Why Easter is a rolling holiday and how to count. Why is Easter celebrated at different times? Why do we celebrate Easter on different days

Easter, translated from the Greek "deliverance", serves as a reminder that Christ, who endured all the suffering for the human race, was resurrected on the third day after burial. Easter in England, Russia or Italy is the main Christian holiday, which is awaited by millions of believers around the world every year. On this great day for all Orthodox Christians, believers celebrate the deliverance of the son of God from torment and the gift of eternal life to people. Easter is usually celebrated on one Sunday in spring. Why is Easter celebrated at a different time each year?

Based on the message, the death of Jesus Christ fell on the celebration of the Jewish Passover, which was always celebrated before always after the first full moon, following since all months of the Jewish calendar earlier began precisely on the new moon, the full moon always fell on the 14th, and the first month of the year began on the first spring full moon. that is, the Jewish Passover was always celebrated on the next full moon after this date, so the day of the celebration of Passover could be shifted. In the 4th century, an attempt was made to choose a common date at which the peculiarities of calculating the Jewish Passover of the time of Jesus would be preserved. Thus, the "mobile" date of the great was established and now everyone knows why Easter is celebrated at different times.

Main Easter traditions

House cleaning

It is believed that all housework should be done three days before the holiday. Knowing why Easter is celebrated at different times, the date of its occurrence is easy to calculate. On Thursday, before the long-awaited day, believers wash windows and floors in order to let in more light into the house. Great holiday... In Russia, there were many traditions associated with Clean Thursday. Christians cleaned the house, yard from dirt and debris, fumigated the room, vegetable garden and domestic animals with juniper, trying to scare away ailments and misfortunes. Then people swam in the bath, and the girls scratched their braids under the apple trees so that their hair grew thicker. To this day, it is believed that nothing can be done on Friday, even to wash.

Easter table

Bright Easter brought us many beautiful traditions that are loved today by Orthodox Christians. The main dishes on the table are Easter cakes and colored eggs. Few people bake Easter cakes today, because they are easy to buy in a store. It has also become customary to paint eggs with purchased stickers. Many have already forgotten exactly where the tradition of giving came from.This custom came to us from St. Mary Magdalene, who, after the ascension of Christ, presented the emperor Tiberius with a red egg, a symbol of the life-giving death of Jesus, before starting her sermon. Just as a clean egg emerges from under a hard shell, so Jesus rose from the grave to eternal life.

Why is Easter celebrated at different times? The question is not the main one for Christians. For many today, this is an excuse to gather a family for festive table, break eggs, present Easter cakes, greeting each other with traditional phrases: "Christ is risen!" - "Truly resurrected!"

The most significant sacred holiday of the year for all believers, both Catholics and Orthodox, is Easter, or, as it is fully called, Light Christ's Resurrection... Let's take a closer look at some of his questions, namely: what is the meaning of the celebration, its historical implications, religious significance, why Easter is celebrated at different times and its main traditions.

Historical meaning

So, firstly, perhaps it is worth mentioning the events that always precede this bright day. These are Shrovetide and Great Lent. During the latter, all believers are cleansed both physically and mentally, preparing themselves for such a bright, long-awaited holiday. This is necessary then in order to be maximally detached from earthly poisons, addictions and gluttony and to draw closer to God. The fact is that Bright Easter is a symbol of resurrection, rebirth in a new, pure, innocent one. According to the Bible, this holiday marks the great day when the body of Jesus Christ was not found in the cave where he was buried after the crucifixion, and in the next 40 days many signs appeared to all the disciples and ordinary people that he was resurrected. Thus, all believers had hope, and this is so important.

The main traditions of the holiday

The religious significance of the Bright Resurrection is undeniable, because this day marked the triumphant victory of life over death, after which the door to the Kingdom of God opens. Therefore, when Easter is celebrated, the largest services are held in all churches, both Catholic and Orthodox. A lot of people gather at them early in the morning to share with each other this happiness, this joy and enjoy the holiday together.

Over the years, many traditions have emerged that express a sunny mood - brightly colored eggs and sweet cakes with fondant and sprinkled with colored sugar, inside with raisins. People exchange congratulations that sound like "Christ is Risen" and "Truly Risen". Particular importance is attached to the eggs painted in red, since this shade symbolizes the transition after death to eternal life. The festivities continue throughout the week, and its end is called Antipascha, it takes place on the following Sunday.

Dishes and activities

Also, for this holiday, as we said earlier, Great Lent ends, and therefore the table is set richly, brightly and in a special way. There is an abundance of recently prohibited meat and dairy dishes, and therefore the hostesses are so eager to please their households and please them. Believers meet in churches to consecrate cooked cakes, present them to their relatives with an indispensable attachment in the form of several painted eggs with the inscription "ХВ" (Christ is Risen). And a few days before that, people start general cleaning in their homes, bathing, in order to meet Easter clean and tidy. From the very morning, even before the usual breakfast, you traditionally need to eat one festive egg and then a slice of cake to commemorate the Bright Resurrection.

Easter for children

On the last day, Antipashu, it is also customary to walk in a special way. It is also called "Krasnaya Gorka", and it is on this day that many weddings are appointed, festivities and celebrations are held, noisy meetings, in general, everything that was also prohibited during the entire fast. Children are also waiting for this holiday, because this is a real expanse for those with a sweet tooth and for those who believe in fairy tales. The fact is that they are told that the Easter Bunny brings eggs to all houses, and therefore this symbol becomes very interesting for them.

So, for example, Easter is taking place in England and other European cities: many children are gathered in the house for a celebration, and in the meantime, in the backyard or in the rooms themselves, adults hide painted eggs in different corners and inconspicuous places, after which the children are immediately released to look for them ... The nimble kid who finds the most should definitely be rewarded. And then everyone sings solemn Easter songs, conducts educational quizzes, and children can also be occupied with making crafts and drawings on a festive theme.

Calculating the date

And, of course, many believers from childhood are interested in the answer to the question of why Easter is celebrated at different times every year, in contrast to other celebrations, such as New Year... Indeed, often many do not know when it will definitely come, and therefore they may be confused for some time. And therefore we will certainly answer it: it's all about the calendar, according to which the date of Easter is calculated. So it was accepted long before our century, and this rule is observed very strictly. So, the clergy explain why Easter at different times, by the fact that this day should fall after the vernal equinox on the first Sunday after the first full moon. And since the phases of the moon obey not everyone's familiar, but their own calendar, and the day of the bright holiday of Easter moves.

Differences in dates

If we talk in more detail about calculating the beginning of the holiday, it should be noted that the weeks according to the Lunar calendar do not coincide with those according to the Solar, and therefore, as a result, in the lunar year there are not 365-366 days, as usual, but ten less. As a result lunar months are shifted, and the day of the vernal equinox can fall both at the beginning of the month, and at the middle or end. And thus, the Bright Resurrection will either approach this day, or move away from it. Also, many believers may be interested in why Easter is celebrated at different times among Catholics and Orthodox. We will also try to answer this question. The fact is that the former use the Gregorian calendar, and the latter use the Julian calendar, and the discrepancy between them is as much as 13 days. Also Catholics define the vernal equinox astronomically, and the Orthodox calculate it according to their calendar. Hence the difference in dates on which believers celebrate this day of Christ's Bright Sunday. However, earlier, long before the general agreement on this, the discrepancy was much greater, and therefore this rule was invented back in 325 in the city of Nicaea. Now we also know why Easter is celebrated at different times every year.

origin of name

It will be interesting to find out not only why Easter is at different times every year, but also where the name of this holiday came from. Here Christian Easter is closely related to the Jewish one. The fact is that among the Jews this day marks the mass exodus of all the Israelites from Egypt, where they were enslaved for long agonizing 430 years and suffered numerous humiliations. However, the Pharaoh of that time did not release them until the Lord himself showed him his power, punishing all of Egypt with ten punishments. The last of them was the most terrible: all the first-born babies disappeared from every house at night. However, this punishment overtook only the Egyptians, since Jewish houses were marked with a red cross from the blood of a lamb given for slaughter the day before, and its meat was eaten. Hence the word "Passover" arose, meaning "to bypass, bypass," that is, the punishment bypassed the houses of the Jews. Also, this word was named and the lamb sacrificed to God.

Outcomes

Thus, for all believers, Easter is unconditionally one of the most significant, large-scale and solemn holidays. Indeed, despite its deep religious meaning, rooted in a thousand-year antiquity of life, even ordinary people, not baptized and not familiar with the traditions of Christians, celebrate this day with believers, and this, you see, is very important. After all, any holidays unite people, unite, and such Holy holiday like Easter, even more so. After all, he is so bright, open, sincere! Everyone is having fun, enjoying the holiday, rejoicing in the life that the Lord promised them even after death, only in another world. That is why all people love Easter so much.

In the Christian tradition, there is a special technique that will help any believer know how to calculate the date of Easter. But even after studying special tables, questions may remain.

Why does Easter always fall on different days how is the day of the holiday calculated? All the answers to your questions are in this article.

Easter calendar

The system by which it is customary to determine the date of Bright Sunday is called Easter. Nowadays, the Orthodox and Catholic churches use different Easter holidays due to differences in calendars.

The Russian Church calculates the days of the holidays according to the old style - the Julian calendar, created back in 45 BC. NS.

Exists different ways calculation, but it is customary among the people to use a method discovered back in the 19th century. Nowadays, it is very easy to find out the day of the celebration, simply by referring to the tables with ready-made data.

For example, below you can find the dates of Catholic and Orthodox Easter and Passover, calculated until 2033.

Why Easter is on a different day every year

Originally, the date for Christian Passover depended on Passover, the Jewish Passover. Jews came to Egypt in the 18th century BC. NS. and were warmly received by the inhabitants of the country. However, the dynasty that replaced the throne enslaved the unfortunate people.

For a long three hundred years, their labor was mercilessly exploited, and only in the middle of the 13th century BC. NS. by the will of God, they were able to leave the state. Since then, the Exodus has been widely celebrated by the Jews on Passover.

On the same day, many centuries later, Jesus Christ was crucified. This happened on Nisan 14 (corresponding to March and April in the Gregorian calendar), with a full moon, just after the vernal equinox. On the third day, named Sunday in honor of this event, Jesus Christ returned to life, that is, resurrected.

Until the 4th century, Easter was celebrated on two days: some celebrated it on Nisan 14 in memory of the Exodus, others on the first Sunday after the 14th. In 325, the first Ecumenical Council came to the conclusion that it was necessary to choose a single date, and it was decided to celebrate Easter after the Jewish one.

However, the schism that occurred in 1054 led to the emergence of an independent Roman Catholic Church, which from 1582 began to use the Gregorian calendar. The ROC continues to celebrate Easter according to the Julian calendar.

How the date is calculated

In 325, the first Council of Nicaea established a single day for the celebration of Easter, and also deduced certain rules by which the date is calculated.

According to these prescriptions, the holiday is celebrated on the first Sunday with the onset of the full moon, on or after the vernal equinox. At the same time, the Christian celebration should not have been celebrated before Passover. If these two events coincided, a new full moon was expected.

Thus, Easter cannot come earlier than April 4 and later than May 8 New Style.

Calculating the date is a rather complicated and time-consuming process that requires a high level of astronomical knowledge. Traditionally, this was done by the Alexandrian Church, which could calculate Easter full moons with high accuracy, and then reported the results to the rest of the churches.

How to determine the date of Easter

There are more simple ways calculate the date of Orthodox Easter, of which the most popular is the method of the German mathematician of the 19th century Karl Gauss.

Using these formulas, you can find out the date of Easter for any year.

To do this, the number of the year is divided by 19, 4 and 7. To make the calculations more understandable, let us denote the first remainder by the letter "a", the second by "b", and the third by "c". The next step is to find the remainder of (19 * a + 15) \ 30. The result of this calculation will be called the letter "d". The remainder of the last equation (2 * b + 4 * c + 6 * d + 6) \ 7 is represented as the letter e.

If the sum of d and e is less than or equal to 9, then the holiday falls on March. To determine the Easter day for March, add the d and e values ​​to 22. If the total is more than 9, then 9 must be subtracted from it, and this will be Easter day for April. Since in 1918 a new calendar style was established in Russia, 13 must be added to the result obtained.

You can roughly determine the day of the holiday by counting 48 days from the beginning of Lent.

Dates of Orthodox and Catholic Easter from 2019 to 2033

Easter is one of the oldest and most revered Christian holidays... On this bright day, believers celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Savior of mankind, and the end of the strictest fasting. The charter

Why is Easter celebrated at different times every year?

The priest Mikhail Vorobyov, the rector of the temple answers
in honor of the Exaltation of the Holy Life-giving Cross of the Lord in Volsk

The holiday of Easter, or the Bright Resurrection of Christ, is the main rolling holiday of the church calendar. This feature of the holiday is determined by the fact that it is tied to an extremely difficult solar lunar calendar adopted by the Jews. The Resurrection of Christ took place on the days when the Jews celebrated their Passover, which for them was a memory of the exodus from Egypt. The Jewish Passover holiday is not a rolling holiday in the Jewish calendar: it was always celebrated from the 14th to the 21st day of the month of Aviv (Nisan). Nisan 14 in the Hebrew solar-lunar calendar, by the very meaning of this calendar, was the first full moon after the vernal equinox. In the era of the earthly life of Jesus Christ, the vernal equinox fell on March 21 according to the Julian (named after Julius Caesar) calendar. Therefore, the Jewish holiday of Passover, already in the system of the Julian calendar, became transferable: it fell on the first full moon after March 21, and Christian Passover was celebrated on the first Sunday. after this day. (If March 21 coincided with the full moon and Sunday, then Christian Easter was celebrated a week later, on March 28.)

The first full moon after the day of the vernal equinox can fall on the time interval from March 21 to April 18. If the full moon of April 18 falls on a Sunday, then Christian Easter is celebrated a week later on Sunday April 25, since the sequence of events in biblical history requires that the Resurrection of Christ be celebrated after the first day of Jewish Passover.

Thus, Orthodox holiday Easter can be celebrated on any day from March 22 to April 25 according to the Julian calendar (old style), or (in the XX and XXI centuries, when the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars is 13 days) from April 4 to May 8 inclusive in the new style.

However, the alternation of dates on which Orthodox Easter is celebrated, within the interval from April 4 to May 8, is subject to difficult rules associated with the difficulty of coordinating the solar and lunar year... The minimum period of time in which the dates of the Easter holiday occupy all possible positions is 532 years. This huge time span is called the Great Indication. After the Great Indication has passed, the dates of Easter begin to alternate in the same order. Therefore, it is enough to have one calculated Easter for a period of 532 years, after which everything will be repeated.

The time span from April 4 to May 8 defines the Easter holiday in the Orthodox Church. The Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant denominations calculate Easter, focusing on the date of the vernal equinox on March 21 in the Gregorian calendar (new style). This starting point in Easter calculations gives completely different dates for the Easter holiday. Therefore, Easter for the Roman Catholics and Protestants of the West occurs in the period from March 22 to April 25 according to the Gregorian calendar. In rare cases, it coincides with Orthodox Easter... Since the Jews, unlike Western Christians, did not change their historical calendar, their 14 Nisan is still counted from the vernal equinox on March 21 according to the Julian (April 3 according to the Gregorian) calendar. Thus, Catholic Easter in some years may coincide with the Jewish one and even precede it, which contradicts the sequence of events in the earthly life of Jesus Christ.

Few Christians know why Easter is on different days. To understand this issue, you need to remember the history of the holiday and the basis for calculating its date. Statistics show that even experts on this topic cannot summarize its essence in a nutshell, there are so many important events intertwined here.

The Great Resurrection is one of the most important Christian holidays, which is revered by millions of believers, so it is so important to at least theoretically know why Easter is at different times. Indeed, in modern world you don't have to bother with it. Produced church calendars with the indication of the dates of all holidays, and the Internet also comes to the rescue, in which there are ready-made formulas (you just need to put the year for the calculation or find the appropriate topic).

How is the holy day calculated?

The day of the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ falls on new date... It is calculated using special formulas, some of which are variable values. To calculate the date of Christ's day using one of them, you need to know:

Spring date when day equals night
The date of the full moon following the equinox
Day of the week on which Bright Sunday is celebrated

Having looked through many calculations used by scientists, any desire to try to calculate the date of the holiday disappears, as they are complex and require certain knowledge, both in the field of mathematics and astronomy. Why is the Easter date changing?

Determining a Date Using a Formula

A fairly simple formula, proposed by Karl Gauss in the early 19th century, contains only mathematical calculations. He did not give an explanation of this calculation, but it can be used to determine the time of the holiday in any year.

Actions:

1. The year (or rather its number) in which you need to find out the date of the Great Day is divided by 19. Remainder = A
2. Number of year divided by 4 = B
3. Divide the number of the year by 7 = C
4. (19 * A + 15): 30 = number and remainder = D
5. (2 * B + 4 * C + 6 * D + 6): 7 = number. Remainder = E
6. D + E<= 9, то Пасха будет в марте + 22 дня, если >, then in April: the resulting number is 9

Calculation example for 2014:

1. 2014: 19 = 106, remainder = 0
2. 2014: 4 = 603 ost 2
3. 2014: 7 = 287 ost 5
4. (19 * 0 + 15): 30 = 0.5 remainder 15
5. (2 * 2 + 4 * 5 + 6 * 15 + 6): 7 = 17 remainder 1
6. 15 + 1 = 16 is greater than 9, which means Feast of Christ will be in April 16-9 = 7, style adjustment +13 days, which means April 20.

Resurrection after full moon

The Orthodox Church uses a calculation that was adopted in the third century. Easter is celebrated according to the rules of the Alexandrian Easter after the spring equinox (March 21 old style and April 3 new style) on the first Sunday after the full moon.

A bit of history

Many years have passed since Jesus Christ was crucified for the sins of men and was resurrected. Since that time, Christ's Day has been annually celebrated on the fourteenth day of the first month of spring. According to the ancient lunar calendar, this event falls on the first day of the week, that is, Sunday. Before the conquest by Babylon, this month was called Avib, and after the captivity - Nisan. The modern calendar has a clearly established framework for celebrating the resurrection of the Lord: this day can be between April 4 and May 8 according to the new style (March 22 and April 25 according to the old style).

The thing is that there was no single chronology before. One of the most ancient peoples, the Israelites, kept track of time according to the lunar calendar, while the Egyptians and Romans followed the solar calendar.

Moon calendar: main parameters

12 months
Number of days in a month 29 or 30
Number of days in a year 354

Solar calendar: main parameters

12 months
Number of days in a month 30
Number of days in a year 365

It can be seen that the difference in days between the calendars was 11 days. To smooth out the discrepancy, the Jews added an additional month - the thirteenth (Ve-Hadar) every few years. This happened in the year that is considered a leap year in the modern calendar. Some peoples believed that there were only 10 months (304 days) in a year, and the year began in March, and then the remaining January and February were added.

The implementation of two significant reforms has simplified the process of monitoring the passing days:

1. Reform of Caesar - Julian calendar

The Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar decided to streamline chronology on his territory. Thus, the new Julian calendar contained 365 days a year, and in the leap calendar - 366. But, despite this, the lunar calendar did not cease to exist and was conducted in parallel.

The reform was finally consolidated for the entire Christian world in 325 at a council of bishops. It was then that the months of July and August were named in honor of the emperors. The Julian calendar is used in the Orthodox Church.

2. The foundation of the Gregorian calendar

Nature has its own laws. The Julian chronology turned out to be imperfect: the vernal equinox was approaching, and the calendar was only on March 11. Again, there was a need for reform. Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 founded the Gregorian calendar, according to which the year consisted of 365 days.

It is interesting:

The inhabitants of Rome and Egypt, who were guided by the solar calendar, had a different number of days in a year: 355 and 354.

The new time calculation in Russia began to be used only 336 years after the reform. The Orthodox Church opposed to accept it, uprisings broke out, blood was shed.

The difference between the new and old styles is now 13 days. The initial difference of 10 days increased by one day in each century.

First comes the Jewish Resurrection, then the Catholic and Orthodox. Why this happens and why Easter cakes are baked for Easter can be found out by looking into history.

Often the dates overlap: the Jewish can coincide with the Catholic, and the Catholic with the Orthodox. Jewish and Orthodox never intersect.

In Israel, the week starts on Sunday - this is the first working day. Saturday is a day off and Friday is usually a short day.

During the existence of Alexandria, the day of Easter was calculated by the acting bishop and reported to Rome so that the celebration would take place on the same day. But gradually this tradition disappeared.

There was a time when Christians did not fool themselves with calculating the date of the Lord's Resurrection and the question of why Easter is a rolling holiday. They celebrated the holiday a week after the Jewish Passover.