4 April 2021 — 0735 mdt
…Hoppin’ down the bunny trail,
hippity hoppity, Easter is today
How the date of Easter is chosen
According to the U.S. Naval Observatory, Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox; this particular ecclesiastical full moon is the 14th day of a tabular lunation (new moon); and the vernal equinox is fixed as March 21. More at Calculating the date of Easter, The Full Moon that Determines Easter, and timeanddate.com’s Calculating the Easter Date.
Songwriters Jack Rollins and Steve Nelson, known for their Christmas hit, Frosty the Snowman, wrote the Easter song Here Comes Peter Cottontail in 1949. The next year, Gene Autry, The Singing Cowboy, recorded it. Autry, playing town doctor Gene Autry, sang Cottontail in The Hills of Utah western in 1951. The clip below is from that movie. The song, an Easter standard, is a perennial children’s favorite. Autry accumulated millions in his 91 years, owning radio and television stations, and was the first owner of the Los Angeles Angels baseball team.