At the end of the sixth century, Irish monks made church history when St Columbanus disagreed with Pope Gregory the Great about how to calculate Easter. The Irish Easter and the Roman Easter were then celebrated on different dates, and based on different mathematical calculations.
A long-running dispute was finally settled in 664 at the Synod of Whitby, by general acceptance of the Roman method of calculation. Now, there is more pressure for change, and not from Irish clerics, but from Irish businessmen.
The Amicable Society, a Galway based organisation, is pressing for a break in a Christian tradition that dates back to the Council of Nicea in AD 325. The society's case for change is made on secular rather than religious grounds. Essentially, it is concerned with commercial advantage and public convenience. The society believes that a fixed Easter date would eliminate annual uncertainty, allow schools to plan holidays better, and provide a boost to the tourism industry. Pressure for a settled date stems largely from the early Easter this year, the earliest in the past 95 years.
In 1928, the British parliament voted for a fixed Easter date but accepted that it could only happen if Christian churches around the world agreed.There is, however, no sign of that happening.
The Christian churches remain divided on the issue that should most unite them. This year the Eastern Orthodox Church will not celebrate Easter, or Pascha as it is known in that church, until April 27th. The Christian churches base their respective Easter calculations on different calendars. Western Christians follow the Gregorian calendar while eastern Christians follow that of Julian. In consequence only once every three or four years do Christians celebrate Easter on the same day.
Until the Christian churches first resolve their differences over how Easter is calculated, any prospect of a fixed date seems remote. That said, it is easy to exaggerate the public inconvenience of a fluctuating Easter. Easter Sunday will fall on April 12 next year. But Easter can never be earlier than March 22, or a day earlier than this year. And the next time that happens will be in the year 2285.
Christmas, which is a fixed date in the Christian calendar, has become a movable commercial event, as each year the Christmas shopping season starts earlier and earlier. Easter is, and should remain, a religious occasion, whose timing is decided by long established tradition, and not dictated by commercial interests.