When Is Easter 2023 And Why Does The Date Change Every Year?
This year Easter—a Christian celebration of Jesus Christ rising from the dead—will be held on Sunday, April 9 (for western Christians) and on Sunday, April 16 (for eastern orthodox Christians).
You’ve probably wondered why the dates of Easter change every year. After all, Christmas is always on December 25. So why does the date of Easter change? It’s all down to the orbit of the Moon, which plays havoc with our calendars down on Earth, and the tilted axis of our planet.
Here’s how it works.
The first thing to understand is that the Moon has a different calendar year to the Earth. While Earth takes 364.25 days to orbit the Sun, the Moon takes 29.5 days to orbit the Earth. So a lunar year is 354.3 days. There’s a 10 or 11-day lag between the two.
Easter is a lunar festival
So is Easter held every lunar New Year? No, it is not. It’s more complicated than that, but Easter—like Ramadan, Passover and Chinese Lunar New Year—is a lunar festival whose dates are decided by a bunch of astronomical events.
More specifically, the calculation is made between full Moon dates, the equinox and the Jewish festival of passover.
This is how it works:
How the exact date of Western Easter is calculated:
Easter is celebrated by Christians in the west on the first Sunday after the first full Moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox as determined by the Gregorian calendar.
Since the vernal equinox will this year occur on Monday, March 20, 2023 and the following full “Pink Moon” will rise on Thursday, April 6, 2023 the date of Easter Sunday is Sunday, April 9, 2023.
What is a ‘Paschal Moon?’
The word “Paschal” simply means “relating to Easter,” so the full Moon that helps determine the date of Easter Sunday is referred to as the “Paschal Moon.”
When is the ‘Paschal Moon?’
The “Paschal Moon”—more commonly known as the “Pink Moon”—will turn full on Thursday, April 6, 2023 and be the first full Moon of spring 2023. That will be the best evening to watch it appear on the eastern horizon. All you need to do is find out the time of moonrise where you are.
What is the vernal equinox?
The vernal or spring equinox is when the Sun crosses the celestial equator going north, marking the transition from winter to spring in the northern hemisphere and summer to fall in the southern hemisphere. It marks a moment when the Sun is above the equator, bringing equal night and equal day to both hemispheres. Equinox is Latin: equi (equal) and nox (night).
How the exact date of Eastern Orthodox Easter is calculated:
Orthodox Easter Day has a slightly different way of being calculated. It takes place on the Sunday after the first full Moon after the Jewish festival of Passover. Passover is always on the day of the full Moon, which this year is Thursday, April 6, 2023. So Eastern Orthodox Easter is this year on Sunday, April 16.
The date of Easter can sometimes be the same for both denominations, something that last happened in 2017 and will next happen in 2025.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
