Why is Easter So Early?

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My college roommate Nancy sent me an email about this year's date for Easter that I verified through Snopes.com and I thought I'd share.

It's fairly worthless information, as information goes, but fascinating nonetheless. I suppose I like fascinating, worthless bits of information.

The date for Easter each year is something of a mystery to the average person. Unlike most other significant dates on the western calendar, which fall either on fixed dates (e.g., Christmas is always December 25) or on easily-reckoned relative calendar days (e.g., Thanksgiving in the U.S. is the fourth Thursday in November), Easter moves around from year to year in order to preserve its relationship to the astronomical phenomena (i.e., the season of the year and the phase of the moon) that would have occurred at the time of the resurrection (traditionally reckoned as having taken place in 30 A.D.).

In the modern era, Easter Sunday generally falls on the Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon (i.e., the first full moon of Spring in the northern hemisphere, or the first full moon occurring after the date of the vernal equinox). However, since astronomical observations are variable (e.g., the date of the full moon can vary depending upon the location of the observer), the date of Easter is typically calculated from tables. We'll dispense with an explanation of how to perform these calculations (for the curious, such an explanation can be found here) in favor of addressing the main points of the example quoted above.

The earliest calendar date on which Easter can fall is March 22, and the latest date is April 25. Easter therefore takes place unusually early this year, as its 2008 date of occurrence is March 23. The last time Easter fell on so early a date was 1913, and the next time it will do so will be in the year 2160 (not 2228, as claimed in the example cited above — although Easter will also fall on March 23 that year, it will not be the next such occurrence).

Seeing Easter fall on the earliest possible date, March 22, is an experience that has not been, and (barring some remarkable breakthroughs in longevity) will not be, witnessed by anyone alive today: It last occurred in the year 1818, and it will not happen again until 2285.

The odds are considerably better for witnessing a late Easter. Many people are still around from the last time Easter fell on April 25, an event which took place in 1943, and a good many people here today will likely still be around when Easter next falls on April 25, which will occur in 2038.

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