Easter Timing

Easter Day in the western church is always the Sunday after the first full moon that falls on or after March 21. Always. The World Series may be pushed back into November because of terrorist attacks. The deadline for filing your tax return may be extended to July 15 because of the pandemic. But the "Feast of Feasts," the Sunday of the Resurrection, Easter Day is always on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the ecclesiastically determined vernal equinox. Well, sort of.

In the fourth century, when bishops from across the church gathered at the Council of Nicaea to address the controversies of the day, one of the topics under debate was the date of Easter. Until that point, Christian communities had been celebrating Jesus' resurrection on different days, but it was agreed that everyone should observe the central feast in the life of the church together. Before Nicaea, most communities had relied on the Jewish calendar to determine the date for Easter, but some were celebrating on Passover itself while others were transferring the celebration to the Sunday after it. Plus, the Jewish calendar itself was a strictly lunar calendar, which did not integrate well with the Julian calendar, which was used throughout the Roman Empire. So the church decided to make its own calculation independent of the Jewish calendar and declared that the formula to be used to determine Easter would be the one we still use today—the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox.

Then, the calendar itself changed. After hundreds of years, the Julian calendar had become increasingly inaccurate, and the date of the ecclesiastically declared equinox of March 21 had drifted about ten days before the actual astronomical equinox—the date when the day and night both last twelve hours. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII issued an updated calendar, which fixed the original problem but created a new one. By then, the eastern and western churches had split, and the Orthodox communities were reluctant to adopt the pope's modification, which is why in many years, including this one, there are two Easters on the calendar.

This year, we face a more immediate challenge. Easter Day is April 12, but, because of the novel coronavirus, we will not be able to gather and celebrate the "Feast of Feasts" as the Christian community. I have seen a few people argue in social media that Easter should be pushed back to a time when we can all be together again, but, unlike a wedding or a baptism, which depend upon a certain level of in-person participation, Easter does not depend upon us. As the gospel bears witness, Jesus' resurrection from the dead was not seen by anyone. Despite their teacher's repeated insistence that he would be raised from the dead, his disciples only discovered the truth of Easter after the tomb was empty. While it is clear that God did not use the calculation enshrined at the Council of Nicaea to determine the date when Jesus would be raised, after a Lent of prolonged isolation, we need to proclaim the victory of Easter without delay—even if we must wait even longer to share that good news with one another.

This Holy Week will be like nothing any of us has experienced before. The sacred three days of the Paschal Triduum—Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Eve—are normally a time to journey and keep vigil together in church. Although it will take extra effort on your part this year, you are invited, encouraged, and urged to take that same journey and keep that same vigil in your home. We have mailed out a booklet with suggestions of how you can celebrate Holy Week at home, and you may find other ways to mark this sacred time. In addition to Morning and Evening Prayer throughout the week, we will livestream our services on Thursday, Friday, Saturday night, and Sunday morning. It will not be the same—nothing is—but, no matter how we observe it, the truth and the consequence of Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection will be conveyed to us yet again this year.

In preparation for a virtual celebration of Holy Week, I took part in a webinar offered by Virginia Theological Seminary, in which one of the presenters reminded us that the church's job is not to recreate Jesus' passion as some sort of "play-acting" but to make a way for the faithful people of God to draw closer to Jesus through the commemoration of what happened in Jerusalem all those years ago. The emphasis, therefore, is not on what we must do to make Easter happen but on what we might do to make the reality of Easter central to our lives. In a real way, more so than ever, what your celebration of Easter will look like this year is up to you, but take heart: the truth of Jesus' victory over sin, sickness, and death remains real no matter what.

Yours Faithfully,

Evan