Private: March full moon and equinox set date of Easter
March 21, 2008 - ES Tonight, Uncategorized
This month’s “full moon”:http://earthsky.org/article/full-moon comes one day after the 2008 March equinox.
The March equinox signals the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere, and autumn in the southern hemisphere. This full moon gives people in the northern hemisphere their first full moon of spring. And south of the equator, this is the first full moon of autumn.
In North American sky lore, the March full moon is often called the Full Sap Moon or the Full Crow Moon. In the southern hemisphere, where it’s now autumn, tonight’s full moon is the legendary full Harvest Moon, closest full moon to that hemisphere’s autumn equinox.
In the Christian tradition, the first full moon of a northern hemisphere spring is called the Paschal Full Moon. The Paschal Moon is all-important for determining the date of Easter, a movable feast whose date changes from year to year. Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon. It was an early equinox this year – in part due to leap year. And the full moon came one day after. This upcoming Easter on March 23 will be the earliest date for Easter in all of the 21st century.
By the way, the moon is full at precisely 6:40 p.m. “Universal Time”:http://earthsky.org/article/universal-time today. Although the moon is astronomically full for only an instant, it’ll look full all night long tonight, shining from dusk till dawn.
The last time Easter fell on March 23 was in 1913, and the next time won’t be till 2160.
The earliest possible date for Easter is March 22. This last happened in 1818 and won’t happen again until 2285.
The latest possible date for Easter is April 25, which happened most recently in 1943 and will happen next in 2038.