Good Friday - date calculation

English translation: Friday that precedes Easter Sunday

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:Good Friday - date calculation
Selected answer:Friday that precedes Easter Sunday
Entered by: #41698 (LSF)

06:16 Mar 24, 2003
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Social Sciences / Religious festival
English term or phrase: Good Friday - date calculation
Good Friday is celebrated by the Christians. The date varies each year. It is 18 Apr for 2003 and 29 Mar for 2002.

Question: How is the date determined?
#41698 (LSF)
Malaysia
Local time: 21:45
Good Friday is the Friday that precedes Easter Sunday.
Explanation:
Here is some information on the reckoning of Easter Sunday:

http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa040200c.htm
Selected response from:

Fuad Yahya
Grading comment
The info in the link is comprehensive with historical view and eastern variants.

Initially got confused by the great distance between dates from one year to another but I guess each lunar cycle is 29.5 days on average but the calendar months had 30.5 days on average and as such it makes sense.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
5 +9Easter Sunday is calculated
Eva Blanar
5Good Friday is the Friday that precedes Easter Sunday.
Fuad Yahya
4Christian Church Great and Lesser Feasts (events)
Kirill Semenov


  

Answers


9 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
Good Friday is the Friday that precedes Easter Sunday.


Explanation:
Here is some information on the reckoning of Easter Sunday:

http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa040200c.htm


    Reference: http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa040200c.htm
Fuad Yahya
Native speaker of: Native in ArabicArabic, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 893
Grading comment
The info in the link is comprehensive with historical view and eastern variants.

Initially got confused by the great distance between dates from one year to another but I guess each lunar cycle is 29.5 days on average but the calendar months had 30.5 days on average and as such it makes sense.
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15 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +9
Easter Sunday is calculated


Explanation:
Easter is, by tradition, the first Sunday following the first full moon after the date of the astronomical spring (that is, March 21).

If the first full moon of the year is March 21, Easter Sunday may be already on March 22, that is, Good Friday as early as March 20. The latest possible date is April 23 for Good Friday (April 25-26 for the Easter).



Eva Blanar
Hungary
Local time: 14:45
Native speaker of: Hungarian
PRO pts in pair: 14

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  EDLING (X)
29 mins

agree  Tony M: Yes, very clear explanation
57 mins

agree  Attila Piróth
1 hr
  -> I think I know it from the book YOU translated into Hungarian (an excellent job!)

agree  jerrie
2 hrs

agree  Anna Moorby DipTrans
2 hrs

agree  Enza Longo
3 hrs

agree  Anna Bittner
4 hrs

agree  Bruce Popp
5 hrs

agree  Kirill Semenov
14 hrs
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15 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
Christian Church Great and Lesser Feasts (events)


Explanation:
There are two types of events in Christian Church calendar -- "fixed" dates and "movable". All movable events are dependable of the Easter date.

The main reason is that before Christ Easter was a great Jewish feast devoted to the Exodus from Egypt. According to Jewish lunar calendar, the Easter (Pesah) date was calculated by full moon phases.

Christ resurrected on Easter Sunday, so in Christianity this the the Feast of Feasts. Still, following the tradition, all the events of the Passion Week are calculated by lunar calendar.


    Reference: http://www.slocc.com/orthodoxy/churchcalendar.shtml
Kirill Semenov
Ukraine
Local time: 15:45
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian
PRO pts in pair: 311
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