Unlike Other Holidays, Holy Week Isn’t Set On A Specific Start And End Date
HOLY WEEK – In Christian holidays, Holy Week is the week just before Easter – or the commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Researchers claimed in the past that evidences suggest that “Easter” had all started in Medieval Europe, but it may not have originated from Christians. Read more about the interesting history of Easter etymology here.
Meanwhile, Holy Week starts on different dates in different years. For instance Holy Week started in March 25 to March 31 back in 2018 and fell on April 9 to 15 in 2017.
This is based on an article from Rappler. Based on the article,
It is because the start of Holy Week depends on the day of Easter celebration. Whenever Easter Sunday falls, the six preceding days are considered the ‘Holy Week’.
But why don’t the “Easter Sunday” have a fixed date?
Easter does not have a fixed date on the Gregorian calendar. It is considered one of the ‘movable feasts’ by the Christian calendar.
The date randomizes due to its dependence to the ‘Jewish Passover’. The dates of these jewish feasts move aound due to their lunisolar liturgical calendar.
This calendar takes both lunar and solar cycle in following their dates. Unlike the regular solar cycle calendar.
Before, the dioceses from the 2nd to 4th centuries had their Easter Celebration on different dates. It is either on or before the 14th day of Jewish month ‘Nisan’ or the first day of the Passover.
But Christians in the past did not celebrate Easter on the same dates, with arguments about the ‘real date’ of Easter among the dioceses initiating.
That is all there is to it, at least for now. We will post updates as soon as we got them.