why
is it, exactly, that Latin Easter and Orthodox Easter are different?
Formula
for Date of Easter, First Great Ecumenical Council, Nicea, 325 A.D.:
Easter
will be celebrated on...
·
the first Sunday, following
·
the first Full Moon, after
·
the Spring Equinox
The
Julian Calendar established in 46 B.C. was in effect at the time of the First
Ecumenical Council. It was evident
at that time that there was a serious error in this calendar–one day was
lost approximately every 120 to 140 years.
Pope Gregory XIII instituted a corrected calendar in the year 1582,
which is the Gregorian Calendar that we use today.
There is currently a thirteen (13) day error between the two calendars.
The
Western
Christian
Churches
, including the Roman Catholic Church, use the
Gregorian Calendar when calculating the date of Easter.
The Orthodox Churches still use the Julian Calendar when making this
calculation. This difference
results in the two following examples:
Case
1:
Full
Moon Easter
3/21(G)
3/21(J)
O
Sunday
___/____________/______________________/_____________________________
( 13 days
)
Case
2:
Full
Easter
Full
Moon
Sunday(W)
Moon Easter
3/21(G)
O /
3/21(J)
O
Sunday(O)
___/_________/___/________________________________/___________________
( 13
days )
What
about the situation when Orthodox Easter is one week after Western
Easter, which seems to occur most of the time?
Around the 12th Century, A.D., the Orthodox Church
added one additional requirement to the above formula: “...provided
that the Jewish Passover is completed.”
Since the Jewish Feast of Passover lasts seven (7) days, the
Orthodox Easter date is moved to the following Sunday if this period
overlaps the calculated date.
©Very
Rev. Fr. Olof Scott, Sunday Bulletin, March 13, 2005
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