March 21, 2008 Chautauqua

From the Editor's Computer

March has certainly been a full month. First there was the time change (which I personally totally disagree with) and then St. Patrick’s Day. Now we’re approaching Easter, which is early this year.

For those who have always wondered why the date of Easter is never the same each year, I’ll share the secret with you.

Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. So that means that the earliest that Easter could ever be is March 21 (assuming that Sunday is the day after the Equinox and the full moon is the night of the Equinox). Confused yet?

In the far distant days of history, there were actually two means of determining the date of Easter - the Roman Church’s method and the Celtic method practiced at Iona. As you can imagine, the two methods came into conflict as the Christian churches were not all celebrating the important holy day at the same time. The matter was settled once and for all at the Synod of Whitby in the year 664. Ever since we date Easter using the method established by Rome.

Beth

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