I’m going to suggest something very radical. Let’s establish a fixed date for Easter and leave it there. I would prefer the last Sunday in April or the first Sunday in May. Maybe even the second Sunday in May.
Immediately someone is going to suggest that this would be sacrilegious. Well, would it be anymore sacrilegious than Christmas being fixed on Dec. 25?
What I’m saying is since we don’t know the exact date of the crucifixion and the resurrection any more than we know the exact date of the birth of Christ, let’s pick a warmer date.
Now I realize this would be a moot point for Alaska and the Dakotas. And since it’s a worldwide celebration, there would be other areas with ice and snow even at a later date. I don’t know what kind of committee would be required to address such an event. Hopefully it’s not the same one that promotes world peace. I would like to see better results.
Officially, Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. So it can vary from late March to mid-April, depending on the solar system. I have no idea why this sequence of events was used to determine the date for Easter. I’m a little surprised, though, that the NFL draft doesn’t play into this.
Not long ago a very learned and dedicated preacher visited with me to pose that Good Friday actually wasn’t Good Friday — that the dates were off. I listened intently to his premise. When it was over, I said, “OK.”
So on this recent Easter Sunday we had young ladies at church in sun dresses with goose bumps as big as garden peas. They were about to freeze.
I grew up hearing about the “Easter snap.” It’s like cold weather won’t end until Easter has passed. Some might even argue that even if Easter was in June, we would have that “Easter snap,” perhaps positioning their premise that the weather carries spiritual implications as well.
Typically, Easter Sunday is the biggest church attendance day of the year. For some, it’s probably the only attendance day of the year. I don’t have any research to back that up, just observations during my many years of being a Southern Baptist.
In my younger days, we would gather at the old homeplace after Easter services and enjoy a huge meal. Most of the time, baked ham was the centerpiece, surrounded with fried chicken and potato salad.
After dinner (that’s what we country folk called the noon meal, the evening meal being supper) we would hide plastic eggs for the little kids to find. And now, many years later, I still occasionally find a faded plastic egg around the old barnyard, maybe in a hollow stump or underneath an old piece of rusted farm equipment that has a pecan tree growing up through it. I immediately have flashbacks when that happens — kids adorned in pastels screaming they “found one.”
Oh well, I’m being a bit facetious about this whole matter. I don’t really expect there to be a change. It’s not like it’s an issue of any major significance. We have so many other things to ponder like the Ukraine debacle, stem cell research, global warming, water wars, fuel prices, cellulite and whether television’s “Naked and Afraid” will survive another season.
And besides, that thing about global warming could eventually address this matter. So maybe that committee would be better off assisting in those concerns. Of course there are those who don’t believe that mankind impacts our natural environment. They are likely the ones who know exactly the dates of Biblical events and can explain that first full moon/vernal equinox thing.

Walden is editor/publisher of The Moultrie Observer.