Monday, March 10, 2008

Early Egg

Easter this year is on Sunday, March 23, 2008. A rather rare oddity. Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the vernal equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that the Hebrews used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.
Based on this, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22), but that is pretty rare.
This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early before (95 years old or older). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier!
The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2160 (152 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913, so you have to be 95 or older, to have been around for that!).
The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!
Incidentally, the latest day that Easter can fall is April 25. The next time it will be that late will be April 25, 2038.

7 comments:

Rose said...

Wow, thanks for the info! Now I feel very much smarter.

Melissa said...

That is really interesting. I was wondering what was up with the Easter dating and why it was so early this year. Thanks for saving me the research! :)

SuperMom said...

did you just make this up????

Just kidding! My sister just blogged about how the date of Easter was determined....now I'll have an answer for her!

lauren said...

You and my mom need to get together, because she has told me all of this twice now and sent me an email about it! ;) It is pretty neat! James was born on Easter, so it is special to me in two ways now!

Page said...

Awesome read...thanks for the info!

Page said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Audrey T said...

Thanks for the info - I didn't realize how rare this is!