Sunday, March 27, 2005
Happy Easter!

Ok, so this one is not technically a photo. I created it in a 3D computer graphics system. But the grass in the background is from one of my photos :0)

This was created for my greeting card line, I am hoping to do more computer generated art in the near future, and more of it as fine art. I started out using this software for television and film special effects but, it's applications are only limited by the user's imagination.

Ever wonder why Easter changes dates every year?

Easter is never earlier than March 22nd or later than April 25th. The reason for this change is the fact that the Holiday is based upon a Hebrew calendar that itself is based upon lunar motion, as opposed to todays commonly used Gregorian Calendar which is based upon solar time periods. In fact, Easter is on the Sunday following the 14th day of the month "Nisan" in the Jewish calendar.

The month of Nisan is the first month of spring, although in a strictly lunar calendar the month could occur at any time of the solar year, an extra month is commonly added every three or four years (like the extra day for leap year,) keeping Nisan in the spring.

The fourteenth of Nisan would be 14 days after a new moon, which makes it roughly the same as the full moon. So, the simplified answer is Easter is on the first Sunday, after the First full moon of the vernal equinox (first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, Fall in the Southern.)

All this is made a bit more complex by the fact that the accepted calculation of Easter is based upon old, slightly inaccurate tables predicting the dates of the equinox and the full moon rather than the actual time of the events.

Happy Easter!