Posted on 01/16/2016 11:08:39 AM PST by marshmallow
The Archbishop of Canterbury is working with other Christian churches to agree on a fixed date for Easter.
Justin Welby made the announcement after a meeting of primates from the Anglican Communion in Canterbury.
In the UK, an act of Parliament passed in 1928 allowed for Easter Sunday to be fixed on the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April.
However, this has never been activated and Easter has remained variable, determined by the moon's cycle.
Easter is the most important Christian festival, as it celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ following his death by crucifixion on Good Friday.
'Before retirement'
The archbishop said he was in talks with Pope Francis, Coptic leader Pope Tawadros, and the leader of the Orthodox church Patriarch Bartholomew.
Mr Welby said he hoped the change would happen "in between five and 10 years time".
"I would love to see it before I retired", he said, although he warned the first attempt to make such a change was in the 10th Century.
An Anglican source told the BBC there had been 15 attempts to agree a common date since then.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
This would sure help me. I go to Prague every Easter for velikonoce. Best time of the year.
I always wondered why we flop around so much for Easter. We know when Jesus died and rose from the dead. Just make it that day and call it kosher.
If you can think of a joke about us Catholics: GO FOR IT. I deserve it. :o)
Looking for his 15 minutes of fame is he?
Fixing the date for Easter is difficult. But it is based on the date for Passover, since according to the Scriptures, Jesus was crucified on the afternoon before Passover began (at sunset).
The Jewish calendar has a lunar basis. The Christian calendar has a combined lunar and solar basis. So Easter and Passover don’t always coincide.
But it’s not up to some jerk in the Anglican Church to tell us when Easter is. All this will do is spread the divisions among churches still further as to if and when Easter should be celebrated. The opposite of what he proposes to accomplish.
Calendar based on phases of the moon, like Jewish and Muslim calendars, except the Romans got things largely on a solar basis.
Easter was always fixed as “the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox.” The original rationale is that travelers who were running a little late could use the moon for illumination in their travels, allowing travel both day and night in the last few days to get to Jerusalem.
In these days of air travel and other forms of rapid transit, it no longer makes as much sense. But tradition is a hard thing to break, especially the period of Lent, supposedly a time of repentance and introspection.
Thank you for the explanations. I understand now why it is what it is. What I don’t understand is why the church originally made Christmas the same day but not Easter when it’s a celebration of the resurrection, another fixed day.
A beautiful tradition, tied to Passover. Guess it’s too complicated for the mainstream.
Christmas as a Big Thing came along later and missed the whole moon thing plus who knows when Jesus was born under the Jewish calendar?
Actually that was researched quite a bit. There are 3 possible dates:
August 7
November 12
December 25
I’d like to hear your opinion on which one you think is the most logical date and why.
It matters not to me. I’m good with Dec 25, but would also go with the Winter Solstice.
Easter is tied to Jesus’ actual day of resurrection, as measured in the Jewish calendar. We know the day because of the descriptions in the Gospels.
Christmas is a re-purposed Roman pagan holiday, taken over and renamed by the Church. It has no relationship to Jesus’ actual date of birth.
No one know precisely when Jesus rose from the dead, or when he died. The date of Easter was set to make it fall after Passover. It was agreed that Christ died on a Friday, after the Seder on Holy/Maundy Thursday. Passover starts on the 15th of Nissan, the Hebrew lunar month which starts on the first new moon after the vernal equinox.
By this reasoning Easter is on the first Sunday on or after the first ecclesiastic full moon after the ecclesiastic vernal equinox. Gregorian calendar reform was motivated by the need to make the ecclesiastic vernal equinox, fixed on March 21 align with the astronomically determined date, and to occur on the same date in all places in the world. The Gregorian Calendar has a side kick lunar calendar, accurate to about one day every 8000 years, for calculating lunar cycles. An ecclesiastic full moon occurs when the “age of the moon” (days into the lunar cycle) equals 15.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computus
That’s actually a myth being spread in atheist circles as of late. Jesus was in fact born in December and years before 0 AD. Would you like to know why?
Thank you. Much appreciated.
Leap year, cough, cough.
Leap second, whatever.
Everyone knows that I'm not a scholar, and yes I think this might be a good idea. Makes it easier for everyone ( Christians).
But, methinks the Lord was born on the Feast of Tabernacles, and died on the Feast of Passover. So, the Hebrew calendar is the best approximation/determinate.
Like I said, I'm not a scholar.
5.56mm
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