Easter and the Moon

Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the northern hemisphere's vernal equinox.[10] Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned to be on 21 March (even though the equinox occurs, astronomically speaking, on 20 March in most years), and the "Full Moon" is not necessarily the astronomically correct date. The date of Easter therefore varies between 22 March and 25 April. Eastern Christianity bases its calculations on the Julian calendar whose 21 March corresponds, during the 21st century, to 3 April in the Gregorian calendar, in which the celebration of Easter therefore varies between 4 April and 8 May. (From wikipedia)


This year, 2013, Easter Sunday is on March, 31st, after the full moon on the 27th. This is a curious piece of information that many people ignore and that we can use in our English lessons to introduce the topic. Moreover, as there is a holiday period due to Easter, we can talk about the present year's Easter dates. We can also take the advantage of talking about the moon cycles and dates, the moon phases, the equinox, the seasons, etc.