the festival commemorating the resurrection of Christ, observed in many branches of the Christian Church. By the first Christians it was considered to continue the feast of the Passover, at which the paschal lamb, a symbol of Christ, was sacrificed. Hence, its name in Greek, French and other Romance languages is taken from the Hebrew pesach, passover. The English name comes from the Anglo-Saxon Eostre, a goddess of light or spring, whose festival was celebrated in April. There was a long dispute in the Christian Church as to the proper time for holding Easter, the Christians of the East celebrating it on the same day as that on which the Jewish Passover fell, that is, the fourteenth of Nisan, while the majority of the Church celebrated it on the Sunday next after this day. The controversy was decided by the Council of Nice in 325, which fixed Easter on the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after March 21. If the full moon happens on a Sunday, Easter is the Sunday after. Properly speaking, "full moon" above means the fourteenth day of the moon.