As you may have noticed from this year's "early" Easter, the date of Easter is not fixed but, rather, is a variable date the calculation of which is not all that simple. It is commonly believed, and it is often but not always accurate, that Easter is celebrated on the Sunday immediately following the first full moon after the vernal (spring) equinox. Close, but not exact.

The date of Easter is actually the Sunday immediately following the Paschal Full Moon which does not directly correspond to any astronomical event but, rather, is a historical artifact determined from tables and which may differ from the date of the actual full moon by up to two days. The result places Easter between March 22 and April 25, inclusive.

This year's early Easter, March 23, will not be matched again for over a hundred years, until 2160. But, the earliest possible Easter won't be seen until 2285. The second latest possible Easter, April 24, is just around the corner in 2011. We won't see one on April 25th until 2038. And, for what it's worth, the whole cycle of Easter dates repeats every 5,700,000 years.

Add to all this the fact that, unlike Christmas which everyone the world over celebrates on the same day, Western Christianity uses the Gregorian calendar for their calculations while Eastern Orthodox Churches use the Julian calendar resulting in dates for the celebration of Easter which are sometimes the same but often a week apart.

As for me, I say fix it as the second Sunday in April.