Why is Easter so Early and Passover So Late in 2016?

The Easter story says that Jesus Christ died the day after a Passover feast and rose again three days later. So why are Easter and Passover almost a month apart this year, with Easter falling on March 27 and Passover on April 22?

The answer lies in the calendars that the Christian and Jewish religions follow.

Today, the Jewish calendar and the timing of holidays like Passover are set in accordance with the lunar calendar, while most of the rest of the world uses the Gregorian calendar that is based off the sun, said Josh Dorsch, Associate Rabbi at Beth El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle, New York.

"The ancient Israelites took their Calendar very seriously," Dorsch said. "Many significant Jewish holidays originated as agricultural holidays. Their times were fixed, in accordance with specific dates on their Lunar calendar, and their seasons."

As for Easter, the ancient Christians took their calendars seriously too, just as they took their schisms. Its date depends on which church: those that chose the western church follow the Gregorian calendar and those that chose the eastern kept the Julian calendar. And two millennia later, so do we.

Easter is a “movable” feast based on the full moon and the vernal equinox (the official start of spring).

The Old Farmers Almanac explains it: In Christian churches that follow the Gregorian calendar for determining the date of Easter, the observance can never occur before March 22 or after April 25. In Christian churches that follow the Julian calendar for determining the date of Easter, the observance can occur between April 4 and May 8 (using Gregorian calendar dates).

When Easter is really early, it catches people off-guard.

"It's so much harder!" said Mother Claire Woodley-Aitchison of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Mohegan Lake, New York. "You barely catch your breath after Christmas. And February is often a down time for families so we can do inter-generational family fun...didn't happen this year. We went right into Lent mindfulness and action. The up side is we'll get a long, luxurious Pentecost season and lots of time for creative ways to be church and celebrate the gift of church."

Of course, the Episcopal Church follows the Gregorian calendar. Eastern Orthodox churches in the United States are even later, this year, than Passover: they will celebrate Easter May 1.

And those calendars are both based on the movement of the earth around the sun.

Whereas, Dorsch points out, a lunar month is about 29.5 days long, so a lunar year (12 lunar months) is only 354 days long.

"Every few years, we observe a leap year so that our holidays, which have set dates on the calendar, match up with their appropriate seasons," Dorsch said.

But it's not like the Gregorian calendar leap year.

"Because the Lunar year is 11 days shorter the Gregorian Calendar which is 365 days long, during a leap year on the Jewish Calendar we add a whole extra month," he said. "One of the many names for Passover is also a Holiday of the Spring Time, because it is usually celebrated during the beginning of the Spring season. But, if we didn't add a leap month every few years, after a while, we would be celebrating it the wrong season."

This is one of those leap years -- actually a double leap year, what with Feb. 29 and a double month of Adar.

Therefore while Passover and Easter usually fall around the same time seasonally, this year, there is a whole extra month in between.