False Facts

During the recent "Easter" season, I received an an email numerous times purporting to present various fun facts about Easter. Here they are:

Easter is always the First Sunday after the First Full Moon after the Spring Equinox.

Easter was unusually early this year (March 23), but it occurs on rare occasions one day earlier.

The last time it was this early was 1913. The next time it falls on March 23 will be 2228.

It fell on March 22 in 1818, and will fall again on March 22 in 2285.

The dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar used by the Hebrews to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

That last statement is completely false.

Passover, the most ancient of the Hebrew celebrations, dates back to Moses and the Exodus 3500 years ago. On a particular night, God sent an angel to destroy all the firstborn sons of Egypt, but He provided the Hebrews with a means of deliverance from the plague. They were to sacrifice a young lamb, paint the doorposts of their house with its blood, and roast the meat for dinner. When the angel saw the blood on the doorposts, he would pass over the houses of the Hebrews...thus it is called Passover.

Passover was to be celebrated annually among the Hebrews as a memorial of what God had done for them, and it was always celebrated on the 14th of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. The lamb is butchered on the afternoon, but since the Hebrew day is measured from sunset to sunset, they actually eat the Passover meal as the 15th day of Nisan is beginning.

The Hebrew calendar is based on the lunar cycle, which is 354 days in length. In cultures that practice a purely lunar calendar, the year does not follow the seasons becuase it deviates from the standard calendar by about 11 days each year, aligning with the seasons about once every 34 years. Our calendar is based on the solar cycle, which is 365 days in length, and the ancient Biblical calendar was actually 360 days long. In order to keep their lunar calendar in line with the solar cycle, the Jews added an extra month seven times in nineteen years.

Each Hebrew month begins with the new moon, so the 14th day of every month falls on the full moon. Passover really is celebrated on a full moon, but not necessarily on the first full moon after the Spring Eqinox. Take 2008, for instance. The Spring Equinox was March 19, which is the day on which the sun is exactly positioned over the earth's equator. The first full moon was March 21. Therefore the first Sunday after the first full moon was March 23. However, Passover 2008, 14 Nisan on the Hebrew calendar, is not until April 19, which is the SECOND full moon after the Spring Equinox.

Most of Christendom celebrated Easter--the supposed memorial of Jesus' resurrection--a full month before the anniversary of His death. And why did we do this? More about it tomorrow.