Why is Easter so early and why is Passover so late this year?

Why is Easter so early and why is Passover so late this year?
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2016/03/why_is_easter_so_early_and_why_is_passover_so_late.html
TimesofTrenton.zenfolio.com
Martin Griff | Times of Trenton

Vicki Hyman

March 19, 2016

If Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the first Sunday following the first night of the festival of Passover, then why are Easter and Passover nearly a month apart this year, with Easter on March 27 and the festival of Passover beginning the evening of April 22?

The start of Passover, which celebrates the Israelite exodus from Egypt, falls on the same day of the Jewish calendar every year — the eve of the 14th of Nissan — but because Jews use a lunar calendar, they must insert a so-called "leap month" every two or three years to keep their holiday cycles in tune with the seasons. This year, there are two months of Adar, the month that precedes Nissan.

Though Easter is closely associated with Passover, over the centuries, church authorities in various corners of the Roman Empire have disagreed about when to celebrate it, says Rev. Lawrence Frizzell, the director of Seton Hall University's Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies.

In Asia Minor and particularly Turkey, church officials stuck with the 14th of Nissan, but by the second century A.D., the celebration in Rome became fixed on a Sunday, Frizzell says. (Pope Victor I even threatened to have the so-called "Quartodecimans," or Fourteeners, in Asia Minor excommunicated, and eventually celebrating Easter on Sunday became universal.)

But which Sunday? The Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. determined it should be the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox, fixed at March 21. This year's March 27 is certainly on the early side, but the earliest Easter can occur is March 22 — that last happened in 1818 and won't happen again until 2285.

That's in the Roman Catholic Church. When Pope Gregory XIII corrected the Julian calendar in the 16th century to adjust for the discrepancy of calendar time versus calculated astronomical time, those in what is now known as the Orthodox Catholic Church (or Eastern Orthodox Church) refused to adopt the revised calendar until well into the 20th century, and even now, they still celebrate Easter according to the old (Julian) calendar, not the Gregorian calendar.

That means their Easter usually falls on a different and later Sunday — May 1 this year, five weeks after the Roman Catholic Easter.

Vicki Hyman may be reached at vhyman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @vickihy or like her on Facebook. Find NJ.com/Entertainment on Facebook, and check out TV Hangover, the podcast from Vicki Hyman and co-host Erin Medley on iTunes, Stitcher or listen here.