
Easter, a holiday  with  no fixed date, and therefore a source  of constant
confusion to calendar-makers.  Easter comes from Eostre,  the  name  of  the
Teutonic  goddess  whose  festival  was celebrated in the Spring.

Rules for fixing the date of Easter for the Church go  back  to  the
fourth century AD, at the  Council  of  Nicaea, where the church met
to  solve  once and for all, some of its problems.  Later on, in the
16th century, Pope Gregory XIII proclaimed that Easter  would  be...
the first  Sunday  following  the  Full  Moon  following  the Spring
Equinox.   And just so there'd be no confusion, the date of the Full
Moon, he said, would be derived from a set of ancient lunar  tables,
and the Spring Equinox he defined  with  a Papal Bull as being March
21st.   The  dates  he  ascribed  for  these events, however, do not
always match the ones that are  calculated  astronomically.  But  no
matter, the date of Easter is now easy to figure.


BY:

Gail S. Cleere 202/653-1541
NAVOBSY WASH

This  news  release  may  be  reproduced, with credit please, to the
U.S. Naval Observatory.
                       