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'''[[File:Carracci The Holy Women at the Tomb of Christ.jpg|thumb|[[Annibale Carracci]], The Holy Women at the Tomb of Christ, circa 1597-98.]]

'''[[File:Carracci The Holy Women at the Tomb of Christ.jpg|thumb|[[Annibale Carracci]], The Holy Women at the Tomb of Christ, circa 1597-98.]]

'''Resurrection Sunday''' (also known as '''Easter''') is the [[Christian]] holiday celebrating the [[resurrection of Jesus Christ]]. It would be counted as two days after His [[crucifixion]] on [[Good Friday]] by modern-day counting, but three days by Biblical inclusive date counting whereby parts of days are counted as days ("be raised on the third day"<ref>Matthew 20:19; Mark 9:31 and 10:34; Luke 9:22 and 18:33 and 24:46; John 2:19 "in three days"; Acts 10:40—Jesus remains raised "after three days" Matthew 12:40; 27:63; </ref>).  It has been considered the most important festival of the liturgical year. Pascha is the celebration of Easter in the Eastern Orthodox church.

'''Resurrection Sunday''' (more popularly known as '''Easter''') is the [[Christian]] holiday celebrating the [[resurrection of Jesus Christ]]. In the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] the celebration is known as '''Pascha'''.

 

It would be counted as two days after His [[crucifixion]] on [[Good Friday]] by modern-day counting, but three days by Biblical inclusive date counting whereby parts of days are counted as days ("be raised on the third day"<ref>Matthew 20:19; Mark 9:31 and 10:34; Luke 9:22 and 18:33 and 24:46; John 2:19 "in three days"; Acts 10:40—Jesus remains raised "after three days" Matthew 12:40; 27:63; </ref>).  It has been considered the most important festival of the liturgical year.  

== Date of Resurrection Sunday ==

== Date of Resurrection Sunday ==

Resurrection Sunday doesn't fall on a fixed date in the calendar. Instead, it is based on a lunar calendar like that used by the Jews. At the [[Council of Nicaea]] in 325 AD it was decided that Resurrection Sunday would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first [[full moon]] on or after the day of the March Equinox.<ref>The March Equinox is known as the Spring (or Vernal) Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Autumnal Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere.  (An equinox is the instant in time when the plane of the Earth's Equator passes through the geometric center of the Sun's disk, and only occurs in March and September.)</ref>

Unlike [[Christmas]], which falls on a specific calendar date (December 25 in the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions; January 8 in the Orthodox ones), Easter is considered a "moveable feast" in Christian liturgy, as its date depends on astronomical events.

 

The First [[Council of Nicaea]] in 325 AD set only two rules for its calculation: 1) that the date would be independent of the Hebrew calendar used by the Jews and 2) that it be held on a uniform date throughout all Christian churches.  However, the Council did not specify '''''how''''' the date was to be calculated (or, interestingly, that it had to fall on Sunday, but by then that was the standard practice in most churches); the computational process took centuries and has resulted in the second rule not being followed, with the Eastern Orthodox (and some other Orthodox bodies) celebrating it (in most years) on a different date than Roman Catholic/Protestant bodies (usually later).

 

[[Bede the Venerable]] would, 400 years later, set forth the general rule for calculating Easter: "The Sunday following the full Moon which falls on or after the equinox will give the lawful Easter."<ref>There are two equinoxes on Earth annually, one in March and one in September; Bede referred to the one in March.  The March Equinox is known as the Spring (or Vernal) Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Autumnal Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere.  (An equinox is the instant in time when the plane of the Earth's Equator passes through the geometric center of the Sun's disk, and only occurs in March and September.)</ref> The general rule was later modified for two specific components needed to calculate the date: 1) the date of the first full moon is not the actual date on which the moon is full, but is instead the 14th day of the lunar month (this is called the "Paschal full moon", taken from Pascha), and 2) although the astronomical March equinox can take place on March 19, 20, or 21, the equinox date was later fixed as March 21.

The date on which the first full moon was to be determined by using the Metonic Cycle, a period of approximately 19 years when the phases of the Moon recur at the same time.

The date on which the first full moon was to be determined by using the Metonic Cycle, a period of approximately 19 years when the phases of the Moon recur at the same time.