Show yi mw FIXING OF EASTER presented a VEXING PROBLEM ami MM i HAT easter sunday li is what Is known in ecclesiastical circles as a movable feast falling now upon one calendar date and again upon another yet always at present upon a sunday I 1 IE r a fact casually accepted without doubt or inquiry practically the whole world over something I 1 ot f mystery however attaches to this chronological paradox that now and then perplexes the curious and the inquisitorial declares a writer in the kansas city star the time of the crucifixion la Is fixed as coincident with the jewish passover or paschal pas clial feast in the jewish calendar month nisan the month of the vernal equinox the first obscurity 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 begen to dawn 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 th the e practice of the christian church a serious difference as to the day 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 pa passover B s which ended on the fourteenth day of the moon at evening the easter follo followed w ed the paschal tradition no matter what day of the lunar month it chanced to fall upon the gentile christians on the other hand following the synoptic gospels identified the first day of the week sunday as the day of resurrection and kept the preceding friday as the anniversary of the crucifixion this was a phase of the controversy that characterized the first century of christianity the second sta stage e in the easter controversy centers around the council of nice A D where so many doctrinal points were given authentic sanction this council was summoned by emperor constantine st stant lne the decision of the council was that easter was to be kept on sunday throughout the chris |