28 Days In Feb And Why Easter Falls On Different Days?
The Roman calendar began at the spring equinox in March and ended with December. Because of the lunar calendar, the total number of days in the Roman calendar only had a total of 304 days which is greatly different from the solar year that reaches a quarter and 365 days. A legend says that King Numa Pompilius added January and February to make the number of months to twelve for solving the variation of days. The added new months had 28 days each. Even numbers meant bad luck at that time. This made King Numa add a day to January that totaled to seven months with 29 days and four months with 31 days. This addition made a change in the calendar to an odd-numbered 355 days.In old times, people used to count the days and months based on the cycles of the moon. They were living in an agricultural society where seasons used to celebrate the feasts. As Jesus was believed to have risen on a day near the spring feasts, this made a determination for Easter to be always calculated as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. An equinox happened twice a year when the tilt of the Eartḥ€™s axis is inclined neither away nor towards the Sun. In relation to Easter, the event is approximately set right after the vernal equinox. As the Jewish months start when the moon is new, the 14th or 15th day of the spring month must be immediately after a full moon. This made Easter Sunday the first Sunday after the first full moon following vernal equinox. Accurately, Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the official full moon or after the official vernal equinox. The Christian Calendar declares the official vernal equinox as the 21st of March. The official full moon may vary from the real full moon by one or two days.
The Easter date is not repeated every year or century. It has a sequence however that follows the 19 year cycle. In the Julian calendar, this sequence repeats itself every 532 years and amazingly the number 532 is a product of two significant numbers: 19 which is the cycle of the Golden Number and 28 which is the solar cycle. If the Easter date of the current year is known, then a guess can be made to find the Easter date in the next year.