Easter Sunday 2016

All across the country, and the world, families celebrate Easter in a host of different ways, both religious and non-religious. Easter represents the resurrection of Jesus over 2000 years ago. But how was it decided when Easter falls, especially when it falls on different dates each year. The dates change with the lunar calendar rather than a fixed date in the Julian [1] or Gregorian [2] calendar.

Computus

Computus [3] is the name given to the calculation used to find the calendar date for Easter. This procedure has been used since the Middle Ages, as it was believed to be the most important computation of the time. The calculation means that Easter will fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon after Spring Equinox. The earliest and latest dates for Easter are 22 March and 25 April.

Sermons

Those who write the sermons for Easter, indeed for any religious ceremony, work long and hard to create inspiring material for their congregations. With religious dates, there is a topic to write about. For everyday sermons, the inspiration may come from local or world events, to engage, to teach, to reinforce, to preach. Sermons don’t have to stay in the place of worship these days. With wider access to mobile technology, sermons can be shared in an instant through email and social media. For those who were unable to attend the service, an audio recording can be made and uploaded as a podcast. For those who like to revisit the sermon, or read at their leisure, the recordings can be transcribed and made available for e-readers around the world. Fingertips Typing Services can transcribe sermons. Written by: Debbie Rowe, Transcriber for Fingertips Typing Services. Resources [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computus