How to calculate what date Easter will be. What is Easter counted from?

Orthodox Easter is “a holiday of feasts, a triumph of celebrations” for our Church. A number of other dates in the church calendar depend on it: Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, Ascension, Trinity, which form the so-called Easter circle. These holidays are called moving holidays. We will explain in this article what the date of the main Christian holiday depends on and how it is calculated.

Jewish Passover

The tradition of celebrating Easter dates back to Old Testament times. Only then it had a different meaning and significance, and the name sounded somewhat different. Jewish Passover is translated as "pass, pass by" and is associated with the events of the deliverance of the Israeli people from enslavement by Egypt.

The custom of annually remembering and honoring the Exodus of the Jewish people from slavery was established by God Himself through the prophet Moses. From Scripture we know that the Lord Jesus Christ, who came not to break the law, but to fulfill it, also took part in this holiday - after the Jewish Passover He was crucified.

The date of Passover was during the period from the 14th to the 21st of the month of Nisan, which approximately corresponds to our March. This month was the first in the Jewish calendar; the moment of ripening of the ears served as a reference point for determining its beginning. After the destruction of Jerusalem, this landmark was lost, so the Jews had to switch to the lunar calendar.

Easter dispute

After the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, as historians testify, the first Christians first celebrated "Easter of the Cross", which coincided in time with the Jewish one. It continued until the next Sunday, on which it was celebrated "Joyful Easter", or Sunday.

Over time, the second celebration became the main one; by the second century it acquired the significance of the annual main celebration for all Christians. Most believers celebrated the Resurrection of Christ on the following Sunday after the Jewish Passover. But not all.

Christians in Assyria used their own calendar. The churches of Asia Minor, citing the authority of the Apostle John the Theologian, adhered to Jewish custom. They always celebrated Easter on 14th day of Nisan what else are they called for? fourteeners, or quadrodecimans.

The most common among all believers were the Alexandrian Paschals. The Western world celebrated Easter on the Sunday after the Jewish Sunday, defining the latter as the full moon after the vernal equinox.

Such a difference in determining the date of celebration of the main event, on which many other dates depended, could not help but bring confusion into church life, as a result of which the so-called “Easter disputes” arose. was called upon to solve them , which took place in 325 in Nicaea .

Resolution of the Ecumenical Council

The Ecumenical Council unanimously decided to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord for all local churches on the same day. As for the date itself, the rule was as follows:

Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the spring full moon

The spring full moon means the one that occurs after the vernal equinox. Thus, the date is determined from the relationship between the lunar (full moon) and solar (vernal equinox) calendars - based on the solar-lunar calendar. This principle is still used today when calculating dates. Orthodox Easter.

The time of the holiday itself was also agreed upon. The cathedral established the time of celebration " during the middle hours of the night”, which generally remains the case today.

In addition, the Council strictly forbade celebrating the holiday “before the spring equinox together with the Jews.” Historians, however, testify that some of the Asia Minor people did not abandon their tradition, for which they were excommunicated from the Church as “Judaizing” heretics.

It was decided to take the calculation as a basis Alexandrian Paschals as the simplest and most convenient. By this time, in both Western and Eastern churches, the godmother and Easter Sunday have already been merged. The celebration of the first of them lasted a week until Sunday (corresponding to our Holy Week), the second - a week after Sunday (modern Bright Week).

However, the name Easter to designate precisely - and only - the Resurrection of Christ became established in the Christian world only in 5th century. Then this day was named "holiday of holidays" , or "king of days" , and gradually became the center of the liturgical circle.

The problem with calendar styles

And everything would be fine, we would celebrate that way main holiday with the entire Christian world on the same day, if nothing had changed since then. But changes have occurred. And they are connected with the name Pope Gregory XII I. B 1582 g He introduced a new calendar style, which was later named after him - Gregorian (or a new style»).

What was this connected with? All with the same desire to organize Easter, to bring greater accuracy to them. And here we need to make a small digression and explain what was wrong before.

The fact is that until that time the entire European world lived according to the Julian calendar. Him in '46 before the birth of Christ was Emperor Julius Caesar according to the Egyptian model. This calendar is based on solar-lunar system, which makes the year longer by 11 minutes 14 seconds astronomical year.

Due to the disproportion of the solar and lunar cycles, the day of the solar equinox, which in 325 was 21 March , by the end of the sixteenth century had moved back ten days. Let us say right away that even today the time for celebrating Orthodox Easter is determined according to the Julian (old) style.

Dissatisfied with this, the Roman Catholic Church carried out a reform and introduced its own calendar, based solely on solar system countdown. So she wanted to make the date of the holiday fixed. The chronology in 1582 was mechanically moved forward ten days, that is, the date of March 21 again became the day of the vernal equinox.

Today, most of the local Orthodox churches, with the exception of Autonomous Finnish, the date of the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord is determined by the Julian calendar. At the same time, many churches celebrate other holidays that are not tied to this bright date (such as the Nativity of Christ) in the new style. The difference between them today is 13 days .

Orthodox and Catholic Easter - whose is more correct?

The question naturally arises: which style is better for determining the day of Christ’s Resurrection? In fairness, it must be said that from an astronomical point of view, the Gregorian calendar is, of course, more accurate. If an extra day according to the Julian calendar appears every 128 years , then according to the Gregorian style it will arise only through 3200 years .

However, from the point of view of the chronology of Gospel events, the new style is inferior to the old. This is due to the fact that according to the Gregorian calendar, Easter can coincide with the Jewish one. Sometimes it happens even earlier, as happened in this one, 2016: Catholic Resurrection of Christ had to March 27, Jewish the celebration begins only with April 22. IN our Church Easter 2016 falls on 1st of May.

Since the Son of God Jesus Christ was resurrected after the Jewish Passover, the celebration of this event cannot take place earlier - this is nonsense. That is why the Ecumenical Council banned it to the point of anathema. The seventh apostolic canon says the same thing:

If anyone, a bishop, or a presbyter, or a deacon, celebrates the holy day of Easter before the vernal equinox with the Jews: let him be deposed from the sacred rank

This explains why the Orthodox Church does not abandon the old style. Another undeniable fact of the truth of this tradition of calculus is that Holy Fire V Church of the Holy Sepulcher descends precisely on the day of celebration according to the Julian style.

Almost half of the cases are Catholic Holy holiday Resurrection occurs earlier than Orthodox. In approximately 30 percent of cases they coincide, which we will observe in the next 2017 April 16 . Usually the difference between the two celebration traditions is more than a month.

The date of Orthodox Easter varies from March 22 to April 25 (With April 4 to May 8 according to the new style). If it falls on April 7 (coincides with the holiday Annunciation ), she is called Kyriopaskha(Lord's Easter).

New attempts at reformation

Already in the 20th century, attempts were made repeatedly to bring uniformity to the celebration of the main Christian celebration. IN 1923 on Pan-Orthodox Congress Patriarch of Constantinople Meletius IV an attempt was made to introduce the New Julian calendar, coinciding with the Gregorian calendar 2800 of the year.

Although the Eastern churches did not support this idea, a year later they switched to this calendar. Romanian Church. Even later Antioch, Constantinople, Hellas, Alexandria and a number of other Orthodox churches, under the influence of the same Meletius, also switched to the New Julian style.

In Moscow in 1948 at the Conference of Churches it was decided that Orthodox Easter and all those attached to it moving holidays should be calculated according to the Julian calendar, and non-movable holidays - according to the one accepted in a given local church. The complete Julian calendar is used today only by Jerusalem, Russian, Serbian, Georgian Orthodox Churches, and Holy Mount Athos.

IN 1997 World Council of Churches in the Syrian city of Aleppo proposed fixing the date of the “triumph of triumphs” in the solar calendar or approving one Easter for all Christians. But this reform was not supported by all Council participants.

You can learn more about the difference between the Gregorian and Julian calendars from the video:

Well, come on, convince me! - this is how a long-term dispute began, which my grandmother started every year on the eve of Easter week. And no arguments were weighty enough to break her unbreakable skepticism. Each time my mother tried to explain the reason why the date of Easter appears on the calendar. Until one day I said: “Well, that’s enough. Since it is impossible to convince you, then we will no longer celebrate Easter! This is a matter of faith, and since there is no faith, then there is no holiday? I don’t think that my grandmother immediately found faith, but since then she stopped pestering the whole family with the question: “Why is Jesus always born on the same day and resurrected on different days.”

But in some ways she was right... Once upon a time, the date of Easter was unchanged. In the month of Nisan, on the 14th day, the Jews celebrated their exodus from Egypt. It was only later that the Holy Church declared Easter the day of the resurrection of Christ and set a new date. In 325 A.D. At the First Ecumenical Council, it was decided not to celebrate this holiday on the same day as the Jews and to assign Easter to the first resurrection after the full moon immediately following March 21. And it turned out that the beginning of Easter week falls on the time period from April 4 to May 8. And it depends entirely on the lunar and solar cycles. Well, the difference in the dates of Catholic and Christian Easter is explained by the use of different calendar styles.

In order not to get confused and always know exactly when it will come bright resurrection, you can calculate the date yourself. There are several ways. The easiest way is to count 40 days from the last day of Maslenitsa. The 40th day will be the beginning of Easter. Another calculation method requires you to follow the moon's phases. The desired value occurs on the Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. There is also an arithmetic method based on step-by-step calculations:
1. Divide the numerical value of the year by 19 and find the remainder.
2. Divide the numerical value of the year by 4, and again remember the remainder.
3. Once again divide the numerical value of the year by 7 (the remainder in your mind).
4. Multiply 19 by the first remainder.
5. Divide the result by 30 and find the remainder.
6. Now multiply 2 by the second remainder.
7. 4 multiplied by the third remainder
8. 6 multiplied by the fourth remainder.
9. Sum up the results and add 6.
10. Divide the resulting number by 7 and find the remainder.
Is the sum of the fourth remainder and the fifth remainder less than 9? Easter falls in March, and the date can be determined by adding the fourth remainder, the fifth remainder and 22.
Is the sum of the fourth remainder and the fifth remainder greater than 9? Easter will be in April, and the exact number is determined by summing the fourth remainder and the fifth remainder, subtracting 9 from the sum.
However, this method will have to be adjusted from January 1, 2101, since the difference between the new and old style will increase by 14 days.

In the meantime, we invite you to use the ready-made results and mark Easter dates in your diaries up to 2018:
2012 - April 15; 2013 - May 5; 2014 - April 20; 2015 - April 12; 2016 - May 1; 2017 - April 16; 2018 - April 8.
Anna Kwiatkowski

Easter dates
for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 - 2020

Christian Easter is celebrated in the spring, but the day of celebration is not a specific date, it is determined according to the lunisolar calendar.

To calculate the day of Easter, you can use Paschals - special tables compiled by the Orthodox Church. The dates of Easter depend on the dates of other holidays, the dates of which change every year. These are moving holidays: the Ascension of Christ - the fortieth day after Easter, Trinity (Pentecost) - the fiftieth day after Easter, the Day of the Holy Spirit - the next day after Trinity.

You can calculate the timing of Easter yourself. The German mathematician Gauss in the 18th century proposed a formula for determining the day of Easter according to the Gregorian calendar. The calculation is made according to the value of mathematical quantities, designated (for simplicity) by the letters a, b, c, d, d. Each letter is equal to the following value:
a - the remainder of dividing the number of the year by 19;
b - the remainder of dividing the number of the year by 4;
c - the remainder of dividing the number of the year by 7;
d - the remainder of division by 30 of the expression 19a + 15;
d - the remainder of division by 7 of the expression 2b + 4c + 6d + b.
The found values ​​of “g” and “d” are used to finally solve the problem.
Easter is celebrated after the vernal equinox and therefore falls in March or April.
If the expression g + d is less than the number 9, this year's Easter will be in March according to the old style, and its day will be 22 + g + + d.
If g + d is greater than 9, Easter will be in April (according to the old style), and the date of its celebration is equal to g + d - 9.
When making calculations, we should not forget that in 1918 our country switched to a new calendar style, which “overtook” the old style by 13 days. Therefore, 13 must be added to the calculated number.

2008 - April 27;
2009 - April 19;
2010 - April 4;
2011 - April 24;
2012 - April 15;
2013 - May 5;
2014 - April 20;
2015 - April 12;
2016 - May 1;
2017 - April 16;
2018 - April 8.

Many people ask the question of how to find out when the majority of Christians in Russia and the CIS countries will celebrate Easter in 2009 and other years.

After Pentecost (see Acts), Christians began to celebrate the first liturgies, similar in form to Passover. Liturgies were performed as the Last Supper - Easter of suffering associated with the death on the Cross and the resurrection of Christ.

Calculation of the date of Eastern Easter:
Easter Sunday dates
2008-2020
year app. eastern

2008 March 23 April 27
2009 April 12 April 19
2010 April 4
2011 April 24
2012 April 8 April 15
2013 March 31 May 5
2014 April 20
2015 April 5 April 12
2016 March 27 May 1
2017 April 16
2018 April 1 April 8
2019 April 21 April 28
2020 April 12 April 19

Orthodox Easter is calculated according to the Alexandrian Paschal.
Full Moon(Y) = March 21 + [(19 + 15)/30].
where is the remainder when dividing a by b.
If the value is Full Moon(Y)< 32, то дата полнолуния будет в марте;
If the value of Full Moon (Y)>= 32, then subtract 31 days, and you will get a date in April.
Gauss formula for calculating Easter: -division remainder;
a = + 15) /30] (for example, = 12, a= [(19 12 + 15)/30]= 3, Full Moon (2007)= March 21+3=March 24)
b = [(2 + 4 + 6 a + 6) / 7] (for example, = 3,=5, so for 2007 b=1)
If (a + b) > 10, then Easter will be (a + b − 9) April Art. style, otherwise - (22 + a + b) March art. style. We get 22 + 3 + 1 = March 26 (old style) or March 26 + 13 = April 8 (old style)
The date of Easter can fall in the period from March 22 to April 25 according to Art. style. (In the 20th-21st centuries, this corresponds to the period from April 4 to May 8, New Style). If Easter coincides with the Feast of the Annunciation (April 7), then it is called Kyriopascha (Lord's Easter).
Orthodox Christians include the descent of the Holy Fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, which occurs on Holy Saturday before Orthodox Easter, as a miraculous evidence of Easter.

*Middle Ages and Modern Times.

500 years later, in the 8th century, Rome adopted the Eastern Paschal. During these 500 years, Easter was celebrated by agreement between the Churches of the East and West.

In 1583, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new Paschal in the Roman Catholic Church, called the Gregorian. Due to the change in Easter, the entire calendar also changed. As a result of the transition to more precise astronomical dates, Catholic Easter is often celebrated earlier than Jewish Easter or on the same day, and precedes Orthodox Easter in some years by more than a month.

Happy EASTER to everyone!

The vastness of the Internet is once again being disturbed by the latest “exposing” pseudo-Orthodox heresies, newly-minted “donkeys”; Now thoughts arise about Easter eggs and their calculations.

One evening after the all-night service in the house of an elderly priest, the owner himself and several of his young assistants gathered for a conversation and late tea. At first the conversation revolved around immediate plans, then they moved on to a discussion of the upcoming celebration of Easter, which was inexorably approaching and was already teasing with thoughts about the solemnity of church decoration, the pomp of divine services and the opportunity to break the fast after a long Lent. One of the altar servers asked: “Father, how to calculate Easter, its day and date, and who does it anyway?” “Well, son, this is actually not an easy matter, you can’t answer it in a few words. But if it’s so interesting, then, due to my feeble mind, I’ll try to explain what’s what.”

Calculation of the date of Easter in ancient times

To more accurately understand how to calculate Easter, we will have to go back to the times of the Old Testament. As you, my dears, remember, the first Passover was associated with the event of the exodus of the Jews from Egyptian captivity. There was no talk of calculating the date of Easter then. The Old Testament Jews received direct instructions to celebrate Easter on the 14th day of the first month of the year. The Jews call it Nisan, and in those days it was determined by the time the ears of grain ripened.

Calculation of the date of Christian Easter

After the Nativity and Resurrection of Christ, as you know, the celebration of Easter was divided into Jewish and Christian. But even here there was no calculation of the date of Easter as such. The first Christians were content to celebrate their main holiday on the first Sunday a week after the Jewish Passover. However, after the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jewish people, the landmark in the form of ripened ears of grain was lost. And the time has come to think about how to calculate Easter in this situation. The solution was found quickly. Enterprising Jews, and after them Christians, began to use the heavenly bodies for these purposes, or rather, the solar and lunar calendar.

Formula for calculating Easter

And when in the fourth century at the Council of Nicea, according to the general opinion of the Christian world, it was decided that the Christian Easter should not be celebrated next to the Jewish Easter, a formula was derived for calculating the day of Easter. In simple terms, this formula looks like this: Christian Easter celebrated on the first Sunday after the first spring full moon, which occurred after the spring equinox. But not everything is as simple as it seems.

At the already mentioned Council of Nicaea, a perpetual calendar with nineteen-year Easter cycles was approved, where many parameters were taken into account when calculating the date of Easter. Including the phase of the moon and its age in a given period of time. A whole methodology was developed in which, according to special rules, the golden number was calculated in a given year of the nineteen-year cycle, and all other calculations danced from this indicator. I, children, don’t know anything for sure, and it’s not our business to count Easter. The calendars have already been drawn up for that. I will only say that it is precisely this formula that is used to calculate the date of Orthodox Easter, and Catholic Easter too. Only in the first case the Julian Paschal is used, and in the second – the Gregorian one, that’s the whole difference. Well, it’s already late, let’s pray and go home.

Who does the Easter calculation these days?

"Father, last question Can? Who should make these calculations about the date of Easter? “Yes, there are learned men for this, with deep spiritual and astronomical knowledge, we must grow and grow up to them.” “Well, father, thank you for the science. And, really, it’s late, we detained you, let’s go home.” And the young people, having said goodbye to their spiritual mentor, left his hospitable home with satisfied curiosity.

Question:

How to calculate the date of Easter? My grandmother knew how to calculate the date of Easter using some method.

Nikolay

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:

The rules determining the time of Easter celebration were developed in the 3rd century by the Church of Alexandria and enshrined in the decrees of the First Ecumenical (325) and local Antioch (341) councils. This establishment remains in force to this day: celebrate Easter on the first Sunday with the onset of the full moon on the day or immediately after the spring equinox. At the same time, it was strictly determined by the Holy Fathers to perform this main Christian holiday only after Passover. If a coincidence occurs, the rules dictate moving to the full moon of the next month. Consequently, Easter cannot be earlier than the equinox, i.e. March 21 (April 4 according to the Gregorian calendar) and no later than April 25 (May 8). In the ancient Church, the calculation of the Easter day was entrusted to the Bishop of Alexandria, because the Alexandrians used the most accurate 19-year cycle (discovered by the ancient Greek astronomer Meton, 5th century BC), after which the full moon and phases of the moon fell on the same days of the month , like the previous ones.

An illiterate person cannot calculate the time of Easter himself. Your grandmother, apparently, performed the simplest action: with the onset of Lent, she determined the day of the Holy Resurrection of Christ based on its duration (48 days). Of all the practical methods of calculus, the simplest is the method proposed by the greatest German mathematician Carl Gauss (1777 - 1855).

Divide the number of the year by 19 and call the remainder “a”; Let us denote the remainder of dividing the number of the year by 4 by the letter “b”, and by “c” the remainder of dividing the number of the year by 7. Divide the value 19 x a + 15 by 30 and call the remainder the letter “d”. The remainder of the value 2 x b + 4 x c + 6 x d + 6 divided by 7 is denoted by the letter “e”. The number 22 + d + e will be Easter day for March, and the number d + e will be 9 for April. For example, let's take 1996. Dividing it by 19 will leave a remainder of 1 (a). When divided by 4, the remainder will be zero (b). Dividing the number of the year by 7, we get a remainder of 1(c). If we continue the calculations, we get: d = 4, and e = 6. Therefore, 4 + 6 – 9 = April 1 (Julian calendar).

EASTER PHENOMENON OF THE JULIAN CALENDAR

The Julian calendar is phenomenal in its periodicity. The moon undergoes 235 phase cycles every 19 years. Every 28 years, the days of the week fall on the same days of the month. Every 532 years, Easter is celebrated on the same day of the month. Add up the numbers of these numbers - 235, 19, 28, 532 - and you will shudder at the fourfold (!) divine harmony of the calendar:

2 + 3 + 5 = 1 + 9 = 2 + 8 = 5 + 3 + 2 = 10 = X ===>>> Our Easter is Christ!
The Julian calendar traces its history back to Ancient Egypt. It was there that Gaius Julius Caesar became acquainted with the solar calendar, after which he firmly decided to carry out a calendar reform in Rome. The system he proposed is based on the solar year, the duration of which is taken to be 365.25 days. And since there is only an integer number of days in a calendar year, it was prescribed to count 365 days in three of every four years, and 366 in the fourth. The same reform of Caesar regulated the number of days in months: all odd months were to have 31 days , and in even numbers (except for February of a non-leap year) - 30. In non-leap February there were 29 days.

The counting of days according to the Julian calendar began on January 1, 45 BC. e., and Caesar himself outlived his brainchild by just over a year. In commemoration of his services, the month of Quintilis was renamed Julius - the current month of July. And then the fun began. For some unknown reason, leap years were initially held not every four, but every three years! By 9 BC. e. 12 leap years have passed instead of the required nine. The Roman Emperor Augustus noticed this error and ordered it to be corrected. In recognition of his great military services, as well as in gratitude for the correction, the Roman Senate renamed the month Sextilis Augustus. At the same time, the month of Augustus was lengthened by one day (due to the same February), and so that three long months did not come in a row, September (that is, September) and November (November) were made short, and October (October) and December (December) - long.

One way or another, almost six hundred years passed from Caesar to the introduction of modern chronology. The first who decided to abandon the counting of years associated with the Roman emperors (the “era of Diocletian”) and switch to counting “from the birth of Christ” was the monk Dionysius the Small. At the same time, he did not in any way substantiate the fact that he attributed the beginning of his era to precisely that and not another place in the chronology. The most reasonable assumption to explain this is this: Dionysius believed that Jesus Christ was resurrected on March 25, in the 31st year of his life. Dionysius' Easter calculations showed that the year in which Easter falls on March 25 is the 279th year of the era of Diocletian. Knowing that the dates of Easter are repeated every 532 years, and adding the supposed age of Christ to 532, Dionysius the Less “tied” the beginning of the era to the birth of Christ, simply equating the year 279 of the era of Diocletian to the 563rd year “AD.” . (By the way, Dionysius began counting the days of the year from the “magic date” of March 25, so he considered the date of the birth of Christ to be December 25 of the 1st year of the era he introduced.)

Not everyone agreed with the chronology of Dionysius, and not immediately. From time to time, attempts were made to clarify the date of Christ's birth using astronomical data scattered throughout the New Testament. It is safe to say that the chronology “from the birth of Christ” won only because with it Dionysius proposed a very convenient and simple system for calculating the dates of Easter, while previously compiling Easter tables was very difficult.

Unfortunately, the simplicity of the Julian calendar inevitably became the cause of its shortcomings. Chief among them was the discrepancy between the length of the “true” year and the calendar year. The fact is that the tropical year - the time the Earth revolves around the Sun - lasts not 365.25 days, but a little less, approximately 365.2422. Consequently, the Julian calendar accumulates an error of approximately 0.0078 days every year, and an error of a whole day accumulates over 128 years.

Over the 16 centuries that passed from the introduction of the Julian calendar to 1582, the point of the vernal equinox “ran away” from March 21 to March 11. Therefore, Pope Gregory XIII in February 1582 issued a special bull on calendar reform. This bull ordered to remove from the 1582 calendar all days from October 5 to October 14 inclusive, and henceforth to correct the calendar system so that out of every 400 years there would be not 100 leap years, but only 97. This calendar was called the Gregorian calendar and has survived to this day.

In accordance with the will of Pope Gregory, the years 1700, 1800 and 1900 were non-leap years and consisted of 365 days. The nearest “round” year - 2000 - was a leap year, and it will be followed again by three non-leap years - 2100, 2200 and 2300.

It must be said that such a calendar is not flawless: after all, 97/400 is also not equal to the fractional part of the tropical solar year. But, unlike the previous calendar, the error per day now accumulates not over 128, but over 3250 years. In other words, the accuracy of this calendar is quite sufficient for our age.

In addition, the length of the year itself also changes slightly. It is now generally accepted that the rotation of the Earth around its axis is gradually slowing down, and the length of the day is increasing. Accordingly, the number of days that fit into one year decreases. This effect is given by Simon Newcome's approximate formula: 1 year = 365.24219879 - 0.0000000614*(# year - 1900). In particular, the Gregorian calendar would have been completely accurate about 5,000 years ago, and every year its error increases slightly.

But will the simplicity and divine harmony of the Julian calendar ever fade?

Hand of Damascus Method of calculating on the fingers the day of Easter

Introduction

The day of Holy Easter depends on several events: firstly, this day must be after the vernal equinox, secondly, after the Jewish Passover and, thirdly, it must be a Sunday. These are the traditions.

To determine the day of Easter, all calculations are made on the fingers of the left hand. Moving from the inside of the palm to the back, you can mark seven points: three joints on the inside of the finger, the tip and three joints on the outside of the finger. On the thumb, the first (and last) joint is considered to be its base. The line of knuckles on the inside of the palm forms the first line, the next line is the second, then the third, the fingertips are the fourth line, the joint of the first phalanx is the fifth, then the sixth and the joints at the base of the fingers on the back of the hand are the seventh line. The seven lines can symbolize "vrutseleta" or simply the days of the week.

The vernal equinox is calculated according to the solar calendar, which has a period of 28 years. To calculate the day of Easter based on the circle of the Sun, we need 28 characteristic points on the palm. For this, four fingers (excluding the thumb) are used, on the inside and outside - i.e. seven characteristic points on each, for a total of 28 points.

In order to find the day of Orthodox Easter, you first need to find Jewish Easter. Jewish Passover is calculated by solar lunar calendar with a period of 19 years. To calculate the day of Easter using the circle of the moon, we will use only the inner side of the palm, including the tip and two joints of the thumb. Those. four characteristic points on four fingers and three more on the thumb, 19 in total.

The day we find will be the day of the Jewish Passover. Orthodox should be later and on Sunday, so there are only 35 days on which Orthodox Easter is possible: from March 22, Art. Art. (1926, 2010) until April 25 Art. Art. (1983, 2078). 35 days are indicated by the letters of the Russian alphabet (old): az, beeches, vedi, etc. This alphabet is projected onto the palm using all seven characteristic points on the five fingers.

Calculation of the vrucelet according to the circle of the Sun

To calculate the vrucelet for a given year, we successively apply four rules.

1. We count one hundred years from the tip of the index finger down to the palm. From the inside of the palm we move to the outside of the next finger (from the seventh line to the first) and continue counting to the tip of the finger, etc. We move from the little finger to the index finger (and at the same time from the seventh line to the first, i.e. from the outside to the inside) and continue counting. Those. the tip of the index finger is zero. The first fold is one hundred years, the second is two hundred and so on, up to the number of hundreds in a given year.

We remember the found result.

Calculation of the vrucelet based on the circle of the Moon

Now let's find the auxiliary letter. Counting is done using 19 points on the inside of the palm.

1. We count one hundred years starting from the tip of the middle finger up from the palm. Those. the tip of the middle finger is zero, we move to the first joint of the ring finger - this is one hundred years, the next one is two hundred, then three hundred, the tip of the ring finger is four hundred, etc. From the tip of the little finger we move to the second joint of the thumb, from the tip of the thumb to the base of the index finger. For years starting from nineteen, we stop at the same point from which we started (the tip of the index finger).

2. Then we continue to count twenty years along the line. From the first line of the little finger we move to the second line on the thumb. Similarly, from the second and third lines we move to the third and fourth lines of the thumb, but from the fourth line of the little finger we move to the first line of the index finger ( thumb does not have a first line here). We count twenty, forty, sixty, eighty years.

We remember the found auxiliary letter (see figure).

Rule for finding Easter

The letters of the alphabet are located on all fingers on both sides of the palm. Counting starts from the tip of the thumb. Those. the first joint from the tip is Az, the second is Buki, the third is Lead, etc. (see figure) Having gone around the entire palm, the alphabet returns to the thumb and ends at its tip with the letter Y. We find the auxiliary letter that we found in the circle of the Moon and look at which plane it appears on. Then we go alphabetically to the vrucelet that we found in the circle of the Sun. The found letter gives the day of Orthodox Easter. Now you can count the days alphabetically starting from March 22 according to the old style.

About the date of Holy Easter

Our Easter is Christ
(1 Cor. 5:7)

The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified on the 14th day of the first spring month of Nisan in the lunar calendar of the ancient Jews and was resurrected on the first day of the week (according to the then reckoning), which later became known as Sunday.

The day of Holy Easter is determined according to the lunar calendar in relation to the solar calendar. The combination of the lunar calendar (Easter) with the solar calendar (monthly) is the church calendar.

In the Orthodox Church, the calculation of the date of Easter is carried out according to the rules of the Alexandrian Easter, which developed in ancient times (by the end of the 3rd century after the Nativity of Christ). Quite often the very composition of the rules for determining the day of Easter is incorrectly adopted by the First Ecumenical Council (325). The First Ecumenical Council only established that Easter should be celebrated everywhere at the same time: on the same Sunday; The following practice was apparently also approved: the Alexandrian Church informed other Orthodox Churches about the time of Easter celebration - due to the fact that the level of astronomical knowledge in ancient Alexandria was high and the Easter full moons could be calculated with great accuracy for that time.

The essence of the rules of the Alexandrian Easter can be expressed this way: Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first spring full moon, that is, the full moon after the vernal equinox. The date of the vernal equinox is traditionally considered in the Alexandrian Easter to be March 21, Art. Art. (April 3 AD), which corresponded to the equinox during the First Ecumenical Council.

By the way, the date of Orthodox Easter is determined not by the modern March and April astronomical full moons of the new style (!), but by the ancient, 4th-6th centuries, tables of lunar phases according to the old style (Julian calendar), originating from the practice of the Alexandrian Church. Full moons according to these tables currently differ from astronomical ones.

The date of the equinox moved over time to the beginning of March due to incomplete correspondence between the Julian calendar year and the tropical (astronomical) year: the Julian year is 0.0078 days longer. Over 128 years, this error shifts calendar dates back a day. The dates of new moons and full moons also shifted: they moved forward according to the dates of the Julian calendar (that is, they lagged behind the true astronomical ones) by a day in about 300 years. In order to harmonize Easter calculations with the actual date of the vernal equinox, amendments were made from time to time to the tables of the phases of the moon, which little changed the essence of the matter.

By the 16th century, the equinox was already on March 11th. In 1582, under Pope Gregory XIII, in order to return the equinox to March 21, the Western Church removed ten days from the calendar. At the same time, changes were also made to the tables of lunar phases (see below about the Western Easter epacts). The so-called Gregorian calendar appeared with its corresponding Easter.

It is commonly thought that the Western Church reformed the calendar. But this, as can be understood from what has been said, is not so: they corrected Easter first of all, and the change in the calendar was secondary. Many researchers consider this reform unsuccessful, hasty and insufficiently thought out. Thus, the famous astronomer, full member of the Russian Astronomical Society A. Predtechensky rightly stated in his work “Church Time Calculation and Critical Review existing rules definitions of Easter (St. Petersburg, 1892; republished by the Russian Spiritual Mission in Beijing in 1941 - with some errors), that it was enough not to count leap years for 40 years - and there would be no need to throw out ten days from the calendar; so the calendar discrepancy between the West and the East would not have arisen in the 16th century.

Over time, additions were made to the above rule for calculating the date of Easter: Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the March full moon, which occurred after the vernal equinox - March 21; if this full moon happens on March 19 or earlier, then Easter will be celebrated on the first Sunday after the second spring (already April) full moon. Finally, if both the March and April full moons fall on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, then the Easter celebration is moved to the following Sunday.

The Gregorian calendar, which is followed by the Western Church (Catholics and Protestants), differs in our time from the Julian calendar by 13 days (in the 22nd century, from 2100, the difference will reach 14 days) 001. When calculating the date of Easter, the Western Church retains the ancient principle of celebrating it after the first spring full moon, but as a result of the fact that in Western Easter the day of the vernal equinox is usually considered to be March 21 of the new style, and also due to amendments made to the lunar tables, the dates of Western Easter differ from the Orthodox. Western Easter can be earlier than Orthodox Easter by 4 weeks (5 percent of cases) and 5 weeks (about 20 percent of cases). For example, in 1975 and the current year 2002 - 5 weeks earlier than the Orthodox. Typically, Western Easter occurs one week (week) earlier than Orthodox Easter (45 percent of cases). In some years, Easter coincides and is celebrated in the Eastern and Western Churches simultaneously (about 30 percent of cases). This happened, for example, in 1974, 1977, 1980, 1984, 1987, 1990 and 2001.

Easter is celebrated within 35 days: from March 22 to April 25 Art. Art. (April 4 - May 8 AD) - in the Churches of the East; in the same numbers, but of a new style - in the Churches of the West.

Western Passover sometimes coincides with the Jewish Passover (for example, in 1903, 1923, 1927, 1954, 1981), and sometimes even occurs earlier (in 1921, 1975, 2005, 2008, 2016 a month earlier than the Jewish one), which in Orthodox Easter is not allowed, as it violates the sequence of Gospel events. In the Alexandrian Easter, the Orthodox Easter, due to its astronomical delay, is always later than the Jewish one. In 2002, the Jewish Passover was on Thursday, March 28 A.D. Art.

The Jewish Passover is distinguished by fairly high astronomical accuracy, but the formulas for calculating it are not simple: it is necessary to operate with data, some of which are decimal fractions with 7-8 decimal places.

Now about the method for calculating the date of Easter. Easter is a holiday of the lunisolar calendar: it is celebrated on Sunday (solar, civil calendar) after the spring, that is, the full moon occurring after the vernal equinox (lunar calendar). This is the full moon that needs to be determined for a given year. This is facilitated by the following circumstance: it has long been known that the dates of the lunar phases repeat in the same numbers of months (but at different hours) every 19 years (the so-called Metonic cycle of lunar calendars - named after the ancient Greek astronomer Meton, 5th century BC). This nineteenth anniversary on Easter is called the lunar circle. In the Alexandrian Easter, the serial number of each nineteenth year is also called the circle of the moon.

To determine the circle of the moon, there is the following rule: from a given year from the Nativity of Christ, 2 is subtracted (in the year of the Nativity of Christ there was the 17th circle of the moon, that is, 2 was missing before 19) and the resulting number is divided by 19. The quotient shows how many lunar circles (19 -anniversary) has passed since the Nativity of Christ, and the remainder is the serial number of the year of the next 19th anniversary (circle of the moon). In Gregorian Easter, they often use the so-called golden number (moon circle +3) instead of the circle of the moon.

You can find out in this lunar circle the new moon and full moon for March and April (the months of Easter) using the so-called base. The base is a number showing the age of the moon on March 1, that is, how many days have passed by March 1 from the previous lunar phase. (Lunar months include 29 or 30 days alternately, so numbers 1-7 indicate the first quarter after the new moon, 14 the full moon, numbers after 21 the last quarter, the “damage” of the moon). To determine the base, you need the circle of the moon +3, that is, the golden number, multiplied by 11 (this is the difference between the bases, from one to the next) and divided by 30 (the number of days of the lunar month); the remainder will show the base of the given year.

If we subtract the base from the number of days of the lunar month (30 is the base), we get the March new moon. By adding 14 to it, we find out the March full moon. According to the Alexandrian Easter, this date of the full moon needs to be increased by 3 days in order to bring it closer to the lunar phases of the times of the First Ecumenical Council. This will be the so-called Easter full moon. The Sunday following the Easter full moon is Easter Day.

If the March full moon calculated in this way turns out to be earlier than March 21, then the date of the Easter full moon will be considered the April full moon, a month later: we add 30 to the found March date and subtract 31 (the number of days in March).

In the Gregorian Paschal, the bases are called epacts (from the Greek epago - I add, I insert, since epacts, like bases, show what age the moon is by March 1). With the reform of Easter and the calendar, Western Easter sheets in the 16th century reduced the bases for the same 10 days, as calendar dates. This number remained valid for the 17th century. In the 18th century, the decrease was 11 days. In the 19th century, although the numbers of the Gregorian calendar were 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, due to the so-called acceleration, or the anticipation of new moons and full moons, the epacts were reduced by the same 11 days. In XX, XXI and XXII this decrease is 12 days; after 2200 - 13 days.

Here are some examples.

Orthodox Easter

year 2000. Base - 6. New Moon of March - 30-6=March 24. Full moon - 24+14=38-31=April 7. Easter full moon - 7+3=April 10, Sunday. The full moon is on Sunday, so Easter is next Sunday, April 17/30.

year 2001. Foundation - 17. New Moon of March - 30-17=March 13. Full moon - 13+14=March 27. Easter full moon - March 27+3=March 30, Thursday. Easter - April 2/15.

2002 Foundation - 28. New Moon of March - 30-28 = March 2. Full moon - 2+14=March 16. The full moon on March 16 is not Easter, we move it to April: 16+30=46-31\15+3=April 18, Wednesday. Easter - April 22/May 5.

Easter for Western Christians

year 2000. Epakta - 6-12a(3)6-12=24. New Moon of March - 30-24=March 6 A.D. Art. The full moon on March 20 is not Easter, we move it to April: 20+30=40-31=April 19 AD. Art., Wednesday. Easter - April 23 AD Art.

year 2001. Epakta - 17-12=5. New Moon of March - 30-5=March 25 AD Art. Full moon - 25+14=39-31=April 8 Art., Sunday. The full moon is on Sunday, so Easter is next Sunday, April 15th. Art. (coincides with the Orthodox).

2002 Epakta 28-12=16. New Moon of March - 30-16=March 14 AD. Art. Full moon - 14+14=March 28 A.D. Art., Thursday. Easter - March 31 Art.

As can be seen from the above calculations, in 2002, the Easter of Western Christians (March 31, New Art.) turns out to be 5 weeks (weeks) earlier than the Orthodox one (April 22/May 5). The reason for such discrepancies is clear: the use of the same ancient formula “Easter on Sunday after the spring full moon” leads, however, due to the use of unequal starting points of reference - grounds and epact, differing in the number of days as a result of the Gregorian calendar reform - to a difference on Easter dates.

In addition to the difference in the number of days between our foundings and Western countries, the question of which full moons are considered Easter also contributes to the difference in the dates of Easter. The fact is that all Western March Easter full moons until March 21 AD. Art. From the point of view of the Alexandrian Easter, they cannot be considered the Easter full moons proper, because if they are recalculated to the dates of the Julian calendar, they will be before March 21, Art. Art. So, Western Easter is March 31 AD. Art. is calculated from the full moon on March 28, and according to the old style it is March 15, and such a full moon is not Easter. In the Alexandrian Easter, as already mentioned, the full moon is until March 21 Art. Art. are recalculated to April (on the second spring full moon, in a month). (In Gregorian Easter, March full moons are also counted in April, when the need arises, but in the new style dates - until March 21 AD.) As a result, it turns out that Western March Easters are sometimes 4-5 weeks earlier than Orthodox ones, The middle and late April ones either coincide with the Orthodox ones or are celebrated one week earlier.

Thus, although the Gregorian Easter declares the preservation of the ancient Easter principles, the difference in dates between the Gregorian and Julian calendars actually leads to a violation of these principles and a difference in the date of Easter celebration.

Finally, about the so-called new calendar style. Not only Catholics and Protestants switched to the “new style”. Several decades ago, many Local Orthodox Churches did the same. But for the Orthodox this is not the Gregorian calendar! In 1923, a Conference of Orthodox Churches was held in Constantinople (Istanbul), discussing some issues of church life, including the inconveniences associated with the existence of two calendars - church and civil - in the daily life of the clergy and laity. The Gregorian calendar was immediately rejected by the Conference participants. Meanwhile, shortly before this Meeting, the Serbian astronomer Milutin Milankovic came up with a draft of a new calendar. It has long been known that the fewer leap centuries there are, the more accurately the civil year approaches the tropical (astronomical) year. In the Julian calendar, every century is a leap century, in the Gregorian - only those whose first two digits are divisible by 4 without a remainder. Milanković proposed that only centuries that are divisible by 9 with a remainder of 2 or 6 be considered leap centuries, which makes it possible to exclude 7 leap centuries from 900 years. In the Gregorian calendar, only 3 centuries are excluded in 400 years. In the Milanković calendar, only 2000, 2400, 2900, 3300 and 3800 remain leap years. It is more accurate than the Gregorian and after 2800 will begin to outstrip it. The meeting in Constantinople adopted this calendar. It was called New Julian. To date, most of the Local Churches have switched to it, except for the Jerusalem, Russian, Georgian, and Serbian.

The issue of Easter was also decided at the Meeting. Due to the shift in the date of the equinox, it was considered inappropriate - as is hitherto done in the Alexandrian and Gregorian Easter - to adhere to the historical, conventional date of the vernal equinox of March 21. It was decided to determine the day of Easter not according to ancient tables of lunar phases in their connection with this conditional equinox on March 21, but annually astronomically - according to the actual date of the spring full moon after the equinox. However, for a number of reasons, this decision on Easter was not implemented. In 1924, the Patriarchate of Constantinople turned to the Local Orthodox Churches with a compromise proposal: to adopt the New Julian calendar while maintaining the Alexandrian Easter. This decision is unsuccessful: changes are made to the dates of the Mark chapters of the Triodion period, and at very late Easter, Peter's fast is shortened and even completely disappears. Therefore, the Russian Orthodox Church retains in its church and liturgical practice the unreformed Julian calendar (old style) with the most appropriate Paschal of Alexandria until the question of the exact relationship between the lunar and solar calendars, Paschal and the calendar is resolved the best way decided by the entirety of the Ecumenical Orthodox Church.

And one more important consideration. If we make Easter more astronomically accurate, we, along with Western Christians, may sometimes be forced to disrupt the sequence of Gospel events. As is known from the Gospel, the Lord was betrayed and crucified on the eve of the day when the Jews celebrated the Old Testament Passover - in memory of deliverance from Egyptian captivity. And Jesus Christ rose again - the New Easter, the Living Sacrifice, saving us from sin and eternal death - on the first day of the week after the Old Testament Easter. In the case of an astronomically accurate Easter, but preceding March 21 Art. Art. (remember that March 21, New Art., is March 8, Old Art.!), the opposite may happen.

Our Christian holidays, and first of all Holy Easter, are liturgical holidays, having a symbolic, saving meaning, and not just simply historical memories based on accurate historical and astronomical data. By performing them, we empathize and mysteriously participate in them, despite the time separating us from the initial events, and are not just observers of the innermost church mystery.

001 Since Julian centuries are all leap centuries, and Gregorian centuries are only those in which the first two digits are divisible by 4 without a remainder, the increase in the difference between styles occurs only in Gregorian non-leap centuries. The year 2000 was a leap year in both calendars, and there was no increase, so in the 21st century the difference is the same 13 days as in the 20th century. 2100 - Gregorian simple and Julian leap year, there will be a difference of 1 day, and the discrepancy between the styles will reach 14 days (13 - for the 20th and 21st centuries + 1 day = 14).

By calculating the date of Easter, you can plan your preparations for this holiday in advance. In this article we will consider several issues regarding the correct calculation of the date of Easter.

Easter and lunar calendar

Depends on the lunar and solar calendars. Moreover, according to the lunar calendar, Easter occurs at one specific time, and according to the solar calendar, within 35 days. Many people calculate the date of Easter using special algorithms and tables, since in order to determine the date of Easter using the lunar and solar calendars, certain knowledge is required. It is much easier to calculate the date using simple mathematical operations.

How to calculate Easter for 2016

It is from Easter that all other holidays in the Orthodox calendar are calculated.

Every year Easter is calculated according to the same algorithm: “Easter is celebrated on the Sunday following the first spring full moon, and it is forbidden to celebrate Easter with the Jews.”

Based on this rule, as well as the nineteen-year “Metonic” cycle of recurrence of lunar phases in the Julian calendar, Easter tables (Paschals) were compiled, which determine the time of Easter celebration. The dates of Easter repeat cyclically every 532 years (Great Indiction).

How to calculate Easter for 2017

How to calculate Easter day in any year

For calculation Orthodox holiday refer to data from both the lunar and solar calendars. However, there is an easier way to calculate the date of Easter.

To do this, you need to calculate the following data.

1. The numerical value of the current year must be divided by 7, write down the remainder, since there will be too many numbers to remember.
2. The numerical value of the year must be divided by 19 and the remainder recorded.
3. Then divide the numerical value of the current year by 4 and also write down the remainder.

After that, we work with the recorded balances.

1. The second remainder must be multiplied by 19.
2. We divide the resulting figure by 30. The result is a remainder that needs to be recorded.
3. Now multiply the third remainder by 2.
4. And multiply the first remainder by 4.
5. We multiply the last remainder by 6.
6. Next you need to add up all the results and add 6.
7. Add up the results and add 6.
8. Divide the resulting number by 7 and calculate the remainder.
9. To determine the exact date, you need to add the fourth and fifth remainders and subtract 9 from the resulting date.

This scheme helps to calculate the exact date of Easter without resorting to calendar data.

How is Catholic Easter calculated?

Easter - very important holiday for Catholics. On this date, colorful performances and celebrations take place.

Once upon a time, Catholics celebrated this holiday together with Christians on the same day. This took place according to the Julian calendar, but from the 16th century the Julian style was replaced by the Gregorian. But Russia kept the old calendar, and now the dates of Catholic and Orthodox Easter are calculated according to different calendars, but at the same time, regularly, once every 3-4 years, the dates coincide. There is a whole complex algorithm for calculating Catholic Easter, although in religious publications you can always easily find the date of Easter for the current year.

How they used to calculate the date of Easter

Previously, the date of the holiday was calculated according to the following principle: “Easter falls on the first Sunday after the spring full moon.” The spring full moon is, accordingly, the full moon that follows the onset of the spring equinox.

The full moon occurred earlier than March 21 (the day of the vernal equinox), and the next full moon was considered Easter. And if the Easter full moon falls on a Sunday, then Easter is celebrated on the following Sunday.

You can always find out the date of Easter several years in advance. You do not need to calculate the date of Easter yourself, especially since when doing your own calculations there is a high probability of making mistakes, which means that the date of Easter will be calculated incorrectly.

How to calculate the date of Easter? My grandmother knew how to calculate the date of Easter using some method.

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:

The rules determining the time of Easter celebration were developed in the 3rd century by the Church of Alexandria and enshrined in the decrees of the First Ecumenical (325) and local Antioch (341) councils. This establishment remains in force to this day: celebrate Easter on the first Sunday with the onset of the full moon on the day or immediately after the spring equinox. At the same time, the Holy Fathers strictly determined that this main Christian holiday should be celebrated only after the Jewish Passover. If a coincidence occurs, the rules dictate moving to the full moon of the next month. Consequently, Easter cannot be earlier than the equinox, i.e. March 21 (April 4 according to the Gregorian calendar) and no later than April 25 (May 8). In the ancient Church, the calculation of the Easter day was entrusted to the Bishop of Alexandria, because the Alexandrians used the most accurate 19-year cycle (discovered by the ancient Greek astronomer Meton, 5th century BC), after which the full moon and phases of the moon fell on the same days of the month , like the previous ones.

An illiterate person cannot calculate the time of Easter himself. Your grandmother, apparently, performed the simplest action: with the onset of Lent, she determined the day of the Holy Resurrection of Christ based on its duration (48 days). Of all the practical methods of calculus, the simplest is the method proposed by the greatest German mathematician Carl Gauss (1777 - 1855). Divide the number of the year by 19 and call the remainder “a”; Let us denote the remainder of dividing the number of the year by 4 by the letter “b”, and by “c” the remainder of dividing the number of the year by 7. Divide the value 19 x a + 15 by 30 and call the remainder the letter “d”. The remainder of the value 2 x b + 4 x c + 6 x d + 6 divided by 7 is denoted by the letter “e”. The number 22 + d + e will be Easter day for March, and the number d + e will be 9 for April. For example, let's take 1996. Dividing it by 19 will leave a remainder of 1 (a). When divided by 4, the remainder will be zero (b). Dividing the number of the year by 7, we get a remainder of 1(c). If we continue the calculations, we get: d = 4, and e = 6. Therefore, 4 + 6 - 9 = April 1 (Julian calendar).

The reason for the discrepancy between holidays that fall outside the Easter cycle is explained by differences in calendars. In addition to Catholics, the eastern local churches live according to the Gregorian style, and the parishioners of the Russian, Jerusalem and Georgian churches are faithful to the Julian style. The greatest difficulties are associated with determining the dates of holidays Easter, Ascension, Spiritual Day. According to scientists, the most likely date of the Crucifixion is April 7, 30.

Instructions

You can calculate the Day Easter, which falls on any year past or future. General rule date calculation Easter: Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday following the spring full moon. In turn, the spring full moon is considered the first full moon that occurs after the vernal equinox. If the Easter full moon falls on a Sunday, then Easter is celebrated on the next Sunday. This means that first determine the day of the vernal equinox, then determine the nearest day of the full moon coming after the day of the vernal equinox, and on the day Easter It will be the Sunday following the day of the full moon. Based on this simple rule, the latest date on which Easter will fall will be April 25, 2038. And the earliest date is March 22, 2285.

The second way to determine the date Easter is step by step instructions to perform simple arithmetic calculations. First, find the remainder when the year is divided by 19. Second, find the remainder when the year is divided by 4.

Find the remainder of dividing the numerical value of the year by 7. Next, multiply 19 by the first remainder, then divide the resulting result by 30, find the remainder.
Now multiply 2 by the second remainder, 4 multiply by the third remainder, 6 multiply by the fourth remainder, add all the results together and add 6 to the sum. Divide the result by 7, find the remainder.

Every spring, with the awakening of nature, believers of some faiths celebrate Easter. It became the starting point for many related traditions in a number of countries. The British are buying for the holiday new clothes, Swedes burn bonfires, which supposedly are supposed to scare away evil spirits, colorful processions and carnivals are held in Latin America, etc.

Whoever encounters the ritual of celebrating the holiday for the first time goes through clarifying the questions that inevitably arise - why does the date of Orthodox Easter take place on different days every year and why does it change, what does the date of Easter next year depend on, how to calculate the day of Easter, etc.?

Video training “How to calculate the day of Easter”

Catholics and Orthodox Christians count on Easter Sundays. Then another question arises, why is Easter in different days spring, because the discrepancy sometimes happens with a difference of almost a month? The issue is complicated by the fact that both faiths recognize that the date of the holiday falls on the Sunday following the spring new moon.

So far everything is coming together. Then, what does the date depend on, how to determine it?

The difference is in chronology. Catholics use the Gregorian calendar, while Orthodox Christians use the Julian calendar. Therefore, anyone who wants to know how to calculate what date a holiday will fall on in a particular year must at least remember two periods:

• according to the old style, Easter falls from March 22 to April 25;
• according to the new style, this period falls from April 4 to May 8.

In Jewish tradition, the Passover holiday, Passover, is celebrated in Israel for seven days, a day longer than in other countries. It symbolizes the liberation of the people from the slave oppression of the Egyptians. Here the date falls on the eve of the 15th day of the month of Nisan.

How to calculate the date of Easter?

The calculation is complicated. Starting from specific conditions, the following values ​​are taken into account:

In this case, a rather complex formula with specific components is used. Neither simple nor more refined options for how to calculate the date of Easter reflect the vicissitudes that have occurred and remain around the topic of who knows better how to determine or how to calculate the real date of the celebration. But there are mandatory conditions within which the calculation result must “fit”.

1. Easter is celebrated after the spring equinox.
2. Passover is not celebrated day-to-day with the Jews.
3. Easter is celebrated after the equinox and always after the first subsequent full moon.
4. Easter is celebrated after the full moon, on Sunday, i.e. on the first day of Week.

In order not to be mistaken in calculating the date of Easter, it is better to rely on church Easter calendars - special tables compiled by clergy. If anyone is interested, we suggest using one of these tables for the coming years to control the calculations.

Easter is one of the main, most revered holidays for Christians. On this day they remember the feat and miraculous resurrection of the Savior, who endured mortal torment for people, giving people hope for a better life after death. According to a long-established tradition, Easter is always celebrated on Sunday. But how to calculate the exact date of this great holiday? And why is this date also different in different years?

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