Easter is when? Why? And what about St. Pat’s Day?
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- February
- 29
And St. Patrick’s Day is…
March 17, right? That’s when the NYC Parade will be.
Or March 14, when churches in the Archdiocese of New York will celebrate the Mass associated with St. Patrick?
I have an article running in the next few days about how Catholic dioceses have had to reschedule the liturgical St. Patrick’s Day this year because March 17 falls on the Monday of Holy Week.
Easter is extremely early this year, on March 23. So Holy Week, the week that begins with Palm Sunday and leads to Easter, is also early, backing up onto ‘ol St. Patrick.
The reason for Easter’s early arrival is, well, complicated.
A fourth century church council wanted to keep Easter near Passover and decided that Easter would be the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox. Got that?
The system hasn’t exactly worked, though. Passover this year begins on April 19.
There has been talk for decades of the major Christian traditions agreeing to set Easter on the same date every year. The Orthodox Christian churches use an entirely different calendar and will celebrate Easter this year on April 27—a full five weeks after the Western churches.
A 1997 summit of church leaders set the stage for deciding on a new universal Easter date, but…these things tend to take a while.
Next year Easter will return to April 12.
And Holy Week won’t overlap with St. Patty’s Day again until 2160.
This entry was posted
on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 9:40 am by Gary Stern.
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The world of religion, we don't have to tell you, is vast. The purpose of this blog is for Stern to note, flag and comment on some of the more interesting religious developments on the scene – weighty and quirky, somber and laughable, far away and just down the road. He won't interpret Scripture, take sides in conflicts or judge anyone. But he will take advantage of the journalist's license to observe.
