Did you Know? (Sunday, April 17, 2022)

The date for Easter is not fixed. It moves every year. For this reason the earliest Christians celebrated the Lord’s resurrection on different days. The church has always maintained a link between Jesus’ death and the Jewish Passover festival. As a result, Christians first celebrated the Lord’s resurrection on one of two days: on the day of the Jewish Passover or the Sunday following the Jewish Passover. It was not until the Council of Nicea in 325 CE that the different churches came together and ruled that Easter is to be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox. For many years, the church in Africa was responsible for calculating this time.