www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology TOWARDS A COMMON DATE OF EASTER: REMAINING FAITHFUL TO NICAEA

I live in the US midwest, and I observed the new crescent on the evening of March 22, right at the beginning of Eastermonth (as it was called of old) in the Gregorian lunar calendar.

I missed it on MAR 22 but saw it on the 23rd 19:53:58 EDT. It was quite elegant but the picture distorts the sleekness, making the luminosity appear twice the size. It had rained and I do not have a convenient view of the western horizon. Based on my observation, however, I figured it could have been visible the previous evening. Now working through what was the situation in Jerusalem.

Christ is in our midst!!

I have a question. What would a change to the calculation of the date of Pascha do to the Ceremony of the Holy Fire that always appears on the Orthodox Pascha in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem? The Holy Fire has appeared for centuries in the Tomb of Christ at Orthodox Pascha and marks the beginning of their celebration.

I once had the opportunity to speak to a Russian bishop who had been present at one of those Paschal celebrations. He said the Holy Fire does not burn a person. It is a blue flame and very bright. There are YouTube videos of celebrations during the past number of years.

So, what happens if everyone abandons the Julian Paschalion?

They will use lighters like they do now. Several bishops and priests, Greek and Armenian, have admitted the fire is started by natural means.

I'd expect the Ceremony of the Holy Fire would occur whenever it is liturgically observed. It isn't as though God has a Julian calendar that must be consulted. See also this post.

I have proposed in previous posts that the sense of the typicon, ordo, liturgical year, etc. is a Christian form of the Moed, the appointed time or place so prominent in the Old Testament -- traditional and important to us for our liturgical rhythm but not intrinsic The central act and command to "Do this..." is not limited or confined in time and place. So there is no inherent mandate for the Church to have an annual observance of Pascha as the Christian Pesach/Passover. If the Church were to decide to have such an annual observance in an arbitrary manner, by some made-up rule, it would be inventing worship, "the mystery of devotion." This in not what the Church did, of course, rather it walked the natural path of what I would write as Tradition -- not to be seen as TRADITION or traditions. And so we have a two-fold witness to this based on the timing of Passover: (1) The Council of Nicaea and its historical progression to a realized eschatology in Sunday as the Lord's Day; (2) The Quartodecimans in their faithful (Johanine) observance of the Passover moed as prescribed, with the impending second coming, an imminent eschatology. (More on this but I have to stop for now.)

If that is so, how do people claim that they have put their hands in the flames and not been burned?

Reading this made me realize, as I had not before, the (obvious) link with the Roman Paschal vigil, Sabbato Sancto (Vigile pascale). There the lighting of the new fire is a special rite that begins the vigil. In the old days (reform of Pius XII) as I recall, the new fire was struck from flint at the back of a darkened church. Using a stylus the priest inscribed a cross, the year, and the two Greek letters Alpha and Omega in the Paschal Candle and pressed into the inscribed cross five large "grains," pieces of incense. The lit Paschal Candle was then processed into the church carried by the Deacon, who stopped three times and chanted Lumen Christi, Light of Christ, with response Deo gratias. Light from the candle was progressively distributed to the priest (clergy?), then to the people until reaching the front of the church. The Deacon then chanted the Praeconium paschale "Exsultet" [youtube.com], the The Easter Proclamation [youtube.com].

Have you ever watched the videos? People pass their hands through the flame just as scouts do at a campfire. Not really a big deal.

Can't say I have. I just have second hand anecdotes.

I would propose that whatever the understanding of the "Holy Fire," it is not a determining factor for how Christians should reach agreement on a timing for an annual feast of Pascha.


Quite by chance I have been looking at (mainly YouTube) a particular form of Messianic Judaism (It and its relation to Christianity and especially syncretic-Christianity=Protestantism would be its own thread). As I see it, just as Protestantism discovered "true Christianity" some 1500 years later by examining the Scriptures (that were provided for them by the Church they deny as legitimate), so now some 2000 years later the Messianic Jews do the same but retaining a distinctive Jewish/Hebrew Bible identity. In a sense, had the Church followed the path of the Quartodecimans we would today be the true Messianic Judaism, having descended directly from the Apostolic Tradition and witness rather than, being redundant to make the point, Messianic Christians.

The theological link, especially in its liturgical form, are the Quartodecimans. Historically I see them as an important witness of the Church taking a decisive theological path that resulted in the first day of creation, Sunday (also seen as the eighth day), rather than the Sabbath, as the preeminent day of the Lord.

I and others have stressed that our hope for a unified observance of the annual feast of Pascha must remain true to the OT prescription given for the Passover and also incorporating the theology of Sunday as the Lord's Day. Even so, consider this misunderstanding and the prominence of the Moed (the appointed time):

Difference Between Messianic Judaism and Christianity [jewishvoice.org].

I also repeat See this thread 04/21/22.:

For my observation UTC=EDT+4; IST=UTC+2,
where UTC=Universal Coordinated Time,
EDT=Eastern Daylight Time and
IST = Israel Standard Time, giving for what I saw (previous picture)
IST 24-MAR 0200, moon phase = 16.6%.

So, going with Mockingbird's earlier sighting, for Central Daylight Time, say 6 pm, UTC=CDT+5=18+5=23. The Synodika Jerusalem offset is 2.3456 hrs but for this estimation, just using timezone differences, UTC+2=25 hr or 1 am on 23-MAR, IST; my calculation of the phase is 9.1%. Going to the start of that Biblical day in Jerusalem, moonset [timeanddate.com] was 6:46 pm, 22-MAR; my calculated phase at 19:00 = 7.3%. Taking that as Biblical B-luna I (Astronomical luna 3) produces a B-luna XIV, Biblical Passover on 2023-APR-04 18:00 TUE 89.97 % to 2023-APR-05 17:59 WED 96.30 %. This is the day the Pesach is sacrificed and then eaten around 2023-APR-05 17:59 WED. My calculated astronomical nearest "full moon" is 2023-APR-06 07:00 THU 99.11 %.

Though it need not be the case, this simulation of the biblical timing is in agreement with the traditional (Rabbinic) Passover which is determined by a computus, similar to the approach used for the Julian and Gregorian Paschalia. "Passover 2023 will be celebrated from April 5 to April 13. The first Seder will be on April 5 after nightfall...";When Is Passover? [almanac.com] and, "The Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, ... The 15th day begins in the evening, after the 14th day, and the seder meal is eaten that evening."Date and duration [en.wikipedia.org] (This conflates somewhat the Passover on the 14th and the first Day of Unleavens on the 15th.) There are additional Rabbinic delay or postponement rules, the deḥiyyah molad [en.wikipedia.org], that also shift or limit the days when Passover can occur; this is another reason that the often heard, "of course Easter must be after Passover" is uninformed. Why would Christians after the mandate arising from Nicaea feel the need to embrace Rabbinic rules that go beyond the prescription given in Scripture and then be bound by them?

The purpose/result of this exercise is twofold:

(1) to see how it all works just following the observation of nature method of scripture.

(2) If I got all the adjustments and estimates right, it also shows that requiring after the full moon rather than after the 14th of the moon is an added (modern) constraint that is legitimate but goes beyond the requirements of the scriptural prototype.

Christ is in our midst!! ajk,

You definitely know this inside and out, brother.

A map showing lunar crescent visibility for the this year's Eastermonth/Rabbinic Nisan/Islamic Ramadan can be found for the time being at


https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/how-sight-new-crescent-moon

According to that map, the new crescent would have been visible from Jerusalem if the skies were clear.

This is a very good resource and it confirms my calculation simulating a new moon sighting at Jerusalem. Royal Museums Greenwich and the HM Nautical Almanac Office have provided a real service for Islam and us. I was looking for a Jerusalem based Jewish connection that might still rely on sighting but did not find one.

The Royal Museums Greenwich link is a very nice primer on the new moon and sighting it. It makes several lunar-calendar points relevant to the relationship of our Christian luni-solar calendar computus-Paschalion, Pascha, with the biblical moon of Aviv/Nisan. Christians and Jews incorporate the solar aspect and this confines Passover and Pascha to a set seasonal occurrence unlike purely lunar Islam, where Ramadan etc. move throughout the year at the rate of a bit more than one moon/month every three years.

From the link:

Just to note that the "emerging" moon is near its setting. By the time I decided that I should retake the picture I posted, the moon was gone from my view. Basically the sun must first set so it is just dark enough that the slightly illuminated moon is seen just before it also sets. See Sighting the Crescent Moon [youtube.com]. If the observed, biblical (new) moon is observed 11-15 hours (What Is A New Moon? [youtu.be]) after the astronomical (= conjunction), then the delay for possible sighting would be no more than one day.

All this is part of our getting close to nature, God's creation, through experience and knowledge giving us, through our efforts, our liturgical τάξις [en.wiktionary.org], aka the calendar.

That is why I will resist any scheme to place Easter on a fixed Sunday in April, such as the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April.