Gregorian Calendar - Happy Easter 2015

Easter is the reason we have a Gregorian calendar.

I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, in a family where my mother celebrated Easter with the Roman Catholic traditions on the Gregorian calendar date, while my Greek Catholic father retained the Julian calendar holiday celebration day.  

Greek Catholic's celebrate Holy Days with their Christian Orthodox neighbors, mostly evident in Eastern Europe and Russia.  

My father was a Ukranian.
Huffington Post reports:

By the 16th century, scholars had realized that the Roman Empire’s Julian calendar was out of sync with the solar year -- and that Easter was falling further away from the spring equinox. 

In an effort to close the gap, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar. But because of old religious rivalries, Protestants in Europe were dead set against the change. It wasn’t until 1752 that England adopted the Gregorian calendar. On that day, the country skipped forward 11 days overnight, going from Wednesday, September 2, to Thursday, September 14. The Gregorian calendar is still the most widely used civil calendar today.

Eastern Orthodox churches still use the Julian calendar to calculate religious holidays. As a result, while most of the Western world will celebrate Easter on April 5 this year, Orthodox churches are celebrating on April 12.

Happy Easter continues through next week and until Pentacost!