Happy Easter, all you April Fools!
Today we celebrate Easter Sunday, but we’ll have to sneak in a harmless prank here and there throughout the day since our Easter observation coincides with April Fools this year! 2018 marks the first time ever that Easter Sunday has fallen on the same day as April 1st or ‘April Fools’ Day’.
As we all know, Easter Sunday is observed in Christianity to celebrate the resurrection of 
Jesus; and April Fools’ Day has a history of its own which you can read about by clicking to a previous Blog post from Everything Summer Camp right here.
Unlike Christmas or the Fourth of July, the date of Easter Sunday has always skipped around the calendar. We’ve known it to bounce back and forth between April and March for the majority of this last century, however, it’s actually landed on Sundays from every month of the calendar since the original Easter Sunday over 2000 years ago.
Landing on the first of the month today signifies Easter’s departure from the month of March for the coming millennium. Easter Sundays will only fall in April for the next few decades until it gradually shifts into a dance between April and May for the next half a century (or longer). And when that phase comes to and end, Easter Sundays will start landing exclusively in May for many years until it starts to creep into June.
Eventually, it will make its way all throughout the calendar year and return to the springtime to which we have been made accustomed to its landing. Easter in August may sound funny to you, but imagine a year in the far distant future when Easter Sunday coincides with Halloween—or Christmas!
Baaaah! Okay—I can’t keep it up anymore. April Fools! April Fools! Look at all your faces! I can’t believe you fell for that! This has been nothing more than a prank post. This is actually far from the first time that Easter and April Fools have shared the same day.
The last time was in 1956. And it happened many times before that. And it’s going to happen even more times in the future (next time coming in 2029). Easter Sundays are actually determined by the date of the full moon after March 20th since this is a date that consistently lands after the vernal equinox. But I’d understand if you don’t trust me anymore. As always, thanks for reading! And Happy Easter!
- John