Confused by Easter date? Join the club

I'm still not used to it. With kids at home and, it seems, remembering my own childhood, I still associate Easter with the spring break. That certainly makes family gatherings easier. Now spring break is gone and we're still waiting for egg hunts.

And full moons.

This year the first full moon following the spring equinox is April 17 so Easter is the following Sunday, or April 24. That's just one day shy of the latest Easter can fall; the dates range from March 22 to April 25 for western Christians.

I say "western" because not all Christians agree on when Easter should be - and the Church has changed the methodology through the centuries. The current western Christian practice follows the Gregorian calendar (Pope Gregory's), which ties Easter to the Paschal moon (after the equinox). However, the Eastern Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar (as in Julius Caesar) with a different astronomical dating system.

If that isn't complicated enough, add the inaccuracy of the Julian calendar, which has accrued an additional 13 days since 325 A.D. So in order to stick to the original formula, Orthodox Easter cannot be celebrated before April 3, which was March 21 in 325 A.D. Oh, and it can't be before Passover, because Jesus' final days did not occur until after Passover/the last supper - itself a topic of date debate. Passover begins on the 15th night of the spring month of Nissan, the first month of the Jewish calendar.

Our moveable feast takes millennia to repeat the full cycle of possible dates.

Now toss another religion's traditions in the mix. "Eostur's" feast has pagan roots; she was a German goddess with a month named after her. The English "Eastre" didn't develop until the ninth century.

Formulas notwithstanding, the exact date of Easter remains a topic for scholarly debate. It's unlikely to ever be resolved with accuracy, as those in Jesus' time did not record an exact date for the resurrection described in the Bible. Very few could read or write, so almost nothing of his life was recorded until centuries later.

"My mom used to say that Greek Easter was later because then you get stuff cheaper." - Amy Sedaris

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Email sholehjo@hotmail.com