“Can Jesus resurrects twice a month?” The question came from an 9-year-old, the son of a friend, when he heard that the Catholic Church celebrates Easter on April 5th, but the Greek Orthodox Church on April 12th. I told the boy, the issue was a matter of faith and that it had to do with the ideological difference of the two Churches.
I shortly explained to him that both Church calculate the Sunday resurrection based on the circle of the Moon and the first full moon after 21st of March when the Equinox occurs and day and night have equal duration.
“Hm? So, there are two full moons in a week?” he asked.
“Good question,” I told him and we opened the laptop to find out that:
In Western Christianity, using the Gregorian calendar, Easter always falls on a Sunday between 22 March and 25 April inclusive, within about seven days after the astronomical full moon.
Eastern Christianity bases its calculations on the Julian Calendar. Because of the 13-day difference between the calendars between 1900 and 2099, 21 March corresponds, during the 21st century, to 3 April in the Gregorian Calendar. Easter therefore varies between 4 April and 8 May on the Gregorian calendar (the Julian calendar is no longer used as the civil calendar of the countries where Eastern Christian traditions predominate). Also, because the Julian “full moon” is always several days after the astronomical full moon, the eastern Easter is often later, relative to the visible moon’s phases, than western Easter. (source)
That’s too complicated to explain to a 9-year-old, isn’t it?
Therefore…
I wish to all KTG-readers in the Christian West
and successful
KTG celebrates according to the Christian East 🙂 🙂 🙂
I guess it’s not that difficult to explain, even to a 9-year-old. Western church is using the real moon while the Eastern Church is looking at an virtual moon, i.e. a not real moon. And why do Easterners do this? Because they don’t trust the pope. When he says “there is a moon there” they don’t trust him even if they can see the moon with their own eyes.
hahaha! right they are! same with Western partners in negotiations. so Greece-Creditors stand-off has deep religious roots.
here in Thailand we have a full moon Party today.
I wish you all a lot chocolat rabits and eggs in all coulers.
Another historical tidbit:
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When the computation of Pascha, “The New Passover” was settled upon in 325, it was determined that Christian Pascha should never fall on or before the Jewish Passover. By sticking to the Julian ecclesiastical date for the Spring Equinox, that never happens in the Orthodox computation, while it occasionally does with the Western, Gregorian calculation.
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Thus, some scholars would say that both systems involve a technical error from the original intent. The Orthodox are using an astronomically inaccurate equinox, and the West ignores the original proscription against celebrating on or before the Jewish Passover.