How is the date of Easter determined?

Christmas is on December 25 Why is Easter not on a specifice date. How is Easter Sunday determined?

• Answer:

  Easter Sunday's date is loosely based on the Jewish calendar. That is the reason it is so complicated. And the reason it is based on the Jewish calendar is that the historical event occurred on the Jewish holiday of Passover. (Note, however, that some years, the computation of Easter does *not* bring it to a date on or near Passover, as the computation is different for 2 or 3--I don't remember any more--of the 19 year cycle.) There are 2 different ways to calculate the date in any given year. One is based on a list of 19 dates (when you get to the bottom of the list, you start over at the beginning), where Easter is the Sunday following the corresponding date on the list. The other method requires computing full moons after the (northern hemisphere) spring equinox, then adding days, again to bring it to a Sunday. This is somewhat simplified. It is the basic information, not the detail. See below if you want to do the math yourself. Note, also, that the Eastern churches celebrate Easter on different dates in most years.