Easter: How is Date Determined and Origin of Term

How is the date for Easter determined and what was the origin of the word?

I was coming home from a meeting on the evening of 4 April 2012 and tuned into my usual 50’s music station KIXI Radio 880AM Seattle/Tacoma and was surprised to hear the old time radio show “The Great Gildersleeve” (1941-1958) – a story about Uncle Throckmorton Gildersleeve who is raising his brother in law’s orphaned children. 

In this episode Gildersleeve was explaining the Easter Story about the trial, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ to his niece and nephew along with some grown up neighbors. Part of the explanation included how the date for Easter is determined. He then went on to read the story from the Bible. I had not remembered how the date was specifically determined or the origin of the word. This show emphasized how different society is today compared to the 40’s and 50’s. I seriously doubt that such a sitcom would be able to focus on such a topic today.

How is the date for Easter determined?  The date for Easter is determined using the lunisolar calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325AD) placed the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon following the northern hemisphere’s vernal equinox after the 21^st of March. In Western Christianity Easter falls on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25. Eastern Christianity used a different formula.  Read more about the computation of Easter date here. 

What is the origin of the word “Easter”? ORIGIN: Old English ēastre; of Saxon/Germanic origin and related to German Ostern and east. The word is derived from Ēastre, the name of a goddess associated with spring.

Joe