Why doesn't Easter fall on the same date every year?
Show answer & explanation
Answer: It follows a spring moon-and-Sunday rule
It follows a spring moon-and-Sunday rule ✓ — Correct! In Western Christianity, Easter is set as the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox, so its date moves each year.
It is fixed to April's first Sunday — Wrong. Easter is not simply April's first Sunday; it can fall from late March to late April.
Church leaders pick a new date each year — Wrong. Easter follows a rule-based calculation, not a new annual choice by church leaders.
More History & Culture questions
- Why do 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. still feel confusing in a system that otherwise seems familiar?
- What does the French Revolution’s decimal time experiment reveal about changing time systems?
- What made equal-length hours move from specialist astronomy into ordinary daily life?
- Why did Mesopotamian base-60 counting fit naturally with later minutes and seconds?
- Why could an early Egyptian daylight hour be longer in summer than in winter?
- If sunlight could be tracked by shadows, how did ancient Egyptian timekeeping make night fit the same 12-part pattern?