Easter is in Christendom the holiest day of the liturgical calender, celebration the day of the rising of Christ from the dead. The purpose of this piece is not to discuss any particular religious viewpoint, but rather to look into the history of Easter and thus to understand some of the peculiar customs that are now associated with Easter.
This is not a “hard science” piece, but rather more of an analysis of how the modern Easter came to be. Many of you who are regular readers know that my interests are much broader than just science and technology, and history is one of them. However, I do believe that this piece is worthy of being called Geeky.
Before we get to the very ancient traditions that predate Judaism, not to mention Christianity, we shall look at how the date for Easter is calculated. If it seems like Easter is very late in the year for 2011, this is because it is.