Why Is Easter So Early This Year?

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Christians are celebrating the Good Friday before one of the earliest Easters on record.

SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - Can you believe Easter Sunday is this weekend? It's one of the earliest Easters and Holy Weeks on record. For Christians, this is the holiest week of the year when they mark Jesus Christ's death on the cross for their sins on Good Friday, and His resurrection Easter Sunday.

"Easter is the great feast," said Father Douglas Clark with the Diocese of Savannah. "The great Sunday of the year."

Father Clark said the solar and lunar calendars determine when Christians celebrate Easter in churches in the United States and Western European countries.

"Easter always occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox," he said.

This year the vernal equinox, or first day of spring, was Thursday, March 20. The following day, Friday, we saw a full moon, which puts Easter Sunday, on March 23. That also meant Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter, fell right around Saint Patrick's Day.

"There were two feasts," said Father Clark. "The Memorial of Saint Patrick and what's forgotten, the Great Feast of Saint Joseph, which falls on March 17 and March 19, respectively. That got bumped this year because they could not be celebrated during Holy Week."

The Diocese of Savannah didn't demand the Saint Patrick's Day Committee move the city's official celebration. But when the Church made the decision to hold the Saint Patrick's Day Mass on Friday, March 14, the Saint Patrick's Day Committee and the city followed their lead. John Forbes, the Saint Patrick's Day Parade general chairman, said it was an easy decision.

"It was really a no-brainer for us," he said. "We're not going to have the parade without starting it off with the Mass, so we agreed to it and it worked out as a great day. For the parade committee, that's the way we start our day. We've done it for years and years and we'll continue to do so. For us, it's really first and foremost a religious celebration for the Feast of Saint Patrick."

It was an unusual circumstance that we won't see again any time soon. Easter Sunday falls on April 12 in 2009. The next time Saint Patrick's Day falls within Holy Week because of an early Easter will be in 2160.

Reported by: Liz Flynn, lflynn@wtoc.com