Joseph Smith never weighed-in on Easter - providing the true, Mormon way to calculate the date on which it should be observed.

That’s strange, to me anyway, particularly after he gave us so much other need-to-know info
Name and location of Garden of Eden
Jesus’ birth date - April 6.
You name it.

I’m no expert on the subject, but Christians (western Christianity) have generally accepted that Easter should fall on the first Sunday following the Paschal (passover) Full Moon, but no sooner than March 21. If the full moon occurs on this date, Easter then should be observed on the following Sunday. It’s my understanding that there are 19 dates that Easter can fall on.

Eastern Christianity has their own way to calculate it, and observe it on different dates.

Eastbourne’s opinion: Had JS made an attempt to provide the true, Mormon way to calculate the exact moment of a lunar event, he would have exposed himself to be the fraud he knew he was. And so he kept his prophetic abilities confined to subjective,unprovable topics, like translating unknown languages.

19 is not the number of potential dates for Easter. It is referring to the 19 year cycle that it takes for a particular lunar calendar date to fall on the same Gregorian calendar date.

In theory, the dates of Easter would repeat in the Gregorian calendar every 19 years. In practice, it seems to me that leap years would perturb that calculation a little bit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonic_cycle.

There is about a 29 day window after Mar 21 that a full moon can occur, and an additional 7 day window when a Sunday can follow the full moon, so Easter can occur within the 35 or 36 days following Mar 21.

You should have been a Jesuit.

See what I mean about math? It's everywhere. All over the place. In everything.

Too bad it was my worst subject at school and it hasn't endeared itself to me since.

But I cannot tell a lie: It is a fairly useful thing.

But irritating if even its fundamentals escape you.

Thank whoever we have BoJ here to elucidate the hard stuff. When it comes to math anyway. And destinations of the world. !!

And I know you wouldn't even call it math. It's just arithmetic. No fractions even. Fractions I can visualize however. It's all the other stuff, with parentheses and degrees and quotients (how I hated that word in eighth grade - or Grade 8 which is the Canadian way to say it :P ), pie, and other mysterious sidekicks.

As for algorithms, angles and algebra - bring on the smelling salts.

Algebra is what finally broke me. I still shudder.



I know it's not pie - I'm just goofing around on a sunny Easter long weekend.

And I know this half of my post is abstract nonsense haha - again, just a moment of levity (abstract nonsense is a math term that I just learned).


Re Joseph Smith and Easter. I have no clue at all what his Easters would have been like.

But thinking this got me to read "The Greatest Story Ever Told", a GC talk this year by Elder Stevenson where in part he's somewhat regretful, he says, about focusing on Easter eggs with his grandkids.


*Excerpts below:

So this Elder of the LDS Church got to wondering this year, he says, how Mormons can "model" the teaching of "the Easter story" with the "rich religious tradition ... of the Christmas story".

It's 2023. JS did his thing, meeting up with Moroni, in 1823. So Two Hundred Years later, Mormon leaders are pondering how to bring 'fulness' to their Easter celebration. That's a while to figure things out. Just saying.


Stevenson said: "I observe a growing effort among Latter-day Saints toward a more Christ-centered Easter. This includes a greater and more thoughtful recognition of Palm Sunday and Good Friday as practiced by some of our Christian cousins. We might also adopt appropriate Christ-centered Easter traditions found in the cultures and practices of countries worldwide."

Two Hundred Years later, LD Saints want to make Easter more Christ-centered. This is why mainstream Christians, at least, say Mormons aren't Christians (not in the way the mainstreamers interpret Christianity to be).


Stevenson quoted N.T. Wright, a New Testament scholar (and Anglican bishop), who said: "Take Easter away, and you don’t have a New Testament; you don’t have a Christianity.”

Stevenson goes on to say: "...we as Latter-day Saints are endowed with a most remarkable Easter gift! A gift of unique witness, another testament of the Easter miracle that contains perhaps the most magnificent Easter scriptures in all of Christianity. I am referring of course to the Book of Mormon...".


He says: "Anytime we read and study from the Book of Mormon, we can expect remarkable outcomes."

With this I must disagree. But, of course, I realize that I am the one out of step (with Mormons). Everybody else knows something I can't figure out at all, like what on earth...? (That's how I felt 24/7 in the Mormon Church).


Then he speaks of a member who passed away from illness and the grief of her two young nieces. He said his wife comforted them with scripture and they "said they knew their aunt was now happy and she could be with Jesus".

That's one of the major differences between Mormonism and Christian belief: He says "they **could** be with Jesus" not "she is", as Christians believe.


He goes on to mention "the living prophet [Nelson] "bearing witness of the living Christ" to outsiders, including world leaders.

He mentions holding a copy of the first edition of the BoM, saying "​Doing so always moves me. For much of my adult life, I have been fascinated, enthralled, and riveted with what young Joseph Smith did to get this sacred book of scripture translated and published. The miracles that had to occur are staggering to contemplate."


He further states that Jesus "broke the bands of death". Maybe he means "bonds"? (Please excuse me - I'm a proofreader and I notice these insignificant details. I know it's small of me to pick such a tiny nit just because it's Mormonism - or if not a typo is it actually a word they use?).


I know that things evolve as time goes on. But central tenets of one's religion are supposed to stay constant. We can see Mormonism morphing right in front of our eyes. Evolution denotes gradual change. With this crop of leaders doing abrupt about-faces on this and other Mormon teachings - trying to mainstream in other words - we can see the moth turning into the butterfly right in front of our eyes.

Except Mormonism ain't no butterfly. A peppered moth perhaps...

Joseph Smith may have been onto something with his secret marriages, considering Easter's ancient roots.

https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/articles/easter-may-have-started-out-as-a-sex-ritual-and-heres-why/

"To celebrate nature’s “rebirth,” the ancients would hold festivals in April to honor the Goddess, which most likely included lavish sex rituals, and even full-on orgies."

The church has never been big on Christian holidays. Not part of its culture. In Utah the 24th of July is the big religious holiday.

But they are inching toward that state. Look at the references to Palm Sunday during GC. We will soon start seeing discreet crucifixes pop up in Mormon PR material. I swear one day soon Mormons will start fasting for Lent.

Giving up masturbation for Lent will probably become popular, and maybe ineffectual...  But who knows?

During my mission, I gave tracting for Lent, and it felt so good I extended it ... all the way 'til today!

is there a religious group or church thats main focus is 'matters of the heart (mind)such as Kindness, Honesty, Unconditional Love & Christ-like living?

it assuredly Isn't Mormonism or the LDS society- culture!!

Maybe the Mennonites/ Amish or perhaps Quakers, Buddhists?

Who will be the first Prophet to lead Primary kids on an Easter Egg hunt on the grounds of a temple...any temple?

the easter bunny is silent on this issue unfortunately ~

why is it that the Easter Bunny & the Energizer Bunny have never been seen together?

Many are beginning to question this...

https://youtu.be/IjDiX6NdFkM

Ostara vs Jesus

https://youtu.be/Jv83-BzdOEE