Help


from Wikipedia
« »  
Although Dionysius stated that the First Council of Nicaea in 325 sanctioned his method of dating Easter, the surviving documents are ambiguous.
A canon of the council implied that the Roman and Alexandrian methods were the same even though they were not, whereas a delegate from Alexandria stated in a letter to his brethren that their method was supported by the council.
In either case, Dionysius ' method had actually been used by the Church of Alexandria ( but not by the Church of Rome ) at least as early as 311, and probably began during the first decade of the 4th century, its dates naturally being given in the Alexandrian calendar.
Thus Dionysius did not develop a new method of dating Easter.
The most that he may have done was convert its arguments from the Alexandrian calendar into the Julian calendar.
The resulting Julian date for Easter was the Sunday following the first Luna XIV ( the 14th day of the moon ) that occurred on or after the XII Kalendas Aprilis ( 21 March ) ( 12 days before the first of April, inclusive ).
The 14th day of the moon, Nisan 14, was the date that Paschal lambs were slain ( in late afternoon ) until the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 prevented their continuing sacrifice, as well as the day when all leavened bread crumbs had to be collected and burned, hence Nisan 14 was the day of preparation for Passover ().
Alexandria may have chosen it because it was the day that Christ was crucified according to the Gospel of John ( 18: 28, 19: 14 ), in direct contradiction to the Synoptic Gospels (, Mark 14: 12, and Luke 22: 7 ), who state that he was crucified after he ate the Seder, his Last Supper.
Then and now, the Seder was eaten after sundown at the beginning of Nisan 15.
Because Dionysius's method of computing Easter used dates in the Julian calendar, it is also called the Julian Easter.
This Easter is still used by almost all Orthodox churches.
The Gregorian Easter still uses the same definition, but relative to its own solar and lunar dates.

1.803 seconds.