OK Christians, Why is Christmas a fixed date, while Easter is staggered between March and April?
407504
Christmas is fixed because the Catholic church fixed it.  and it is totally the wrong time of the year, but they did it anyway.  \nEaster should be linked to the Jewish passover, as Jesus was the ultimate passover lamb.  This should be fixed by the Jewish calender, which we don't use.  A Rabbi should know.\nChristmas is definitely a pagan holiday, but the passover is a feast initiated by God in the Old Testament.  We really have communion and can do it anytime.
215300
Easter is observed by the churches of the West on the first Sunday following the full moon that occurs on or following the spring equinox (March 21). So Easter became a "movable" feast which can occur as early as March 22 or as late as April 25
215485
the bible was written a couple of hundred years after jesus died... do you really think that's exactly what god and jesus said. actually a lot of parts of the bible were destroyed or are kept secret by the vatican! or are just being declared as fake. and most of the holidays we know and celebrate today are actually old pagan dates. the date of easter for example was set by constantine and a council:\n\nBefore 325 C.E. Easter could be celebrated on different days of the week; these included Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Again, the lack of solidarity among the churches of the ancient world created a schism in the power of the church. Constantine called the Council of Nicea in 325, the first great ecumenical council of the Catholic Church, where not only the Arian controversy concerning the nature of Christ was resolved, but the date of Easter was finally firmly established. This was called the "Easter rule," and the festival is always celebrated on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25 (Tian et. al. 8). This, of course, contributed to a much more unified empire in the far flung borders of Constantine's reign.\n\na lot of things are different than they appear. and the bible is a very nice book if you read it by yourself or with someone you love and you take your time to figure out what the stories mean by yourself... having a priest telling you what it's all about can be dangers... dogmas etc.
921507
Many of the customs were borrowed from Pagan traditions.  It does not mean Xmas and Easter are pagan holidays.  Where did you get this stuff??\n\nYou can celebrate anything you want.  It's a free country.
469257
I think that some of the people answering this question would benefit greatly from an elementary history lesson. Easter, in it's original form, was very much a Pagan holiday.  You can deny it until you're blue in the face, that doesn't change history.\n\nWhen Christians were forcing people to convert, they took over the Pagan holidays because it was easier to manipulate those holidays than it was to get Pagans to celebrate new ones.  So, they took over our holidays, built their churches on our sacred space and called it a day.  That's history, not opinion.  It's fact, look it up.
821909
They reinace a period or incident in time.  We have one nearby in December they reinact the night Jesus was born.
301068
Easter is derived from an ancient Germanic name for the month of April, Eostremonat--or rather Eostre Month, in dedication to the goddess Eostre. Eostre, or Ostara was a German goddess of fertility and her return was marked by the coming of spring and the sun. The Ost in her name refers to the East--the rising of the sun. The rebirth of the day and the rebirth of the spring were her specialties, and her celebrations occured during the vernal equinox--the first day of spring. Of course calendar dates have gotten juggled about for quite a few different reasons over time and now April is no longer where it once was on the calendar at what is now March 21st.\n\nThe rabbit was a traditional symbol of the goddess because of its great fertility, and the fact that the coming of spring marked the time when all of the little bunnies were seen starting to be born.\n\nWhen Christianity became the predominant religion it was an easy transition to introduce the rebirth of the Christ figure into the already extant birth and rebirth tradition. Old ways die hard, and the bunny stuck around. \n\nAlthough there are several explanations for the eggs the Easter bunny brings, (other than eggs are another traditional symbol of birth/rebirth) the most likely is that eggs were forbidden during the fast of lent, and were decorated and eaten in abundance to mark the end of the fast.\n\nGerman protestants although breaking with Roman Catholocism liked the egg tradition and kept it. And when German immigrants came to America, they brought with them the traditions of the Osterhase (Easter hare) and his eggs.\n\nInasmuch as Christianity has stolen the ancient goddess' name for their own holiday, it seems only fitting that its original mascot still puts in an appearance each year.
853152
We celebrate it because it is the birth of Jesus Christ. We (Christians) also celebrate Easter because it was then that Jesus awoke from the dead, three days after He was crucified.
230149
Regular Easter is on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of spring (vernal equinox).  I assume that Eastern Orthodox uses a different method to calculate Easter, but it is celebrated for the same reason (Christ arisen from the grave.)
147093
Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, If Jesus has not resurrected our faith would be vain.
290282
Well, not always. There are only 35 different days on which Easter can fall, and people have been celebrating Easter on Sunday for more than 35 years, so there have been some duplicates.\n\nEaster falls on the Sunday following the first full moon on or after the Spring equinox. Since the Spring equinox usually falls on March 21, if there is a full moon on that day then and if it is a Saturday, Easter can be as early as March 22. Easter can also be as late as April 25.\n\nThis year, there was a full moon on March 14 (too early) and there will be one on April 13 (just right). Easter is the Sunday following, April 16.
938729
i have always thought of Easter as more important.  Jesus was tempted and because he WAS man, he could've NOT died on the cross for our sins.  However, He chose to do so and showed us His ultimate love and sacrifice through it.  I always look at Easter as a more important and more reverant holiday than Christmas.  I love Christmas and enjoy the festivities with a smile, but Easter always brings a certain solemness at first (usually on Good Friday) and then a joyful ending on Easter Sunday - since He rose and is now alive in Heaven.\n\nGood question!
455844
Isn't there some debate about the calendar system or something?  I'm not entirely clear on this, but I seem to recall several people arguing over what year it really is now, because of the calendar system in effect way back then.\n\nThe only reason I mention this is that someone said Jesus rose on a Sunday, so the sabbath is now Sunday for all Christians.  If the calendar system was different back then from what it is now, how do we know that it was Sunday and not Wednesday or any of the other days of the week?
379342
What do these all have to do with Christianity?  The answer is, NOTHING! People find it hard to believe that the traditions for their favorite holidays didn't originate with that holiday. Easter is the Christian celebration of the rebirth of Jesus. The holiday was set at this time of the year because it coencides with Passover, a Jewish tradition remembering the night when the angel of death came and killed the sons of Egypt.  It also conincided with the pagan celebration of the Spring Equidox, and the coming of Spring. \n\n The traditions of modern Easter, though, are very Pagan. The name of easter is linked to the goddess Ester, of firtility. Some of her symbols were: rabbits, young animals (such as chicks), eggs, and chocolate. (Do these seem familiar?) When christians would convert pagans, they would bring some of their traditions with them. There are many other influences in this holiday as well.\n\nDitto with the oriigns of Christmas.  If you study the Bible, and the climate of the Middle East, topography etc.  you will find that Jesus was most likely born in the Spring,and not December 25.  So what's with celerbrating Chirstmas 24 ~ the Winter Solstice ~ you've got it ~ another orginal Pagan holiday!
273685
Easter is an annual festival observed throughout the Christian world. The date for Easter shifts every year within the Gregorian Calendar. The Gregorian Calendar is the standard international calendar for civil use. In addition, it regulates the ceremonial cycle of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. The current Gregorian ecclesiastical rules that determine the date of Easter trace back to 325 CE at the First Council of Nicaea convened by the Roman Emperor Constantine. At that time the Roman world used the Julian Calendar (put in place by Julius Caesar). \n\nThe Council decided to keep Easter on a Sunday, the same Sunday throughout the world. To fix incontrovertibly the date for Easter, and to make it determinable indefinitely in advance, the Council constructed special tables to compute the date. These tables were revised in the following few centuries resulting eventually in the tables constructed by the 6th century Abbot of Scythia, Dionysis Exiguus. Nonetheless, different means of calculations continued in use throughout the Christian world. \n\nIn 1582 Gregory XIII (Pope of the Roman Catholic Church) completed a reconstruction of the Julian calendar and produced new Easter tables. One major difference between the Julian and Gregorian Calendar is the "leap year rule". See our FAQ on Calendars for a description of the difference. Universal adoption of this Gregorian calendar occurred slowly. By the 1700's, though, most of western Europe had adopted the Gregorian Calendar. The Eastern Christian churches still determine the Easter dates using the older Julian Calendar method. \n\nThe usual statement, that Easter Day is the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs next after the vernal equinox, is not a precise statement of the actual ecclesiastical rules. The full moon involved is not the astronomical Full Moon but an ecclesiastical moon (determined from tables) that keeps, more or less, in step with the astronomical Moon. \n\nThe ecclesiastical rules are: \n\nEaster falls on the first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox; \nthis particular ecclesiastical full moon is the 14th day of a tabular lunation (new moon); and \nthe vernal equinox is fixed as March 21. \nresulting in that Easter can never occur before March 22 or later than April 25. The Gregorian dates for the ecclesiastical full moon come from the Gregorian tables. Therefore, the civil date of Easter depends upon which tables - Gregorian or pre-Gregorian - are used. The western (Roman Catholic and Protestant) Christian churches use the Gregorian tables; many eastern (Orthodox) Christian churches use the older tables based on the Julian Calendar. \nIn a congress held in 1923, the eastern churches adopted a modified Gregorian Calendar and decided to set the date of Easter according to the astronomical Full Moon for the meridian of Jerusalem. However, a variety of practices remain among the eastern churches. \n\nThere are three major differences between the ecclesiastical system and the astronomical system. \n\nThe times of the ecclesiastical full moons are not necessarily identical to the times of astronomical Full Moons. The ecclesiastical tables did not account for the full complexity of the lunar motion. \nThe vernal equinox has a precise astronomical definition determined by the actual apparent motion of the Sun as seen from the Earth. It is the precise time at which the apparent ecliptic longitude of the Sun is zero. (Yes, the Sun's ecliptic longitude, not its declination, is used for the astronomical definition.) This precise time shifts within the civil calendar very slightly from year to year. In the ecclesiastical system the vernal equinox does not shift; it is fixed at March 21 regardless of the actual motion of the Sun. \nThe date of Easter is a specific calendar date. Easter starts when that date starts for your local time zone. The vernal equinox occurs at a
269100
Easter is on the first Sunday after the first full moon after vernal equinox.  This is why the date varies from year to year.  Good Friday is simply the Friday before Easter.
124323
Easter was stolen from the Pagans.  We had it first.  I hope you all enjoy the following article.\n\n===================\n\nThe Old Ways: Spring\nby Doug and Sandy Kopf\n\nSpring (Earrach) or Vernal Equinox, on approximately March 21, is the mid-point of the Waxing Year. The spark of light that was born at Winter Solstice has reached maturity, and from this point forward, the days grow longer than the nights. This is the time of full Dawn, 6:00 a.m. on the Year Clock, and so was the time of the festivals of the Grecian Goddess, Eostre, and the Germanic Ostara, both Goddesses of Dawn. (It is from these Bright Ladies that the modern Easter holiday takes its name). This is the time that is often seen as the time of Kore’s return from the Underworld, where She (as Persephone) has ruled throughout the Winter. It is also the time of the celebration of the rebirth of Adonis the Beautiful.\n\nSpring is the time for a celebration of planting and of the greening of the Earth. The supermarket is a sign in itself, as the produce department begins to fill with fresh fruits and vegetables. People start to talk about having ‘Spring Fever’ and doing ‘Spring cleaning’, as the brighter sunshine provides a needed morale boost.\n\nNon-Pagans start to shop for Easter finery (putting on new clothes, just like the Earth Mother), or Passover foods, unaware that we are all truly celebrating the same thing: the Revitalization of the Earth, as She warms to the waxing rays of the Sun. We have survived another Winter and are\nonce more surrounded by the delights of Spring. Some authorities say that this was probably the time that the Christian Church should have chosen to celebrate as the birth date of Jesus, since this would have been the time for paying taxes in ancient Jerusalem and, according to the myth, Mary and Joseph were traveling to fulfill that obligation. It is also the season of lambing, the only time shepherds would ‘watch by night’.\n\nMany traditions associated with Spring Equinox have been retained over the years and grafted onto the Easter celebration. Even today, people arise early on Easter morning to attend ‘Sunrise Service’. (Remember Eostre, the Dawn Goddess?) If your group is not opposed to getting up early, a Dawn Circle to greet the Sun on the morning of the Equinox can be wonderful!  Legend says the Sun Dances and, if it is reflected in a bowl of clear water, you can see it for yourself! However, we would not recommend this if you are night-owls. It’s hard to put your whole heart into ritual when you are bleary-eyed and groggy. Festivals should be FUN, not tests of your determination!\n\nDecorated eggs have always been symbols of fertility. In 17th century France, gifts of decorated eggs were given to new brides, in hopes they would bear many children. In Germany, bowls full of eggs were given to the field-workers by the farmer’s wife, to insure a rich harvest. Many\ncultures see the egg as a symbol of Life, or the actual home of the soul.  The egg is the symbol of all good fortune in Russia and decorated eggs are still given as gifts to loved ones and buried in graves to insure rebirth.  These elaborate and ornate treasures are sometimes even set with precious stones. (Note: Faberge’ and Tiffany eggs)\nThe Old Ways: Spring\nby Doug and Sandy Kopf\n\nSpring (Earrach) or Vernal Equinox, on approximately March 21, is the mid-point of the Waxing Year. The spark of light that was born at Winter Solstice has reached maturity, and from this point forward, the days grow longer than the nights. This is the time of full Dawn, 6:00 a.m. on the Year Clock, and so was the time of the festivals of the Grecian Goddess, Eostre, and the Germanic Ostara, both Goddesses of Dawn. (It is from these Bright Ladies that the modern Easter holiday takes its name). This is the time that is often seen as the time of Kore’s return from the Underworld, where She (as Persephone) has ruled throughout the Winter. It is also the time o