Here comes the Passover and Easter Moon

April 8, 10:04 AMAstrology ExaminerMaria Barron

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Easter lillies and moonflowers are the blooms to have this week. 

Here she comes in the full light of her beauty! The first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox is the formula for the scheduling of Easter. I love when this time of year comes around and I get a chance to chant an ancient formula like that. Doesn’t it sound like something Hermione would say to Harry Potter and Ron about the best time for them to take on the forces of darkness?

“The first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.” It really takes you back to a time when people lived low to the land, could see the sky, and incorporated the light of the sun and moon in their ritual life. Well … and had a ritual life! We don’t really have much of that anymore. As a civilization, we’ve grown quite airy and intellectual, and quite away from all that watery sentiment.

The date of Easter celebrations is set in respect of the Hebrew lunar calendar and the Passover rituals Jesus and his followers were performing just before the Passion. Passover is pegged to the middle of the first month of the year, which is a full-moon time in a calendar where months are begun at each new moon. In the Hebrew calendar, harmony with the solar year is kept by adding occasional extra months to a year. That keeps it in tune with the solar event, the vernal equinox, which marks the beginning of the natural year. Passover is April 8-16 this year and Easter is this Sunday.

And here comes that most meaningful of moons, whose significance persists. She is rising just before dark in the east in breathtaking near fullness, 99 percent full. You can track her progress with this moon-phase gadget. I’ll be adding more gadgets soon. Meanwhile, here comes the moon! Here’s a George Harrison song by that name that I’ll bet you’ve never heard. It’s lovely.