Lent and Easter are very early this year. In fact, Ash Wednesday is only a week and a half away, on 10 February.
Easter Sunday, and consequently the weeks of Lent and Easter either side of it, is obviously not determined by a fixed date. It is set by looking to the cycles of the earth and skies.
In the Roman Catholic tradition, Easter Sunday is the Sunday that follows the first full moon after the autumn (for us, or spring, for those in the northern hemisphere) equinox, with the Church setting 21 March as the approximate date for that equinox. This was determined at the Council of Nicaea in 325 (the same council that began to formalise the Creed we pray most Sundays).
That “first full moon” this year is on 23 March, so Easter Sunday will follow on 27 March. It is often different to the date for Jewish Passover, which is determined according to the Jewish calendar. It also varies often to the date for Easter in the Orthodox tradition, where the Julian calendar is still used (rather than the Gregorian calendar that is used in our Church and secularly in Australia). On some occasions, however, we have the fortunate coincidence of two, or all three of those dates aligning.
Of course, an early Easter also means that our younger parishioners will have another two weeks at school after Easter before their next holiday break!
Liturgy 