FOUR YEAR OLD GABRIELLA COMMINS ENJOYS THE SPRING SUNSHINE AT WHITBY ABBEY, YORKSHIRE, WHICH HAS A SPECIAL EASTER CONNECTION.

Anyone wondering why Easter has come so early this year will be interested to know that it all started at English Heritage site Whitby Abbey.
In 664AD the Synod of Whitby met to decide, once and for all, when Easter should be celebrated. Before that date different branches
of Christianity celebrated Easter on slightly different daysand it had led, in this year, to half of the royal family celebrating Easter whilst
the other half were still fasting for Lent!
It was decreed by the Synod that Easter should universally be celebrated according to calculations used by Roman clerics in the year 325AD
which had Easter fall on the Sunday following the first Ecclesiastical full moon following 20th March, (the vernal equinox in 325 AD). The
calculations made by the Roman scholars were subsequently shown to be incorrect which had led to the difference in Christian
calendars. However, the Synod decided that despite these inaccuracies we should follow the Roman calendar because St Peter had been
sent to Rome and his teachings formed a great part of Christian theology.
We won’t have another Easter this early for another 152 years (2160)! The earliest possible Easter would fall on 22nd March and we won’t
have one of those until the year 2285.

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