The Timing of Easter

by Deb on April 11, 2011

Easter Teach/Learn
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{ 5 comments }

Suzi April 11, 2011 at 8:19 am

Hi there, I really liked ‘the timing of Easter’ post. I love teaching my kids all the scientific things you show on the blog. I am a Christian and was well impressed with your write up. I think it’s entertaining to find out the origin of modern day festivities and goings on. Christmas is another corker. Actually a Spring occurrence with lots of lovely pagan influences from those early ‘converts’ to Catholicism. Nice how they compromised :o)

What’s your take on Lunar planting? I’m skeptical but whenever I’ve done it and documented it I’ve noticed the plants are stronger..
suzi

Veronica April 11, 2011 at 8:22 am

Complicated much?

Thankyou for the explanation!
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Cass April 17, 2011 at 12:33 pm

I am still confused. I would love a couple of examples of the calculation.

Deb April 17, 2011 at 3:11 pm

Since the full moon is defined as the 14th day of the lunar month, and the solstice is defined as March 21st, Easter will be the third Sunday of the lunar month that starts on or after March 8th (14 days before March 22nd).

The metonic cycle is just a trick to get the lunar and solar years to line up for humans when they don’t in nature, so the easiest way is to get it from a chart. There’s a table about 2/3 of the way down this page with the beginnings of the lunar months (US style dates). 2011 has 13 lunar months, one starting on the 6th of March, the next is on the 4th of April. 14 days after that would be the 18th of April, and the next Sunday is the 24th, which is Easter this year.

Next year has 12 lunar months, with one beginning on March 25th. 14 days later would be the 8th of April which is a Sunday, and that’s Easter. In 2013 a lunar month begins on the 14th of March, making the full moon the 28th. The next Sunday is March 31st.

Deb @ Living Montessori Now April 18, 2011 at 1:23 pm

Fascinating! I’d never actually studied the entire explanation for the moveable date of Easter before. Thanks for doing the research for us! 🙂
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