Will you see Easter earlier? Don't bet your bonnet on it

Unless you're 95, Easter 2008 is earlier than you've ever seen it.

And unless you live until 2160, you'll never see it this early again.

Easter falling on March 23 is unusual, historic, notable -- and in some cases, annoying.

It has complicated travel plans, pushed back a few sunrise church services and, because of scheduling conflicts, even forced the state's best high school basketball players to compete in a hockey arena.

The nation's timekeeper, the United States Naval Observatory, has gotten calls and e-mails: Why did you guys set Easter so early this year?

"I'm sorry," Geoff Chester, public affairs officer for the observatory, tells them, "but you have to take that up with a higher authority than me."

Easter's date shifts each year according to rules set by the Roman Catholic Church hundreds of years ago: Easter is the first Sunday after the full moon that follows the vernal equinox.

But it's not that simple.

The church's version of a full moon isn't necessarily science's. And there's some disagreement about the vernal equinox as well.

According to the church's rules, the full moon comes 14 days after a new moon. Always. The astronomical full moon might be 15 days after, or less than 14. Similarly, the church's vernal equinox falls on March 21. Always. Astronomically, that's not always the case.

"It depends on orbits, other factors that were, perhaps, beyond the scope of folks at that time," Chester said.

So Easter never occurs before March 22 or after April 25. None of us has seen a March 22 Easter. None of us will, either; Easter won't occur on March 22 until 2285. And in the scheme of things, March Easters are fairly rare -- there will be only 19 more before the year 2100.

Here in Minnesota, this historically early Easter has equaled snow.

"It will be awfully hard to hide the eggs" this year, given the Good Friday snowfall, said Tamara Hodgins of Chanhassen. "And all of those human footprints and no bunny prints will be a dead giveaway to the kids."

Friday's thick, wet snow plagued Easter Lutheran Church's annual 3-mile cross walk through Eagan. In the past, the walk has attracted as many as 300 people. This year, 80 people braved the snow.

"This is Minnesota, of course. We can get a variety of weather on Good Friday," said Judy Pascoe, the church's development director. "But I don't remember ever having heavy snow."

Take heart: Easter won't fall in March again until 2013.

Jenna Ross • 612-673-7168