The arrival of spring marks the approach of a couple of important religious holidays. And this year, they’re coming later than most people who celebrate are used to.
If you didn’t know Easter’s date moves each year. That’s because the date is based on the lunar calendar. Easter comes on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox.
The spring equinox arrived March 20 this year, which marks the astronomical start of spring. The spring, or vernal, equinox is when there are roughly the same number of hours of day and night on all parts of Earth, according to NASA.
But what do the moon and the vernal equinox have to do with Passover?
The Jewish calendar is a lunisolar calendar, also based on lunar months, that begins with the first day of Rosh Hashanah.
Here’s when Easter and Passover are this year and why they fall “late” in 2025.
When is Easter 2025?
Easter this year will be in late April, on Sunday, April 20.
What is the most rare date for Easter to fall on?
According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac and long-term averages calculated by Harvard, the most unusual Easter date is March 22. Second place goes to April 24 and third place goes to March 23.
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Why is Easter 2025 so late?
Easter Sunday sometimes falls in late April, because the holiday is not tied to a specific date. As a result, all of the related religious holidays leading up to Easter also fall later in the year.
The date of Easter and its related holidays also depend on if you’re Eastern Orthodox or not. The Eastern Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar, a solar calendar that was used by the Roman Empire. This year, Easter and Eastern Orthodox Easter fall on the same date, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac.
“Easter is a “movable feast,” so it doesn’t happen on the same date from year to year. In the Gregorian calendar, it is always observed on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25,” the almanac says.
“However, Easter can be observed between April 4 and May 8 in the Eastern Orthodox Church…According to long-term averages, the most unusual Easter date is March 22. The second place goes to April 24, and the third place goes to March 23.”
What determines when Easter is each year?
Easter’s date changes because it is based on the lunar calendar, much like Lunar New Year. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, Easter Sunday always falls on the Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox.
“While Christmas is fixed to a solar calendar (and near the winter solstice), Easter is based on the lunar cycles of the Jewish calendar,” the almanac says.
“In the Christian religion, the Last Supper (the final meal Jesus shared with his apostles before his crucifixion) was a Passover feast. Because Easter is based on a lunar month (which is 29.5 days), the date of Easter can vary.”
What is the difference between Pesach and Passover? Why do they call is Passover?
Passover and Pesach are two names for the same Jewish holiday. Pesach, or Passover, is an eight-day Jewish holiday that commemorates the Israelites’ emancipation from slavery in ancient Egypt.
In Exodus 12:23, Moses told the Israelites to slaughter a Passover lamb and paint its blood on their doors, to be protected from certain death. In the Torah, the Passover story is also found in the 12th chapter of Exodus.
The holiday is called “Passover,” because it commemorates when the angel of death passed over the Hebrew people who had lamb’s blood on their doors, according to the Bible and the Torah.
“The Lord protected the Israelites from death by passing over their doors and would not ‘allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down,” according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac.
When is Passover 2025?
On the Gregorian calendar, Passover will be observed starting at sundown on April 12.
In the Christian religion, the Last Supper — the final meal Jesus shared with his apostles before his crucifixion — was a Passover feast.
Passover dates 2025
The holiday of Pesach, or Passover, falls on the Hebrew calendar dates of Nissan 15-22.
Passover begins before sundown on Saturday, April 12, 2025, and ends after nightfall on April 20, 2025, according to Chabad.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: When is Passover and why is Easter 2025 so late? What to know
Reporting by Lianna Norman and Cheryl McCloud, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
