The Easter weekend is upon us; a time for deep reflection if you are a serious Christian, a time to stuff your face with chocolate if not. I suppose both together is common.
Our High-back XXL and XL bean bags look remarkably similar to Easter eggs but without the calories, so why not treat yourself to a Cozibag bean bag and enjoy Easter whilst remaining on course for your summer beach body!
Like many others, I have never understood how or why Easter seems to change each year, so I decided to have a little look into it.
Apparently, Easter was originally called Pascha after the Hebrew word for Passover, a Jewish festival that is set by the first full moon following the vernal equinox – the spring day when night and day are exactly the same length. As Pascha fell around the same time as the Jewish festival, Christians wanted to have their feast day at the same time as the Jews.
Pascha later became known as Easter, a word which is believed to be derived from Eostre, the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility and springtime.
The date of Easter is determined, like its pagan festival equivalent, by the lunar calendar.
Solar and lunar calendars
The ancient Egyptians used a solar calender which was passed on through the Roman and Christian cultures to become the modern world standard. However, the Jews used phases of the moon (as Islam now does).
A problem is caused by the solar year (the length of time it takes the earth to orbit the sun) being nearly 11 days longer than the lunar year. Many formulae have been devised to try to reconcile the two as a method of marking time.
So when does Easter fall?
Generally speaking, Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first full moon after 21 March.
It can be as early as 22 March, as it was in 1761 and 1818 (but that won’t happen until 2285) or as late as 25 April, but we haven’t had that since 1943 and won’t again until 2038. The most common date is 19 April.
So there you go, a nice little lesson in religious history! I hope you enjoyed it.
Thanks for reading,
