When is easter 2008 in usa

Their "popularity" also varies from country to country. Easter is a moveable holiday meaning that its date varies from year to year. In Western churches, like the Roman Catholic Church, which use the Gregorian calendar , the earliest possible date is March 22, while the latest is April However, these are very rare — the next time Easter falls on April 25 is in the year , and the next time the date is March 22 will be in the year The most common date between the year and is April Eastern churches, including the Eastern Orthodox Church, use the Julian calendar , therefore the date usually differs from the Gregorian calendar, even though the dates are computed in a similar way.

The date of Easter is determined as the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon falling on or next after the spring equinox March 21 — a fixed date not the real, astronomical equinox. The Paschal full moon refers to the 14th day of the ecclesiastical lunar month and not the real, astronomical Full Moon, and its date is determined from tables. However, most often the two dates coincide, and between the year and there are only 18 differences between the dates calculated using the two methods.

A well-known method of calculating the date of Easter was given by Carl Friedrich Gauss, however a simpler method was described by Jean Meeus in [1]. The first Christians followed the biblical Hebrew calendar and timed the observance of Easter in relation to the date of the Jewish Passover.

Passover was celebrated by the Israelites to commemorate their deliverance from the slavery in Egypt. The Passover meal was eaten at sunset on the 14th day of Nisan Aviv. Jesus was crucified on the 14th and rose from the dead some time before sunrise on the 16th day of Nisan.

Because the Jews got away from the biblical Hebrew calendar in AD and further in AD , and because the Christians wanted the date to be independent of the Jewish calendar, the First Council of Nicaea AD established the independent and uniform calculation of the Easter date.

In many countries, Easter is a public holiday , and as it always falls on Sunday, some countries also have Easter Monday as a public holiday, including Australia, Germany and Ireland.

Although, Easter is the most important Christian holiday it is not as popular as Christmas. It joins two important events of which the first is profoundly sad and dramatic while the other is just the opposite.

The first one is, of course, the Crucifixion and Death of Christ after which his body was placed in the tomb. Three days later he Resurrected beating death. Resurrection is a triumph of life and even more astonishing than the miracle of Christ birth. In addition to religious celebrations involving Church services, Easter is celebrated in several ways in the United States, Europe and other parts of the world.

Some of these celebrations have little to do with the Christian meaning of the holiday. The most popular include family meals, Easter eggs decoration, hiding the decorated eggs for children to find and giving children baskets with candy.

In the USA, the Spring break for high school and college students usually occurs about Easter time, hence many families leave the cold of northern states to visit amusement parks or sunny beaches in the south.

By continuing using our site, you accept our cookie policy and consent to the use of cookies. The next time Easter occurs on March 23 will not be until , and a March 22 Easter will not happen until the year The Easter date is set around the time of the vernal, or spring, equinox, when the length of day and night is nearly equal in every part of the world.

Easter Sunday celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, according to Christian belief. Twice a year, around March 21 and September 23, the sun shines directly on the equator and the length of day and night are nearly equal everywhere in the world.

These two days are known as the vernal or spring equinox and the autumnal equinox. The vernal equinox also coincides with Easter and the holidays that are related to it. They are moveable feasts that do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars. The dates of many Christian holidays depend on the Easter date. Early sources showed that this soon led to Christians around the world celebrating Easter on different dates. At the end of the second century, some churches celebrated Easter on the day of the Passover, while others celebrated it on the following Sunday.

In CE the Council of Nicaea established that Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox. From that point forward, the Easter date depended on the ecclesiastical approximation of March 21 for the vernal equinox.

Easter is delayed one week if the full moon is on Sunday, which decreases the chances of it falling on the same day as the Jewish Passover. Although the Council of Nicaea established the Easter date for churches around the world, not all Christian churches observe Easter according the Gregorian calendar.

Some churches still observe Easter under the Julian calendar. The Gregorian calendar was created because the Julian calendar was slightly too long. With the Julian calendar, the equinox date moved towards the earlier dates of March and further away from the Easter. Therefore, the introduction of the Gregorian calendar allowed for a realignment with the equinox. According to the Gregorian calendar, Easter falls on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25 from to In the Julian calendar, used by some eastern or Orthodox churches, Easter also falls on a Sunday from March 22 to April 25, which in the Gregorian calendar are from April 3 to May 10 from to In Easter Sunday falls on March 23 in the Gregorian calendar and on April 27 in the Julian calendar, when converted to the Gregorian date.