Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Why a difference in date for Orthodox and Catholic Pascha?

"Why Do the Orthodox Sometimes Celebrate Pascha (Easter) on a Different Day from Roman Catholics?" by Priest Basil Biberdorf

Sigh. It's time for that annual round of ABSOLUTELY WRONG "Why Orthodox Pascha [Easter] doesn't line up with Western Easter every year" articles.

It's very simple. The basic principle is: Pascha happens the first Sunday following the first full moon following the vernal (spring) equinox, which is assumed as the invariant date of March 21. This was established by the First Ecumenical Council, held in Nicaea in AD 325.

The differences arise because:
  1. The Orthodox use March 21 on the Julian (Old) Calendar, which differs by some 13 days from the Gregorian (New) Calendar. If a full moon occurs in this interval, the Paschal dates will be off by quite a bit.
  2. The full moon is determined not by observation but according to tables that say when it is according to the year in a cycle. The Orthodox have a different table than the Roman Catholics (and, consequently, the Western Protestants).
The differences have nothing to do with observing Pascha after Passover. The first Nicaean Council explicitly de-linked Pascha from Passover, which, due to Jewish rabbinical decisions could move from year to year. The Council wanted to free the Christian Church from this variability.

Posted by Byzantine, TX

5 comments:

  1. WallaceMarch 27, 2018 at 8:13 PM

    Julian is still more accurate

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 28, 2018 at 7:12 AM

    But it’s not to avoid variability. It’s to avoid dependence upon Jewish authorities.

    The underlying calculation for Pascha is based upon the underlying calculation for Passover.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SDA2March 28, 2018 at 11:17 PM

    "Julian is still more accurate"

    ?????

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. revprodigalMarch 30, 2018 at 7:43 AM

      And the earth is flat....

      Delete
    2. WallaceMarch 30, 2018 at 9:46 PM

      ....if you believe the Gregorian is more accurate. Funny thing about the Julian, it's still used for astronomical measurements. The Gregorian is broken and dates that you see are translated. Then there is the 28year cycle in the Julian that is lost in the Gregorian. No, the Julian is a better calendar.

      Delete

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