Cycle of the moon
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
- reckoning time by months is ancient. The Hebrew year has twelve lunar months. Because a lunar year is shorter than a solar year by ten days and twenty-one hours, the Christian Paschal calculation employs a cycle of the moon. Jewish Passover begins on the evening of the fourteenth day of the March moon and lasts seven days. During Christianity's first two centuries there was no universal agreement about Easter's date. Churches of Asia Minor celebrated with the Jews, so Easter fell on different weekdays, contrary to the Christian understanding of the day of the Savior's resurrection. Rome and other churches celebrated after the March full moon and spring equinox, always on Sunday.