THE REASON EASTER IS A MOVEABLE FEAST
The Easter Act 1928 (chapter 35)
A moveable feast means a religious festival that occurs on a different date each year Easter and Passover are movable feasts.
From the earliest years of Christianity, Easter has been a very important feast, and the date of the observance varied. By about A.D. 400, the Western Church assigned December 25 as the date for the observation of Christmas. The Easter season, however, has a variety of dates for its celebration. Historically, it is believed that Jesus Christ’s Resurrection occurred on a Sunday and therefore Easter should be celebrated on a Sunday but there were conflicts regarding this and they were resolved by the Council of Nicaea (Council of Nice). In A.D. 325 the Council of Nicaea (Council of Nice) decreed that Easter should be celebrated by everyone, everywhere, on the same day and the day should be the first Sunday after the first full moon (Paschal Full Moon) after the vernal equinox. In 2022, the spring equinox occurred on March 20, the next full moon is April 16 so the Sunday following it is April 17, this year's Easter date. The determination of Easter's date requires a lesson in the rich history of the Catholic Church. This date applies to the Western Christians who use the Gregorian Calendar but it is not so for the Eastern Christians, where the Orthodox churches retain the older, Julian Calendar. This fixes the vernal equinox around April 3, so their celebration of Easter falls between April 4 and May 8. This year, the celebration of Easter in the East falls on our Divine Mercy Sunday, April 24. Easter falls on a Sunday between 22 March and 25 April, but working out which Sunday exactly requires an astronomical calculation.
The date of Easter derives from a lunar calendar and its date can vary annually. The calculation and determination of the date of Easter and the other holy days associated with it involves a combination of astronomy and mathematics, but one hopes that the above information helps explain why Easter does not occur on a fixed date each year.
Easter's date fluctuates because of attempts to harmonize solar and lunar calendars, with the issue further complicated by the fact that different strands of Christianity use different formulae for their calculations.
English law tried to take control of the fluctuating issues of Easter dates as far back as the year 1928 when a fixed date for Easter was proposed in the UK Parliament but was never quite successful. The Easter Act 1928 (c. 35), an Act of the UK Parliament first passed in 1928 but was never Implemented. The Act only received Royal Assent on 3 August 1928 but it is not yet in force and has never been in force. Although the subject is raised occasionally in Parliament, even as recently as 2009, a consensus on this matter agreement has never been achieved.
The statute sought to provide a fixed date for Easter rather than the current moveable feast. The statute set down that Easter Sunday would always be the Sunday following the second Saturday in April, resulting in Easter Sunday being between 9 April and 15 April.
The statute is still in force under English law today. However, it requires the agreement of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords before the Government may issue a Commencement Order. It also requires the opinion of all relevant churches to be taken into account although it does not require their consent.
In general, a Bill comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent. However, in some cases Bills include a commencement clause that sets out the timing or the circumstances in which the provisions of an Act will come into effect. In general, this specifies that an Act, or part of an Act, will come into force at a specified time when the government brings forward a commencement order.
The inclusion of a commencement clause means that an Act of Parliament can remain on the statute books, but inactive, until such time as the government of the day chooses to bring it into effect. Provisions can remain on the statute books, but unenforced, long after a government has left office if a commencement order is not introduced by a subsequent government. The Easter Act of 1928, is perhaps the most long-standing and famous example of such an Act.
There is a commencement clause in Section 2(1) of the Easter Act which specifies that the Commencement Order shall not be made unless both Houses of Parliament by resolution approve the draft either without modification or with modifications to which both Houses agree.
It is the final provision of this clause that has prevented the Easter Act from coming into force.
Do you think it is more advantageous and befitting for the Easter holidays to have a fixed date like the Christmas date and support your answers with reasons.
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