Complicated Calendar

"Nisan" is the word for the month of April in the Turkish language, which is the equivalent of the month of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar. The word has its roots in old Babylonian Assyrian Aramaic language, which is an ancestor of both Arabic and Hebrew. April is about renewal, about the new tastes of the spring, be it eggs or milk, or greens or lamb; it is all about what spring stands for. Actually, the associated Sumerian word "nisag" meant first fruits.

This year, April welcomed two major spring holidays on about the same dates. Both Christian Easter and Jewish Passover coincided, making the first week of April exceptionally festive. The week of Passover started April 3 and will end of the evening of April 11, while April 5 was Easter Sunday for the Western Churches. The Orthodox Church however, will celebrate the date on April 12, which can still be considered as coinciding with Passover. If Jews still existed in Edirne, the border town of Turkey, this Passover would be exceptionally festive, as the Edirne Synagogue has been restored to its former glory. If it were the Byzantine times, the Edirne Jews would be happy that the dates coincided, because strangely they were not allowed to celebrate Pesah/Passover if the dates fell before Easter.

Both the Hebrew and Christian calendars are quite complicated, making it impossible to predict whether Easter or Passover is earlier or later.

The formula for Easter is actually very simple: It is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. This is identical for both Western and Eastern Orthodox Churches. But then what is the vernal equinox? That is more complicated, as churches use different calendars, basing the dates on ecclesiastical moons, paschal full moons, or...