Did You Know The Full Moon Determines When Easter Is?

You hear it every year. People say “Easter is early this year” or “It’s going to be a late Easter this year”.  So why does Easter Sunday change each year?

You will have to go back to the year 335 AD for your answer. Christian church leaders then established a set of guidelines to determine when Easter Sunday would take place. Based on those guidelines Easter could occur anytime from March 22 to April 25.

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Believe it or not, it has everything to do with the full moon, Spring’s arrival and where we are on the calendar.  Simply put, Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of Spring. Since the first day of Spring arrived on March 20 and the first full moon happened after that on March 28, the first Sunday after that is this Sunday, April 4, Easter Sunday.

It seems like a crazy formula to determine this holy event, but it is one we have followed for one-thousand six-hundred and eighty-six years.  I don't see it changing.