1. Why Easter’s date changes every year

Easter is what some people call a ‘movable feast’ because, as most people know, its date differs from year to year. That's because its date is calculated using the lunar calendar, or monthly cycle of the moon. Since the 4th century, Christians have celebrated Easter on the Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. This seems straightforward. However, there was huge disagreement about the date of the Spring Equinox, how to calculate the lunar month, even the hour of the day when Easter Sunday began and so this meant that different Christian traditions had their own calculations for determining the date of Easter. In the mid-7th Century, two such traditions came head to head in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. One side followed calculations used in Rome and mainland Europe, the other a method used in parts of Ireland.

The question was at long last settled in 664 at the Synod of Whitby, a meeting of leading clergy and nobles. It was agreed to use the Roman method for calculating Easter and this is the method we still use today.

3. Good Friday Hot Cross Buns were believed to protect against bad luck

There’s a centuries’ old tradition of baking special bread, biscuits or buns on Good Friday. Marked with a cross, by the early 18th century they were known as Hot Cross Buns: In 1733 London street vendors advertised their wares with the cry 'One a-penny, two a-penny, Hot Cross Buns!'

Biscuits and buns baked on Good Friday were believed never to go mouldy and to be capable of curing diseases, especially those affecting the stomach. Some were even hung in homes and were thought to protect against misfortune. Click here to find a traditional recipe for Hot Cross Buns and Simnel Cake.

It’s possible that these traditions are an echo of medieval beliefs about the miraculous powers of the consecrated host, which was also decorated with a small cross. As we’ve already seen, the host played an important part in medieval Easter services.

5. King Edward 1 gifted 450 decorated Easter eggs

Readily associated with new life, the giving of eggs has long been synonymous with Easter. In 1290, Edward I purchased 450 eggs which were painted or covered in gold leaf before being distributed to members of the royal entourage. Henry VIII received an egg enclosed in a silver case as an Easter present from the Pope in Rome. Fees due to the Church at Easter were sometimes paid using eggs, which at medieval Durham were known as ‘eggsilver.’ Eggs were also collected at Easter to be distributed to the poor as charity. Today the most popular gifted egg is of course made from chocolate, complete with colourful foil decoration. Originally dark chocolate was used and the first English chocolate egg was sold by Fry’s in 1873; milk chocolate later became the most popular type of Easter egg after it was introduced by Cadbury in 1897. Find out more about the History of Chocolate here.