Easter is the main Christian holiday that millions of believers await every year, not only in Russia, but all over the world. This word translated from Greek means "deliverance" and invariably serves as a reminder that Christ was resurrected, having endured all the suffering for the human race.
Easter is usually celebrated in the spring on one of the Sundays. Why can this great holiday be celebrated at different times every year?
Jewish and Christian Easter
Initially, the celebration of the Christian Passover was closely related to the date of the celebration of the Judean Passover. It was celebrated not according to the solar calendar, but according to the Jewish lunar calendar.
The essence of the Passover is that it is dedicated to the miraculous liberation of the Jews from the Egyptian bondage. This event took place in the middle of the 13th century BC. It is described in the second book of the Bible - Exodus.
The book says that the Lord warned the Israelites about the impending salvation and announced to them that next night every Egyptian family would lose their firstborn, since only such a punishment would force the Egyptians to free the Jews from slavery. And so that this punishment did not affect the Jews themselves, it was necessary to anoint the doors of their houses with the blood of a lamb (lamb) killed the day before. His blood will save the Jewish firstborn from death and free them from slavery. And so it happened. Since then, the Jewish Passover has been celebrated every year, and an Passover lamb is slain in memory of this event.
This lamb is a type of Jesus Christ, who was the Savior of the world, crucified on the cross for the sins of mankind. The Gospel says: “Christ is the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world, His precious Blood, shed on Calvary, cleanses us from all sin. And his crucifixion directly on the day of the Jewish Passover is by no means accidental."
This happened on the day of the full moon, after the vernal equinox, on the 14th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar. And Jesus rose again on the third day after the crucifixion, which we call the resurrection. This is why the dates of the celebration of the Jewish and Christian Passover are so interconnected.
During the first three centuries of Christian history, there were two dates for the celebration of Easter at once. Some celebrated it on the 14th of Nisan together with the Jews - as a symbol of the memory of Christ's crucifixion and his death, while others, who turned out to be the majority - on the very first Sunday after the 14th of Nisan, as a symbol of Christ's resurrection from the dead.
The final decision on the date of the celebration of Easter was made in 325 at the first Ecumenical Council. It was decided: "… to celebrate Passover, after Jewish Passover, on the first Sunday after the full moon, which will be on the very day of the vernal equinox or immediately after it, but not earlier than the vernal equinox."
Julian and Gregorian calendar
Thus, starting in AD 325, Christians all over the world began to celebrate Easter and other Christian holidays on the same day.
However, after the split of the Christian Church in 1054, the so-called Roman Catholic Church appeared. At first, the calendar of holidays remained the same, but then in 1582 Pope Gregory the 13th introduced the Gregorian calendar, and therefore a new chronology. This calendar was considered more accurate from the point of view of astronomy, because now it is adopted in most countries of the world.
And the Russian Orthodox Church to this day uses the old Julian calendar (which is still popularly called the Orthodox), since Jesus Christ lived at the time when the Julian calendar was in force.
Based on this calendar, the Passover described in the Gospel, in chronology, goes immediately after the Jewish Passover. In the Gregorian calendar, it is believed that Catholic Easter can not only coincide with the Jewish one, but also be somewhat earlier than it.
Thus, sometimes Orthodox Easter coincides with Catholic, and sometimes there is a rather large discrepancy in numbers.
It is also worth noting that the Gregorian calendar is certainly more accurate, but for centuries the blessed fire in Bethlehem has descended on the day of Easter according to the Julian (Orthodox) calendar.
