Why is Passover So Late in 2016 When Easter was So Early?

By LANNING TALIAFERRO (Patch Staff)

Passover starts Friday.

That's confusing to those who usually get their spring breaks bracketed by the holidays of Passover and Easter.

After all, they're connected in the Christian story — it was Passover that Jesus was celebrating when he had his last supper with his disciples. So why is the holiday a month after Easter this year?

The answer lies in the calendars that the Jewish and Christian religions follow.

Today, the Jewish calendar and the timing of holidays like Passover are set in accordance with the lunar calendar, while most of the rest of the world uses the Gregorian calendar that is based off the Sun, said Josh Dorsch, Associate Rabbi at Beth El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle, New York.

"The ancient Israelites took their Calendar very seriously," Dorsch said. "Many significant Jewish holidays originated as agricultural holidays. Their times were fixed, in accordance with specific dates on their Lunar calendar, and their seasons."

As for Easter, the ancient Christians took their calendars seriously too, just as they took their schisms. Its date depends on which church: those that chose the western church follow the Gregorian calendar and those that chose the eastern kept the Julian calendar. And two millennia later, so do we.

Learn More

Easter is a “movable” feast based on the full moon and the vernal equinox (the official start of spring).

The Old Farmers Almanac explains it: In Christian churches that follow the Gregorian calendar for determining the date of Easter, the observance can never occur before March 22 or after April 25. That was March 27 in 2016. In Christian churches that follow the Julian calendar for determining the date of Easter, the observance can occur between April 4 and May 8 (using Gregorian calendar dates).

So Eastern Orthodox churches in the United States are even later, this year, than Passover: They will celebrate Easter May 1.

Those calendars are both based on the movement of the Earth around the Sun.

Whereas, Dorsch points out, a lunar month is about 29.5 days long, so a lunar year (12 lunar months) is only 354 days long.

"Every few years, we observe a leap year so that our holidays, which have set dates on the calendar, match up with their appropriate seasons," Dorsch said.

But it's not like the Gregorian calendar leap year.

"Because the Lunar year is 11 days shorter than the Gregorian Calendar, which is 365 days long, during a leap year on the Jewish Calendar we add a whole extra month," he said. "One of the many names for Passover is also a Holiday of the Spring Time, because it is usually celebrated during the beginning of the Spring season. But, if we didn't add a leap month every few years, after a while, we would be celebrating it the wrong season."

This is one of those leap years -- actually a double leap year, what with Feb. 29 and a double month of Adar.

Therefore while Passover and Easter usually fall around the same time seasonally, this year, there is a whole extra month in between.

Image credit: Passover table setting by April Killingsworth via Flickr / Creative Commons