Show ws FIXING OF EASTER presented a VEXING PROBLEM E W i att alst ti erfal 11 L 1 I 1 tut I 1 AT easter sunday Is what I 1 Is s known la in ecclesiastical c circles 1 acles as a movable feast falling now upon one calendar date and again upon another yet always at present upon a sunday sundays Sun dayIs Is a fact casually accepted without doubt or inquiry practically the world over ever something of mystery however attaches to this chronological paradox that now and then perplexes the curious and the inquisitorial declares a writer in tho the kansas city star the time of the crucifixion Is fixed its as coincident with the jewish passover or paschal feast in the jewish calendar month nisan the month of the vernal ew equinox enox the first erst obscurity la in regard to the day arose from the christian gospels themselves the synoptic gospels seemed to favor the day as the fifteenth of nisan that of st john the fourteenth this established by the preponderance of evidence that the crucifixion occurred on friday the day before the jewish sabbath according to matthew the resurrection occurred in the end of the sabbath as it began to clawn toward the first day of the week ecclesiastical history preserves three distinct phases relating to the subsequent commemorative day which came to be known as easter although the observance of easter was at a very early period the practice of the christian church a serious difference as to the day tor for its observance soon arose between the christians of jewish and those of gentile descent with the jewish christians who associated the death of christ with the sacrifice of the paschal lamb at the passover which ended on the fourteenth day of the moon at evening the easter festival followed the paschal tradition no matter what day of the lunar mouth month it chanced to fall upon the gentile christians on the other hand band following the synoptic gospels identified the first day of the week sunday as tho the day of resurrection and kept the preceding friday as the anniversary of the crucifixion this was the phase of the controversy that characterized the first centuries of christianity the ile second stage in the easter controversy tro versy centers around the council of nice A D where so many doctrinal points were given sanction lon this council was summoned by emperor constantine Constant lne the ile decision of the council was that easter was to be kept on sunday throughout the christian world it was at this point that astronomical sc science itrice entered into the controversy the correct date of the easter festival was to be calculated at alexandria the then home of astronomical science and the noman pontiff was to communicate the date to the churches this arrangement fixed died the date of easter sunday as the sunday following the fourteenth day of the paschal moon and defined the paschal moon as the moon whose fourteenth day followed the spring equinox but this ruling did not settle all difficulties the third chise of 0 the controversy arose from the divergent calendars and cycles in vogue in the eastern and western church centers st augustine tells us that in the year the churches of gaul kept easter on march 21 those of italy on april 18 while the egyptian christians celebrated april 25 23 ns as raster easter day the british and irish churches for a long time adhered to an ancient system of computation though they observed sunday as the easter caster day with the adoption of the cycle as a guide the formula for fixing the easter date was determined as the first sunday which occurs after the first full moon or more accurately after the first fourteenth day of the moon following the of march which li Is the vernal equinox As a result the earliest possible date of easter is 18 march 22 the latest april 25 |