Easter, Ishtar and Passover

Easter fell on March 27th this year. As it turns out, Easter can fall on a day anywhere from March 23 until April 24. It is usually in late April, though.

The calculation for the Easter date depends on numerous factors so it's quite long and complex. It involves a series of tables and various steps, with each step requiring three or four calculations themselves. It's enough to make your head spin, especially if you have to make a computer program for it like I have. For those that want to inflict a little pain on the brain, I've included a couple of links at the end of this post that get into the history and the equations.

More interesting, there's some debate in Christian circles because the Easter celebration, complete with the painted eggs from the Easter Bunny, is derived from a pagan festival. This pagan festival celebrated the goddess Asherah. Rabits and eggs were both part of the celebration of fertility, hence the Cadbury eggs every year.

The whole thing sounds like the controversy over Hallowe'en but this time a major Christian celebration is tied to it. More than that, Jesus died just before the Hebrew Passover began, so why don't we celebrate Easter just before Passover?

One of the main reasons, apparently, is that the early Catholic church wanted to celebrate using Friday and Sunday. Since Passover follows the lunar calendar, it doesn't usually follow the Friday-Sunday weekend. So Passover usually falls in later April but the Easter calculation very rarely matches it. Throw in the idea that we Christians tend to create our own celebrations because we don't want to share the Hebrew ones and the reflection in the water gets a bit muddy.

So there's some food for thought as you munch away on leftover chocolate bunnies and marshmallow eggs.

Related Links:
Easter History & Equation
Easter Equation
Easter & Ishtar