easter

[georgeg]

when does easter next come in march after this year and how are the dates for easter decided for each year???

  

[Clanad]

To obtain consistency in the date of Easter, the Church at the Council of Nicea (ca 325 AD) decided to define Easter with respect to an imaginary moon - known as the "ecclesiastic moon". Also, the date of equinox was fixed at March 21 even though it can vary slightly from this date. With this definition, the date of Easter can be determined in advance without further astronomical knowledge. But the sequence of dates varies significantly from year-to-year with Easter Sunday being as early as March 22 and as late as April 25. In fact, the exact sequence of Easter dates repeats itself approximately every 5,700,000 years in our Gregorian calendar.

The Eastern Orthodox churches decided not to follow the above definition and they determine Easter from the real full moon at the longitude of Jerusalem. Hence, there is sometimes a difference in the date of Easter between churches. 
The following table lists the date of Easter Sunday up to the year 2010.

April 04, 1999 April 23, 2000 April 15, 2001 March 31, 2002 April 20, 2003 April 11, 2004 March 27, 2005 April 16, 2006 April 08, 2007 March 23, 2008 April 12, 2009 April 04, 2010

There is an algorithm by which the date of Easter may be calculated, but it is quite complicated.  to view this algorithm check here:

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/9116.htm

[rojash]

Clanad, I get a 404 error if I click the link you posted

[kempie]

Link:

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/9116.htm

[jake-the-peg]

If you're feeling wealthy you could buy a pocket watch to tell you

http://marina.fortunecity.com/westindia/59/ppc89.htm

mind you'd have to be feeling very wealthy

[ianess]

Can`t dispute Clanad`s answer but the simplest way to put it is .....the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.

Didn`t realise that different churches calculate it in different ways.