If we celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th why is Easter Sunday never on the same date every year?

Question

Regardless of the day Christmas day is always on 25th December as we know, but why is Easter Sunday never on the same date every year?

Answer 1

When Europe was Christianised, they couldn't stop the people celebrating the old festivals. Instead, they gave them new meanings. If they'd have created different festivals the old ones still would have been celebrated in the background, and their pagan meanings remembered.
The ancient Germanic festival, Yule, became Christmas, the birth of Christ. The ancient Germanic festival Easter, dedicated to the goddess Eostre, became a celebration of the crucification and resurrection. The last supper was passover, Passover's in October, go figure that it' not at the right time of year.

Yule was always celebrated on the 25th (give or take a few days depending on region) and easter was celebrated according to the moon.

The new church couldn't stamp out the old customs either, the people would have ignored it and turned away from the church. People gave each other presents and feasted and put up boughs of holly and decorated their homes at Yule long before the Christians came. Easter was a celebration of new life, and from it's old traditions we get the Easter bunny, eggs and, in some places, cheese rolling, among other things. Almost every easter or Christmas custom is older than Jesus.

Answer 2

because they don't really know the date of either of them so they just picked a day to use to celebrate each of them. Christmas's replaced a pagan holiday so that when people converted they would not lose that winter holiday. So it is on the same date every year. I mean with Christ being born in the summer and all December 25 does not make much since anyway.

The celebration of Easter was decided by a different person and they put it on a certain Sunday since Sunday is a day of worship anyway.

Answer 3

The data below explains the movable religious day of Easter. Try the link below for move information.
In Western Christianity, Easter always falls on a Sunday from March 22 to April 25 inclusive. The following day, Easter Monday, is a legal holiday in many countries with predominantly Christian traditions. In Eastern Christianity, Easter falls between April 4 and May 8 between 1900 and 2100 based on the Gregorian date

Answer 4

Because the church fixed the day for Christ Mass and Easter is a moveable feast, based not only on years of Christian festivity, both western and easter, but also on the moveable feast of Pesach (Jewish Passover) as well as the Pagan feast of Eostre (no doubt where the name comes from) which was celebrated based on the moon phase, and therefore changeable. In many Christian countries, Easter is the more important feast, and strictly speaking this should really be the case. After all, it is at this time that Jesus died on the cross to save us, whereas Christmas is a church made celebration (based around the time Jesus was born) and was originally a mass said to celebrate His birth, hence the name.

Answer 5

Jesus wasn't born on December 25th, infact, he wasn't even born in December. There were shepherds watching their sheep at night when they saw the star over Bethlehem, December is too cold there for that, it was probably October time or earlier. Also, if you read the Bible, Jesus asks people not to celebrate his Birth but remember his death only and why he died. Christmas day is something pagans made up and now the media has cashed in on it big time to make money, it has nothing to do with Jesus or religion.

Answer 6

Because one date (Christmas) is fixed, as you say, and Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring. As the moon phases change so does the date for Easter

Answer 7

To do with the seasonal celebration and Sabbath/rest rather than a single event. Easter eggs could only be made on Sundays, because of ancient chocolate technology.

Answer 8

Easter is actually a pagan festival, and Christianity took it on when converting pagans to Christianity. It made the transition for the pagans into the new faith easier and by finding parallels with their old faith and the new faith it was easier for them to take on board the Christian message. Christmas is the same, very little to do with Christ. Its a celebration of the season winter.

Answer 9

easter is regulated by the full moon so that is why it is not a fixed date

Answer 10

Good question. Never thought about that. I really dont know why but I suspect the Church will have something to do with it. Sorry.