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The Date of EasterDate of Easter and Easter Season 2006 - 2010
The precise date of Easter has often been a matter for contention. Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts, in that they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars (which follow the motion of the Sun and the seasons). Originally, the timing of Easter was determined by the time of the Jewish Passover, which in turn was related to the March Equinox. At the First Council of Nicaea in 325 it was decided that Easter would be celebrated on the same Sunday throughout the Church. Easter is observed on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the March equinox. It was difficult to accurately calculate the equinox, so March 21 was chosen as the 'liturgical' equinox for the purposes of calculating the date of Easter. (The 'liturgical full moon' is also different from the astronomical full moon.) Since western churches now use the Gregorian calendar to calculate the date and Eastern Orthodox churches the original Julian calendar, their dates are not usually aligned in the present day. At a summit in Aleppo, Syria, in 1997, the World Council of Churches proposed a reform in the calculation of Easter which would have replaced an equation-based method of calculating Easter with direct astronomical observation of the equinox; this would have side-stepped the calendar issue and eliminated the difference in date between the Eastern and Western churches. The reform was proposed for implementation starting in 2001, but it was not ultimately adopted by any member body.
The dates of Easter in Different Traditions
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| Year | Passover | Eastern Easter | Western Easter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | April 24 | May 1 | March 27 |
| 2006 | April13 | April 23 | April 16 |
| 2007 | April 3 | April 8 | April 8 |
| 2008 | April 20 | April 27 | March 23 |
| 2009 | April 9 | April 19 | April 12 |
| 2010 | March 30 | April 4 | April 4 |
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia and from ShiningRise.com
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