Every year, we can expect Christmas to be celebrated on exactly the same date, no matter the circumstances: December 25. On the opposite end of the holiday spectrum is Easter, which can cause quite a bit of confusion because it can happen on any date between March 22 and April 25. That's more than a month of Sundays, which makes Easter a difficult day to pin down. The reason for the seeming randomness is that Easter is based on the biblical resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is said to have occurred after Passover, a Jewish festival determined by lunar cycles. To be precise, Passover is based on the occurrence of the first full moon of the spring -- after March 20. Easter Sunday is then set for the following Sunday. Because the full moon doesn't always happen on the same day, Easter becomes variable. In 1963, the Roman Catholic Church said that it would accept a fixed date for Easter if other Christian churches agreed to it, but as of 2019, nothing has been set in stone.
The lighter side of Easter:
- It took 27 hours to make a single Peep when the candy originated in 1953.
- Candy sales in the United States are at their highest during two holidays: Easter and Halloween.
- The first Easter Egg Roll at the White House took place in 1878 under President Rutherford B. Hayes.