The exact date of Easter moves around quite a bit even in Thailand

[webfact]

file photo

 

by Michael Bridge

 

Wherever you live in the world, Easter is always a moveable feast day. 

Unlike Christmas, it does not take place on the same day every year. Orthodox churches in some countries including Greece, Cyprus and Romania base their Easter date on the Julian calendar.

In the UK it sometimes comes at the end of March; other years it happens in late April. In 2022, Easter is on Sunday 17 April. 

For it to come any later than it was in 2019 (21 April) you will have to wait until 2038.

Easter is always on the first Sunday after the first full moon that follows the spring equinox. 

 

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But this full moon is an ecclesiastical full moon (ecclesiastical means ‘of the Church’), and so was not calculated in quite the same way modern astronomers would.

On top of that, for the purpose of calculating Easter, the spring equinox is always on 21 March.
So there you go – in 2022 the first full moon after the 21 March is Saturday 16 April, hence why Easter is on Sunday 17 April.

These rules also mean that the earliest possible date that Easter Sunday can fall is the 22nd March. The last time that happened was in 1818.

Holy Week in the Philippines

In the Philippines, where there are millions of devote Christians, their Holy Week this year runs from April 10th-16th 2022.

It is commonly referred to as Semana Santa—which is a week of solemn contemplation on the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ—is being observed in the Philippines every year. 

Of course Songkran is one of the biggest and most important Thai holidays. 

The 3-day celebration is often combined with the weekend to make a 5-day break. 

This holiday is celebrated with parades, religious ceremonies, and festivities throughout the country. This year Songkran officially starts on April 13th to 15th 2022.

Thai Christians and expats are likely to celebrate Easter with services on April 17th, 2022 but do check with your local parish.

 

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[Swiss1960]

So Christians are nothing more than pagans who worship the moon... I knew, that something is wrong with these people 

[Puccini]

47 minutes ago, Swiss1960 said:

So Christians are nothing more than pagans who worship the moon... I knew, that something is wrong with these people 

In the case of Easter, the dependence is a combination of the ecclesiastical spring equinox and the moon, and several other Catholic holidays and other special days of observance are based on the Easter date, eg Ash Wednesday (the start or the 40-day lent), Pentecost (Whitsunday), Holy Friday, Ascension.

 

I believe other religions, eg Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist, and the Chinese calendar also use equinoxes and moon phases.

[Captain Monday]

I don't know from Easter.

[Tony125]

https://www.tour-bangkok-legacies.com/santa-cruz-church.html

[bangon04]

11 hours ago, Swiss1960 said:

So Christians are nothing more than pagans who worship the moon... I knew, that something is wrong with these people 

The contrived Easter of the various Christian sects was superimposed on the pagan festivals of spring fertility which were and still are widely celebrated. The Christians found that they could not suppress the pagan festivals, so contrived an alternative. We still worship the Bunny Rabbit and the Egg.....  symbols of fertility, not symbols of crucifixion.....(obviously).

Easter and Christmas are both contrived to cover pagan festivals which could not be suppressed. 

[KhunBENQ]

The only interesting part for me is: will Easter and Songkran overlap?

And this year they do on Friday

Lost a bit of interest in the Sunday Urbi et Orbi since HE does not try the Thai Christmas wishes anymore.

The whole event has become somewhat mundane.

Miss the bells and whistles, the noble robes...

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by KhunBENQ

[Chassa]

The naming of the celebration as "Easter" seems to go back to the name of a pre-Christian goddess in England, Eostre, who was celebrated at beginning of spring. The only reference to this goddess comes from the writings of the Venerable Bede, a British monk who lived in the late seventh and early eighth century. I guess the Christians hijacked it!

[mrfill]

50 minutes ago, Chassa said:

The naming of the celebration as "Easter" seems to go back to the name of a pre-Christian goddess in England, Eostre, who was celebrated at beginning of spring. The only reference to this goddess comes from the writings of the Venerable Bede, a British monk who lived in the late seventh and early eighth century. I guess the Christians hijacked it!

Eostre was a Germanic goddess. England was ruled by the Anglo-Saxons from the 5th century so the use would have been brought over then. There are probably no references as there are no written references about much from that time (the dark ages) but that does not mean it didn't happen. The Germanic tribes were doing their thing well before the 7th century so it is likely to be considerably earlier.

[overt2016]

So they know the date he was born, but don't know the date he died?

Always thhougt religion was a load of BS.

[RobU]

Easter and christmas are manufactured 'Christian Holidays' that are simply imposed over traditional Pagan Festivals with mumbo jumbo at easter to mimic the pagan method of determining the festival. Most christian churches and cathedrals are built on sacred pagan sites. The white wedding is a pagan tradition as are flowers at the wedding and other occasions. Harvest festival is a pagan festival. All this was done to force the pagan population to have to go to places where they could be converted to christianity by evangelists of the time. An ex girlfriend of mine had a mother who 'was not christian' her mether was refused burial at a sacred pagan site because a christian church ad appropriated it as an extension to its christian graveyard.

[bangon04]

4 hours ago, Chassa said:

The naming of the celebration as "Easter" seems to go back to the name of a pre-Christian goddess in England, Eostre, who was celebrated at beginning of spring. The only reference to this goddess comes from the writings of the Venerable Bede, a British monk who lived in the late seventh and early eighth century. I guess the Christians hijacked it!

"Oestrus" is a medical term from the ancient Greek describing cycle of Fertility.

Spring season (in Europe) is the time of renewal and new growth.... when animals mate and produce the new babies.

Easter was a fertility festival long before the christians invented the myth of jesus etc.

[lungbing]

16 hours ago, Swiss1960 said:

So Christians are nothing more than pagans who worship the moon... I knew, that something is wrong with these people 

At least the moon is really there, unlike their friend in the sky with a big white beard.

[timkeen08]

Truthfully, I just look at my calendar to find the Thai holidays download from this forum and insert dates, thanks a lot AN, and I could care less about holidays for such a long time ago.  It's just another holiday, something I try to ignore living in Thailand.  I don't miss it at all here and I'm thankful I don't have to put up with the associated US cr@p anymore since I'm on a permanent holiday anyway.  Now my wife enjoys putting up a Thai style Christmas tree and puts lights along the fence since I showed her how to decorate a tree ????and our house back in America.  Everyone in our village drives by to see what she's done different each year and some stop to chat.   But I do help her decorate, of course, because it's fun for her and she would decorate for New Years anyway.  What l do find aggravating about all holidays is messing up the timing of my SSA deposits and company retirement transfers to my bank in Thailand.  Weekends messing up with deposits are enough as enough as it is.

[Joe Farang]

I use to love when Easter was in March. I'd have 3 Bank holidays for "Paddy's Day", "Good Friday" and the Monday for "Easter Sunday.

These 3 days plus 3 x 2 weekend days gave 9 days hols before I needed to touch my holiday allowance.