Easter is a religious holiday based on the resurrection of Jesus, the exact date of which was not recorded In light of this, no generally accepted date for Easter was fixed, and the date was based on the calendar However, the decision of which calendar to use was a point of contention The Julian calendar was the solar-based calendar of the Roman Empire since 45 BC, but the Lunar calendar (which was Jewish) had been in place for 2,000 before that Because of the differences in the calendars, Easter was celebrated on different dates.
In AD 325, a conclave of priests and bishops met at Christianity’s first Ecumenical Council in Nicea (present-day Turkey) to decide an array of topics, one of which was the date for Easter The different Church groups were represented and a decision was eventually reached It was decided that, throughout the Church, Easter would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or after March 21 Different regions, however, applied slightly different rules, some describing March 21 as the vernal equinox (i e , the Spring equinox, when the length of night and day are equal because the sun passes over the equator), although the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or after March 21 is now the accepted formula Applying this formula, Easter Sunday must fall between March 22 and April 25, inclusive Easter Sunday hasn’t fallen on March 22 since 1818, and will next fall on that date in 2285 Similarly, it hasn’t fallen on April 25 since 1943 and won’t again until 2038.
