Editing Reform of the date of Easter (section)

== Fixed date ==

It has been proposed that the first problem could be resolved by making Easter occur on a date fixed relative to the western [[Gregorian calendar]] every year, or alternatively on a Sunday within a fixed range of seven or eight dates. While tying Easter to one fixed date would serve to underline the belief that it commemorates an actual historical event, without an accompanying [[calendar reform]] that changes the pattern of the days of the week (itself a subject of [[World Calendar#Religious objections|religious controversy]]) or adopts a [[leap week]], it would also break the tradition of Easter always being on a Sunday, established since the 2nd century and by now deeply embedded in the [[Christian liturgy|liturgical]] practice and [[Theology|theological]] understanding of almost all [[Christian denomination]]s.

The [[Second Vatican Council]] agreed in 1963 to accept a fixed Sunday in the Gregorian calendar as the date for Easter as long as other Christian churches agreed on it as well. They also agreed in principle to adopt a civil calendar reform as long as there were never any days outside the cycle of seven days per week.<ref name="vatican">{{citation| title = Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy ''Sacrosanctum Concilium'' | editor = Pope Paul VI | editor-link = Pope Paul VI | date = 4 December 1963 | chapter-url = https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html | chapter = Appendix}}</ref>
In 1977, some Eastern Orthodox representatives objected to separating the date of Easter from lunar phases.<ref name="byzcath.org">{{cite web| url = http://www.byzcath.org/index.php/news-mainmenu-49/2689-ukrainian-catholic-university-organizes-seminar-on-easter-date| title = Ukrainian Catholic University Organizes Seminar on Easter Date}}</ref>

The [[Montanism|Montanists]], a 5th-century sect, celebrated Easter on the Sunday following April 6 (in the [[Julian calendar]]).<ref name="Sozomen1846">{{cite book |author=Sozomen |author-link=Sozomen |title=Ecclesiastical History: A History of the Church : in Nine Books, from A.D. 324 to A.D. 440 : a New Translation from the Greek, with a Memoir of the Author |url=https://archive.org/details/ecclesiasticalhi00sozo |year=1846 |publisher=Bagster |page=[https://archive.org/details/ecclesiasticalhi00sozo/page/353 353]}}</ref> This is equivalent to the Sunday closest to April 9. The April 6 date was apparently chosen because it was equivalent to the 14th day of [[Artemisios]] in an earlier local calendar, hence, the 14th of the first month of spring.<ref name=Talley>{{cite book|last=Talley|first= Thomas J|chapter=Afterthoughts on The Origins of the Liturgical Year|title=Western Plainchant in the First Millennium: Studies in the Medieval Liturgy and Its Music |pages=1–10 |publisher=Ashgate |location=Aldershot|date=2003 |editor1=Sean Gallagher|display-editors=etal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hM16rgEACAAJ|isbn=9780754603894}}</ref>

The two most widespread proposals for fixing the date of Easter would set it on either the second Sunday in April (8 to 14, [[ISO 8601|week]] 14 or 15), or the Sunday after the second Saturday in April (9 to 15). They only differ in years with [[dominical letter]] G or AG where 1 April is a Sunday. In both schemes, account has been taken of the fact that—in spite of the many difficulties in establishing the dates of the historical events involved—many scholars attribute a high degree of probability to [[Good Friday|Friday]] 7 April 30, as the date of the [[crucifixion]] of [[Jesus]], which would make 9 April the date of the [[Resurrection]]. Another date which is supported by many scholars is 3 April 33,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schaefer |first=B. E. |year=1990 |title=Lunar Visibility and the Crucifixion |journal=Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=53–67 |bibcode=1990QJRAS..31...53S}}</ref><ref name="humphreys">
* {{cite journal |last1=Humphreys |first1=Colin J. |last2=Waddington |first2=W. G. |title=Dating the Crucifixion |journal=Nature |volume=306 |issue=5945 |year=1983 |pages=743–746 |issn=0028-0836 |doi=10.1038/306743a0 |author-link1=Colin Humphreys|bibcode=1983Natur.306..743H |s2cid=4360560 }}
* {{cite web | title = The Date of the Crucifixion |last1=Humphreys|first1=Colin J.|last2=Waddington|first2=W. G.|author-link1=Colin Humphreys | work = Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation |volume=37 | date = March 1985 | access-date = 2016-01-24 | url = http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1985/JASA3-85Humphreys.html.ori.html }}
* {{cite book |last=Humphreys |first=Colin J. |author-link=Colin Humphreys |title=The Mystery of the Last Supper: Reconstructing the Final Days of Jesus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gNQfLwEACAAJ |year=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-73200-0 |page=193}}</ref><!-- that's referencing the same scholars thrice --> making 5 April the date of the [[Resurrection of Jesus|Resurrection]].

In the late 1920s and 1930s, this idea gained some momentum along with other calendar reform proposals, such as the [[International Fixed Calendar]] (IFC) and the [[World Calendar]]. In 1928, [[Easter Act 1928|a law]] was passed in the [[United Kingdom]] authorising an [[Order in Council]] which would fix the nationwide date of Easter on the Sunday after the second Saturday in April.<ref name="Richards1998">{{cite book | last=Richards | first=Edward Graham | title=Mapping Time: The Calendar and Its History | url=https://archive.org/details/mappingtimecalen00rich | url-access=registration | year=1998 | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0-19-286205-1 | page=[https://archive.org/details/mappingtimecalen00rich/page/122 122]}}</ref> However, this was never implemented, but remains popular at least within the [[Church of England]].<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35326237 | title=Archbishop Justin Welby hopes for fixed Easter date | publisher=BBC | language=English | date=15 January 2016 | accessdate=8 February 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35880795 | title=Why can't the date of Easter be fixed? | publisher=BBC | first=Caroline | last=Wyatt | language=English | date=25 March 2016 | accessdate=8 February 2021}}</ref> In an 2001 article for the WCC, Dagmar Heller, who was the only woman to participate in the 1997 Aleppo Conference, states that Western churches previously preferred a "third option", i.e. a fixed Sunday in April, but tried to accommodate Eastern churches by giving this up.<ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/celebrating-easter-together| title=Celebrating Easter Together | publisher=World Council of Churches, Commission on Faith and Order | first=Dagmar | last=Heller | date=9 April 2001 | accessdate=3 December 2024 | quote=the Western churches took a step towards the Orthodox side by agreeing to keep the ancient rule, while in earlier discussions they had tended to propose a third way (…) by suggesting to fix the date of Easter on a specific Sunday in April.}}</ref>

The Sunday of an ordinal ISO week ''n'' is also the ''n''th Sunday of the year, except in A/AG, B/BA and C/CB years where it is the ''n''+1st Sunday. Therefore, both major proposals put Easter on the 15th Sunday of the year. The exception to this is either in common years starting on Monday (G), where 8 April, i.e. the second Sunday in April, is the 14th Sunday of the year, or in leap years starting on Sunday (AG), where 15 April, i.e. the Sunday after the second Saturday in April, is the 16th Sunday of the year. That means, the Saturday-based rule approximates the 15th Sunday better.

The Sunday after the first Wednesday in April would always be in ISO week W14, except for leap years starting on Thursday (DC) where the week count is one higher than in otherwise equivalent common years after February. The [[Symmetry454 Calendar]] proposes a fixed date of Easter in week 14, which would agree with the aforementioned proposals in most years, but would be 1 week earlier in F/GF years (like the only deviation of the Montanist definition) and also in DC, D/ED and E/FE years.

The first possible Gregorian date for Easter, 22 March, is also one of the [[ISO week date#Dates with fixed week number|dates with (almost) fixed ISO week number]], i.e. W12, which is usually also the week of the equinox a day or two earlier. If the 52 weeks of a usual year are grouped into 13 nominal lunation phases of 4 weeks each (similar to IFC), then the equinox week concludes the third of these months and the next nominal full moon in the middle of the month would occur on Sunday of W14, making it the fixed date for Passover. Easter Sunday would follow seven days later, in W15, which is between 11 and 18 April.

Since [[Candlemas]], which traditionally concludes [[Christmastide]], is always on 2 February, it is almost always in W05 (with the exception of W06 if on a Monday), a W15 Easter would ensure the three [[pre-Lent]]en Sundays, i.e. [[Septuagesima]], [[Sexagesima]] and [[Quinquagesima]], existed in all years, and not more than these.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|+ Weeks for currently possible dates of Easter Sunday; proposed and special dates highlighted
|-
!scope=col rowspan=2 style="width:10%"| [[Week#Numbering|Sunday of the year]]
!scope=col colspan=14|[[Dominical letter]]
!scope=col rowspan=2 style="width:10%"| [[ISO week date|ISO week]]
!scope=col rowspan=2 style="width:10%"| Month
|-
|style="width:2.5%"| [[Dominical letter AG|AG]] ||style="width:7.5%"| [[Dominical letter A|A]] ||style="width:2.5%"| [[Dominical letter BA|BA]] ||style="width:7.5%"| [[Dominical letter B|B]] ||style="width:2.5%"| [[Dominical letter CB|CB]] ||style="width:7.5%"| [[Dominical letter C|C]]
|style="width:2.5%"| [[Dominical letter DC|DC]] ||style="width:7.5%"| [[Dominical letter D|D]] ||style="width:2.5%"| [[Dominical letter ED|ED]] ||style="width:7.5%"| [[Dominical letter E|E]] ||style="width:2.5%"| [[Dominical letter FE|FE]] ||style="width:7.5%"| [[Dominical letter F|F]] ||style="width:2.5%"| [[Dominical letter GF|GF]] ||style="width:7.5%"| [[Dominical letter G|G]]
|-
! 12th
|colspan=7 {{N/A}} ||colspan=2| 22 ||colspan=2| 23 ||colspan=2| 24 ||title="Annunciation" {{no2|25}}
!rowspan=2 title="Q1-W13, M03-W4"| W12
!rowspan=3 scope=rowgroup| March
|-
!rowspan=2| 13th
|title="Annunciation" {{no2|25}} ||colspan=2| 26 ||colspan=2| 27 || 28
|colspan=8|
|-
|colspan=6|
| 28 ||colspan=2| 29 ||colspan=2| 30 ||colspan=2| 31 || 01
!rowspan=2 title="Q1-W13, M04-W1"| W13
|-
!rowspan=2| 14th
| 01 ||colspan=2| 02 ||colspan=2| 03 || 04
|colspan=8|
!rowspan=8 scope=rowgroup| April
|-
|colspan=6|
| title="Sym454" {{proprietary|04}} ||colspan=2 title="Sym454; historical date if in year 33" {{proprietary|'''05'''}} ||colspan=2 title="Sym454" {{proprietary|06}} ||colspan=2 title="Pepuzite, Sym454" {{proprietary|07}} ||title="Pepuzite, Sym454, 2nd April Sunday" {{yes2|08}}
!rowspan=2 title="Q2-W01, M04-W2"| W14
|-
!rowspan=2| 15th
|title="in all major proposals" {{yes|08}} ||colspan=2 title="in all major proposals; historical date if in year 30" {{yes|'''09'''}} ||colspan=2 title="in all major proposals" {{yes|10}} ||title="in all major proposals" {{yes|11}}
|colspan=8 {{yes|}}
|-
|colspan=6 {{yes|}}
|title="2nd April Sunday, Sunday after 2nd April Saturday, Pepuzite" {{yes|11}} ||colspan=2 title="2nd April Sunday, Sunday after 2nd April Saturday, Pepuzite" {{yes|12}} ||colspan=2 title="2nd April Sunday, Sunday after 2nd April Saturday, Pepuzite" {{yes|13}} ||colspan=2 title="2nd April Sunday, Sunday after 2nd April Saturday" {{yes|14}} || title="2nd April Sunday, Sunday after 2nd April Saturday" {{yes|15}}
!rowspan=2 title="Q2-W02, M04-W3"| W15
|-
!rowspan=2| 16th
|title="Sunday after 2nd April Saturday" {{yes2|15}} ||colspan=2 {{proprietary|16}} ||colspan=2 {{proprietary|17}} || {{proprietary|18}}
|colspan=8|
|-
|colspan=6|
| 18 ||colspan=2| 19 ||colspan=2| 20 ||colspan=2| 21 || 22
!rowspan=2 title="Q2-W03, M04-W4"| W16
|-
!rowspan=2| 17th
| 22 ||colspan=2| 23 ||colspan=2| 24 || 25
|colspan=8|
|-
|colspan=6 {{N/A}}
| 25
|colspan=7 {{N/A}}
! title="Q2-W04, M05-W1"| W17
|}
{{legend|#9EFF9E|major proposals around 15th Sunday}}
{{legend|#BBFFDD|deviations of the 2 major proposals}}
{{legend|#E7E7FF|week-based proposals}}
{{legend|#FFE3E3|clashes with other holidays, to be avoided}}