The origins of Easter

Have you ever wondered why we call it "Easter"- Professor Carole Cusack, from the Department of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney, reflects on the origins of some of the more familiar elements of the Easter season. The Date of Easter. While Christmas (the feast celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ) falls on 25 December every year, the date of Easter (the festival that celebrates Jesus' resurrection), is not fixed and often falls anywhere between late March and late April. This is because the date attempts to reconcile the solar and lunar calendars. In 325 AD the first major church council, the Council of Nicaea, determined that Easter should be the Sunday that follows the first full moon, after the Spring equinox (Autumn equinox in the Southern Hemisphere). Easter Sunday is therefore celebrated by Catholic and Protestant Christians on a Sunday between 22 March and 25 April. Orthodox Churches however still use the Julian Calendar (named for Julius Caesar), which was abandoned in Western Europe after 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII instituted a new calendar to be known as the Gregorian Calendar, after himself.