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Easter 2017 is one month after 2016

Jose J. Martinez

New Member
Time of past OR future Camino
First (2016)
I am setting up to go and buy my tickets but am wondering how the Camino Frances will be with the Easter festivities. In 2016 our flight from the US allowed us to start from SJPP on April 2, and not too many people were walking. Am wondering if there will be too many if we must be walking in those days when there are the Easter festivities going on, and also if the Albergues get too crowded.

We can leave to arrive in SJPP by March 28 to 31, or will have to wait till after April 16.
 
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Jose, I've walked three years in a row at Eastertime and have never had a problem finding a place to stay. There are more locals with families then so it can occasionally get a bit noisy in the albergues...but the kids are usually just exuberant rather than being ill-behaved, so it can actually be fun rather than bothersome.
 
No, Easter is not a month late, the date of Easter Day almost always falls on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon occurring on or after the March equinox - a lunar calculation. We pilgrims to Saint James of the Jewish faith are well aware of the vagaries of the Lunar calendar and the attempts to align with your solar calendar. Easter almost always falls on the same celestial time, it's y-o-u-r solar calendar which cannot fathom the date. Our Passover always but always falls on the Full Moon of the 7th Hebrew month, Nisan.
 
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Last year, Easter fell almost as early as it can, March 27, so the full moon at the Spring Equinox fell almost on the day of the equinox. So this year, the full moon falls quite a ways after the equinox on April 11. Hence the following Sunday, April 16th is Easter, 19 days later than last year.
Oh, and to confuse things further, I believe the Orthodox church observes Easter a full week after the Occidental church.
 
We were walking last Easter and had no problem finding beds for the night in albergues.
 
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