WHY IS EASTER SO EARLY
AND WHY IS PASSOVER SO
LATE THIS YEAR?
By Vicki Hyman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
I
f Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the first Sunday following
the first night of the festival of Passover, then why are Easter
and Passover nearly a month apart this year, with Easter on
March 27 and the festival of Passover beginning the evening
of April 22?
The start of Passover, which celebrates the Israelite exodus from Egypt, falls on the same day of the Jewish
calendar every year — the eve of the 14th of Nissan
— but because Jews use a lunar calendar, they
must insert a so-called “leap month” every two
or three years to keep their holiday cycles in
tune with the seasons. This year, there are
two months of Adar, the month that precedes Nissan.
Though Easter is closely associated with Passover, over the centuries, church authorities in various
corners of the Roman Empire
have disagreed about when
to celebrate it, says Rev.
Lawrence Frizzell, the
director of Seton Hall
University’s Institute
of Judaeo-Christian
Studies.
In Asia Minor
and partic-
6 PAGE | ICONIC MAGAZINE