Easter too soon???

This year I was very curious why Easter was in the same week as St. Patty's Day!! Especially about how guilty one must feel throwing back all those drinks on Monday, then having "Good Friday" a few days later!! So much for being "good"!!! Also, my mom's birthday has never been the same day (or even close) to Good Friday...Pretty weird!

So, this is what I found out through John's Uncle Patrick about the dating of Easter - it was very interesting:

-Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20).
-This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around in date on our Roman based calendar.
-Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22)but that is pretty rare. Here's the interesting info. This year (2008)is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see for the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier!

Here's the facts:
1)The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now)
2)The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).
3)The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now)
4)The last time it was on March 22 was 1818.

So, no one alive today has, or will ever see it any earlier than this year! And, by the way, the latest date that Easter can fall is April 25th. The last time that occurred was 1943 and it will happen again in 2038,so it is more common for a late rather than an early Easter date.