ON WHAT BASIS DOES THE CHURCH CHOOSE A DATE FOR EASTER?

I would like to know the reason why the Catholic Church chooses different dates for Easter.  I have often wondered why.

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            Both Jews and Christians celebrate Easter, but the feast doesn’t have the same meaning for all.  The Jewish celebration of Easter, Pessah, is a commemoration of the passage from slavery into liberty, from Egypt to the Promised Land, under Moses’ leadership.  At Yahweh’s request, religious ceremonies are held to mark this unique event.  A pascal meal, Seder, inaugurates the celebration.

            Easter reminds Christians of another passage: Christ’s victory over death and sin, through his passion and resurrection, and our own final passage from death to eternal life.  We unite ourselves to Christ’s passage, in Baptism and the Eucharist.  Sunday is a memorial of Easter, as we celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection.

Easter is the first Christian holiday the early Church solemnized, along with Pentecost.  Christians prepare themselves for Easter during Lent.

            At the beginning of the Church, the date for Easter was not the same everywhere.  There were attempts to find an agreement.  A long dispute followed.  The astronomical calculation of the date differed from region to region.  Finally a solution was reached: the feast of Easter would always be on a Sunday.  The Council of Nicaea, in 325, proclaimed that Easter Sunday would always be the first Sunday after the full spring moon.  As a result, Easter Sunday can never occur before March 22nd or after April 25th.

The date of Easter is the same for Catholics and Protestants; not so with the majority of Oriental Churches (they make use of a different calendar). Representatives of most Christian Churches met these past years in an effort to agree on the same date.

            We must celebrate Easter with hope and joy.  We should unite ourselves to the Lord’s resurrection, ‘making our Easter duty’, as we used to say, with a purified heart, welcoming our Saviour’s love, uniting ourselves to him in the Eucharist.  This is why the Church has enacted the following law:

“Once admitted to the blessed Eucharist, each of the faithful is obliged to receive holy communion at least once a year.  This precept must be fulfilled during paschal time, unless for a good reason it is fulfilled at another time during the year” (Code of Canon Law, Can. 920).

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