Re: CHAT: Passover

On Wed, 26 Apr 2000, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Lars Henrik Mathiesen wrote:
> > The definition I was taught is that Easter Sunday is the first Sunday
> > after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.
>
> Close - the first Sunday after the first full moon *on or after* the
> vernal equinox.  The official full moon can occur on March 21, but
> Easter cannot, because Easter cannot be on that full moon.
And to complicate matters further, the full Canons of Nicea likewise
specify that one is not to celebrate "with the Jews", which for centuries
was interpreted to mean that one was to delay if the date ended up before
or upon Passover.  (This is why Orthodox Pascha is a week after Western
Pascha this year, since the West is disobeying the Canon.)

And to further further complicate, since, as has been pointed out, that
the "official" Equinox is on "March 21", AND Orthodoxy uses the Julian
"March 21", things are even messier.

> Of course, in reality, the full moon and vernal equinox are not used,
> but merely calculated.  Thus, it's conceivable that a full month could
Which is now pointless, since both could be very easily determined with
much more accuracy on a year by year basis these days.