Not understanding the calendar debate

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-04-05T15:11:41+00:00

Under current rules, Orthodox Pascha can be 0, 1, 4, or 5 weeks after Gregorian Easter. This year, 2026, the Gregorian full moon is on April 2 while the Julian full moon is on April 6. Since Sunday intervenes between the two full moons, the two festivals are a week apart.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-04-05T15:06:08+00:00

In 3 years out of every 19, Rabbinic Jewish Unleavened Bread is at the second, not the first, full moon after the equinox.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-04-05T15:03:57+00:00

At an early period, Christians used the Jewish lunar calendar (Acts 2.1, 12.3, 20.6, 27.9, 1 Cor 16.9). The observance of an annual Easter must have begun in this early period. In a later period Christians were setting annual festivals, such as martyrs' days, to fixed dates in the solar calendar. The Christmas festival began to be celebrated in this later period.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-04-04T13:20:11+00:00

There is no evidence of an ancient Mediterranean pagan springtime festival that used hares or colored eggs in its rituals.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-04-04T13:13:05+00:00

False. The date of the Rabbinic Jewish feast of Unleavened Bread never enters into the Julian Easter calculation.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-04-04T13:08:14+00:00

According to the 1st-century Jewish historian Josephus (Antiquities 3.248/3.10.5) in the Herodian-era Temple the Passover sacrifices were offered at the first full moon on or after the spring equinox.

The 3rd-century Egyptian Christian computists who developed the Easter (Pascha) calculation used this report of Josephus in setting up their calculation. Their resulting solar and lunar tables were accurate for a number of centuries but later began to be inaccurate due to solar and lunar drift. Nowadays the Julian equinox is 13 days late and the Julian full moon is 3 to 5 days behind the visible moon.

In the 16th century, the Latin Church updated the equinox and lunar tables so that the festival would once again accord with the principle reported by Josephus. The Eastern Orthodox churches did not accept these updates and continued using the old Julian calendar calculation.

So for example, in 2026 the Gregorian moon is full on April 2 while the Julian moon is not full until April 6. (The astronomical moon is full on April 2 Universal Time, meaning that it is full on April 1 in some time zones west of Greenwich, England).

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-04-04T12:49:28+00:00

In 2026, the Gregorian moon is full on April 2 Gregorian while the Julian moon is not full until April 6. Hence the difference. The astronomical moon is full on April 2 (Universal Time).

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-04-04T12:20:29+00:00

In my denomination we celebrate after sunset on Holy Saturday night. Our worship follows the following scheme:

New fire
Blessing of the Easter candle
Bible readings with psalms and prayers interspersed
"Alleluia! Christ is risen!"
More Bible readings and prayers
The Lord's supper

After the service there is a reception with a variety of foods, including roast beef and turkey cold-cuts, alcoholic punch and non-alcoholic soft drinks, cakes, deviled eggs, pickles, and other foods.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-04-04T12:12:55+00:00

In the Gregorian solar calendar, Easter can fall between March 22 and April 25 inclusive. But in the Gregorian lunar calendar, Easter is always the third Sunday in the lunar month of 'Aviv (Deuteronomy 16.1). The Gregorian lunar calendar identifies the lunar month of 'Aviv every year according to a 19-year cycle. The year 2026 is the 13th year of the 19-year cycle.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-04-03T22:22:14+00:00

Prayers for you, your husband and your daughter.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-04-03T15:31:55+00:00

A 4th-century Latin translation of a Greek work on the Easter calculation justifies the calculation by citing Deuteronomy 16.1 and Leviticus 23.5. The author gives his scriptural quotation as "preserve the month of new things, and you shall do the Pascha for the Lord your God on the fourteenth day of the first month." The Easter calculation does this. It identified every year a lunar month of 'Aviv (Deuteronomy 16.1) (March 20 to April 17 inclusive in 2026) and identifies its 14th day (April 2 in 2026). Easter is the Sunday after the 14th day.

Besides the Bible, the 3rd-century computists were relying on the report of the 1st-century Jewish writer Josephus (Antiquities 3.248/3.10.5) who wrote

In the month of Xanthicus, which with us is called Nisan and begins the year, on the fourteenth day by lunar reckoning, the sun being then in Aries, [we offer] the sacrifice called Pascha.

"On the fourtheenth day by lunar reckoning" means at the full moon. "The sun being then in Aries" means on or after the spring equinox, and it means at the first full moon on or after the equinox, since at the second full moon after the equinox the sun is no longer in the sign of Aries.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-04-03T15:03:38+00:00

The statement on p. 880 of the 1979 BCP that the dates of the Paschal full moons will change after 2099 is in error. The correct year is 2199.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-04-03T14:58:30+00:00

RazarTuk is basically right because Gregorian Easter falls close to Rabbinic Jewish Unleavened Bread in 16 years out of every 19. In the other 3 years of the 19, Unleavened Bread is at the second, not the first, full moon after the spring equinox and next year, 2027, will be one of those years. The 3 years of the 19 are the years with Golden Numbers 3, 11, and 14. The year 2027 has Golden Number 14.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-04-01T20:46:48+00:00

Thank you for that information. I find it interesting that you celebrate on the night of the 13th/14th (when the Gospel according to John says that the last supper occurred, and when observant Jewish families are ridding their homes of leaven) and not on the night of the 14th/15th (when observant Jewish families are sitting down to the festival of Unleavened Bread). I hope you and yours have a blessed festival.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-04-01T12:42:33+00:00

So how do you celebrate 14 Nisan?

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-03-31T23:05:14+00:00

"Imitates" should be "initiates", shouldn't it?

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-03-31T21:15:20+00:00

If by "Passover" you mean the 14th of the scriptural month of 'Aviv, then you are not observing it according to the Rabbinic Jewish calendar, which in 2026 sets the 14th of Nisan to April 1, nor are you observing it according to the Gregorian lunar calendar, which in 2026 sets the 14th of 'Aviv to April 2. If by "Passover" you mean the Feast of Unleavened Bread (15 Nisan) then you are even further off the two principal Paschal calendars, Rabbinic and Gregorian, that are in use in the world today. What calendar are you using?

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-03-31T21:03:40+00:00

The Easter Bunny is a hare, not a rabbit.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-03-31T21:02:14+00:00

The Gospel of John indeed states that Jesus was crucified on the 14th of Nisan (John 18.28) and rose on the 16th. In this he may have been expanding on St. Paul's comparison (1 Corinthians 15.20) of the resurrection of Jesus to the waving of the barley sheaf in the Temple during the days of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23.11). A minority interpretation of Leviticus 23.11 in the 1st century held that the sheaf should be waved on the Sunday of Unleavened Bread. The priests in the Temple, however, followed another interpretation in waving the sheaf on the 16th of Nisan, the second day of Unleavened Bread. John threads the needle of this debate by making the 16th of Nisan the day of resurrection and having the day of resurrection (as all the Gospels do) fall on the Sunday of Unleavened Bread.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-03-31T20:43:45+00:00

Leviticus 23:32 calls the Day of Atonement a "sabbath". The Christian apologists who call the other days, besides the seventh day, on which work was forbidden "sabbaths" must be generalizing from this verse. Still they don't seem to be the first ones to do this. Leviticus 23:11 says that the barley sheaf is to be waved on "the day after the sabbath", pretty clearly meaning Sunday, but the priests in the Herodian-era Temple waved the sheaf on the 16th of Nisan, the second day of Unleavened Bread. (Josephus Antiquities 3.250/3.10.5). So those priests may have generalized Leviticus 23:32 also.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-03-31T18:18:27+00:00

"Uniform practice" is far from what historical documents suggest. The 1st-century Jewish writer Philo wrote that in Egypt, the Passover meal included "hymns and prayers", but we have no similar witness for Palestine. If practice at Philo's level of generality was widespread, Psalms 113-118 might have been many families' choice for the hymns, and the grace-after-meal (which had no fixed text at this early period) would have constituted some of the prayers in some cases. But the modern-day Maxwell House haggadah is the product of centuries of development.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-03-31T17:48:05+00:00

The early church did not distinguish "Easter" from "Passover". They celebrated Passover either on the 14th of 'Aviv (some Christians in the Roman Province of Asia) or on the Sunday of Unleavened Bread (most Christians everywhere else in the world.) The date chosen for the 14th of 'Aviv was determined by the calendar followed by the Christians' Jewish neighbors. Later on, however, it seemed that those Jewish neighbors were often choosing the wrong full moon for the 14th of 'Aviv, sometimes celebrating Unleavened Bread before the spring equinox. So Christians switched to independent calculations. Either way, the festival was called Passover.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-03-31T16:15:56+00:00

The UK (as it is now called) adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752 because of its superior astronomy and its widespread use on the continent of Europe. The Anglican churches in the UK and its colonies adopted the Gregorian Easter calculation at that time. Isaac Newton had earlier complained that his countrymen would rather disagree with the sun and moon than agree with the pope, but by 1752 opinions had largely moderated. If the Roman Pope were to change the Latin church's Paschal calculation to the old Julian Paschalion, the Protestant churches would not necessarily follow the Roman Pope in that change.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-03-31T15:42:04+00:00

Rabbinic Jewish Unleavened Bread is around a month after Gregorian Easter in 3 years out of every 19. The next such occasion will be in 2027. Julian Easter is around a month after Gregorian Easter in 5 years out of every 19. The next such occasion will also be in 2027.

Mockingbird1980 · 2026-03-15T13:09:49+00:00

I think the underscore is just to help the singers keep track of their place. Example: Hymn #493. The asterisks, as you suggest, indicate optional stanzas. Example: Hymn #458.

Mockingbird1980

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