'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH'

New Zealand Tablet, 3 April 1913, Page 3

'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH'

(A Weekly Instruction specially written for the N.Z. Tablet by ' Ghimel.’) .

THE DATE OF EASTER

The following article is written in answer to., a correspondent, who is anxious to know why the time for the celebration of Easter varies from year to year; The chief reason is to be found in the connection of the Christian festival with the Jewish Passover, and its consequent dependence on the Jewish Calendar. The Passover commenced on the 15th day of Nisan, but that day might fall in March or April. To explain: ‘The Jewish year was a variable lunar year, i.e. it consisted of twelve months, each of which began with the new moon, the full moon consequently falling on the 14th day of each month. The moon completes her orbit round the earth in twenty-nine and a half days, or two orbits in fifty-nine days. The Jewish months, accordingly, varied from twenty-nine to thirty days alternately (Tischri and Nisan having thirty days), it being impossible to commence a month in the middle of a day. Thus the twelve months of the Jewish year make up 354 days. Eleven and a quarter days were required to make up the'length of a solar year. Had this discrepancy not been rectified in some way, every Jewish month, and the new year as well, would, in the course of thirty years, have made the circle of the year. For, if in one year, the Ist Nisan coincided with the Ist March, in the next it would fall on the 12th, and so on.’ The discrepancy was rectified to some extent by the insertion of an additional month from time to time, and of an additional day in leap-year. In determining these points, the equinoxes were of cardinal importance. Unfortunately the Jews did not carry out this method scientifically. Hence it is impossible to say for certain that such and such a year was a leap year with the Jews, and, what is worse, it is impossible to determine accurately the date of any great event in the past and bring it into line with other calendars. It was only natural that for some considerable time the Jewish method of reckoning should have been followed in the Church. In the first place, Jewish converts of the earliest days—and in the East they would form the majority of Christians—-would be very slow to give up their old customs. In the second place, the slaying of the Paschal Lamb at the Passover was a type of Christ’s sacrifice of Himself, and as a matter of fact that sacrifice took place on the 15th Nisan, the first day of the Jewish feast. But two considerations soon presented themselves to the Christian mind demanding a departure from the Jewish methods of calculation. First, ‘from the Christian point of view, the Resurrection and not the day of Christ’s death, formed the chief feature of the commemoration; the latter, although a day to be held in remembrance, could not well be kept as a joyous festival. But the Resurrection took place on the Sunday after the 15th Nisan, and so this Sunday came to be the chief day of the Christians’ feast.’ Secondly, as Christianity spread chiefly among pagans, who for the most part followed the Roman (or Julian) Calendar, it became necessary to fix the celebration of Easter by that calendar. How was this transference of a day from one calendar to another to be effected ? According to Jewish ways of reckoning, our Lord died on the 15th Nisan; what day would that be according to the Roman Calendar? It was impossible to say, for in one year, according to the Jewish calendar, it might fall in March, in another in April; and in any case 15th Nisan conveyed no idea to Christians who had been converted from Paganism. Consequently, the day of our Saviour’s Death and Resurrection had to be determined by some other method. There would have been no difficulty in doing that, if the exact day of March or April on which the 15th Nisan had fallen in the year of our Lord’s Death could have been discovered.

But owing to the unscientific character of the Jewish calendar it was impossible to find that out after the lapse of forty or fifty years. So another starting point was looked for. As the 15th Nisan (the day of Christ's Death) must fall on or about the spring full moon, that is, the full moon nearest to the vernal equinox, it was determined in Home at least from the time of Pope Sixtus I. (117-126) that Easter should be celebrated on the Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox. It would be a decided advantage in many ways if Easter Sunday were fixed, say, to some. Sunday, in March or April. With this end in view a number of Catholic scholars have put forward various schemes during the past twenty years or so, and are still engaged in the work, but it is not an easy matter, and it is not certain that their reforms would be acceptable to all the Governments of Europe.