Easter is one of the most important holidays of the Christian calendar, a moment of profound spirituality in which the resurrection of Jesus Christ is celebrated. Unlike other religious holidays, such as Christmas – which always falls on December 25th – the Easter date changes every year. Why? The answer must be found in the intriguing intertwining between history, astronomy and religious tradition that brings us back in time, up to the roots of the Christian faith and its link with the Jewish Easter.
A date linked to the moon
Christian Easter is not arbitrarily fixed. Its date is determined by a precise calculation: it falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox. This means that it can oscillate between March 22 and April 25, a span of 35 days that makes Easter a “mobile” party.
But why this rule? The reason lies in the link between Christian Easter and Pèsach, the Jewish Easter. The Jews, in fact, use a lunar calendar, in which every month corresponds to a lunar cycle (29 or 30 days). Pèsach, who commemorates the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, is celebrated on the 14th day of the month of Noto, in correspondence with the full moon of March-April.
From the Jewish origins to the Council of Nicea
In the first centuries of Christianity, the faithful celebrated Easter on the same day as the Jews, on the 14th nice, to remember the death of Jesus. With the passage of time the desire to distinguish Christian Easter emerged, focused on the resurrection, from the Jewish one.
It was in 325 AD, during the Council of Nicea, that the Church established a new rule: Easter would have been celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon of spring, a decision that not only underlined the link with the lunar cycle, but also the symbolism of the resurrection as “new light” after the darkness of death.
A calendar that influences other holidays
The date on which Easter is celebrated, and its variability, influences other important, and “furniture”, holidays of the liturgical calendar. For example, Lent begins 47 days before Easter with Ash Wednesday, while Pentecost falls 50 days later. Ascension and the first Sunday of Advent are also connected to this date.
This “chain” of celebrations makes Easter a central reference point for the religious life of Christians, a moment that marks the sacred time and fills it with meaning.
Hebrew Easter and Christian Easter: two holidays, two meanings
Even if the two Edques are strictly connected, they have deeply different meanings. For Jews, Pèsach is a celebration of liberation from slavery and exodus to the promised land. The vigilia dinner, the Seder, includes several symbols such as lamb, bitter herbs and blunt bread, which recall the haste with which the Jews left Egypt.
For Christians, however, Easter is the culmination of faith: Christ’s victory over death and the promise of eternal life. The Easter Lamb, for example, takes on a new meaning, becoming a symbol of Jesus, “the lamb of God” which takes away the sins of the world.
A bond that resists over time
In the face of the obvious differences, the link between Christian and Jewish Easter remains strong. It is a bridge between two faiths, two stories, two ways of living spirituality. And perhaps, in an increasingly divided world, such a strong connection can act as a warning on the complexity of the past and our roots, more intertwined than we think.
The next time we look at the calendar to find out when to celebrate Easter – for 2025, let’s talk about Sunday 20 April – We can do it with a different look. It will not only be a date, but a moment that combines sky and earth, past and present, tradition and hope. Because Easter, after all, is all this: a passage, something that tries to go further, a promise that, for millennia, has been renewed from year to year.
