An Early Easter

One of my colleagues, Susan Hanks, sent this to us via e-mail. I thought it was interesting enough to pass along here…

Do you realize how early Easter is this year? As you may know, Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox (March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that the Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar. Based on that fact, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) but that is pretty rare.

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly (95 years or older) of our population have ever seen it this early (March 23). And none of us have ever, or will ever see, it a day earlier! Here’s the facts:

The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be in the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913! The next time it will be a day earlier (March 22) will be in the year 2285. The last time it was on March 22 was 1818 so no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year! Sara Allison

Thanks, Susan!