When I was five-years-old Easter was on April 22; At the age of 10, Easter was on March 26; In 1972 it was celebrated on April 2; Last year the date was April 12 and now in 2021, we recognize Easter on April 4. So how do all of these different dates play out for Christians who believe Jesus died on a specific date?
As a child I was taught Jesus died on the cross on a Friday (which we observed as Good Friday) and He arose three days later. No specific date was ever given and as a child I never questioned it. My main concerns as the time were seeing the Easter Bunny, getting a cute little dress to wear to church, coloring Easter eggs and getting an Easter basket. The date seemed irrelevant. But today my mind is piqued with curiosity on why Easter is celebrated on different dates? Is this more symbolism rather than actual fact?
Here are the facts I've gathered:
Easter is determined by the Jewish calendar. Easter's date varies so much because it is dictated by the moon. Easter falls on the First Sunday after the full moon date. (In 2021, that date was recorded as March 28). If the full moon falls on a Sunday, Easter is celebrated the following Sunday. Because the Jewish calendar is tied to solar and lunar cycles, the dates of Passover and Easter fluctuate from year to year.
Easter is mentioned only once in the Bible (King James version). The other versions refer to the Passover.
In the Hebrew Bible, Passover is a festival that commemorates the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. Easter, meanwhile, is a springtime Christian holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ and freedom from sin and death.
Good Friday is a day set aside for Christians to remember and mourn the death of Jesus and then to turn around three days later and celebrate His resurrection. Twelve states have made Good Friday a public holiday: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota. NC celebrated Easter Monday from 1935-1987 because of an early 2oth century tradition of state government workers taking the day off to attend an annual baseball game between N.C. State and Wake Forest.
Easter actually started out as a pagan festival celebrating Spring in the northern hemisphere, prior to Christianity. To be a pagan meant you worshipped many gods but when Christianity came on the scene, we were taught there was only one God to worship.
There was a German tradition known as the Easter Hare, where bringing eggs to good children became a custom. When German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries, they brought the Easter Hare tradition with them and the wild hare they used to use was replaced by a domestic bunny rabbit and tied directly to the Easter celebration.
Since there is no exact recording of the death of Jesus that probably explains why Easter is a floating holiday. And man, with his greed and capitalism, has done his best to make the most of it.
