EASTER is early this year. Although we might think it has arrived extremely early, it could have come sooner. Based on the current method of determining the date of this most important of Christian festivals, the earliest possible date for Easter Sunday is March 22.

That also happens to be the rarest Easter Sunday. It last fell on that date in 1818 and, if the present system is retained, will not happen again until 2285. The latest possible date for Easter Sunday is April 25 and it last fell at that time in 1943.

In Britain, and indeed in many other countries, the date of Easter Sunday can therefore vary by as much as 35 days, or five whole weeks. It is the only major holiday which suffers from this kind of movement.

Not surprisingly in an increasingly secular society which has commerce uppermost in its mind - especially the sort of commerce which derives from holidays and tourism - there is a continuing demand for a fixed Easter.

This would also benefit schools, businesses and even the churches. Most churches agree that a fixed date for Easter would be beneficial. Indeed, our Government passed the Easter Act of 1928 which allows a fixed Easter, but the statute has never come into force.

In matters of this kind, England cannot be alone because every Christian church and every country in the world would have to give consent to such a major change.

Discussions about the date of Easter are by no means new. One of the major church meetings in this country, the Synod of Whitby, debated the issue as long ago as AD 664. At that time, England had two different methods for calculating the date of Easter. One was followed by the Celtic branch of the church which had been established by St Columba and operated mainly in the North. Southerners followed the teachings of St Augustine, who had been sent to England by Pope Gregory I in AD 596. He became the first Archbishop of Canterbury and followed the tradition which used the Roman method.

The problem came to a head when King Oswy of Northumbria married Queen Eanflaed of Kent. She was a southerner while he was a northerner, the outcome being that the royal household celebrated Easter at different times.

Oswy decided to settle the issue and therefore summoned the Synod of Whitby, which he hoped would bring together the two traditions of the church in England. In addition to the date of Easter, there was also the vital matter of the style of tonsure worn by the monks. This might sound trivial, but in fact it emphasised the difference between Roman and Celtic monasticism. Oswy wanted all his priests and monks to function together with common beliefs.

Monks and priests assembled at Whitby Abbey and, after some rather hectic discussion, it was Wilfrid of Ripon, later St Wilfrid, also known as Wilfrid the Great, who settled the matter.

Wilfrid was a man of enormous drive and conviction - it is said he was responsible for introducing forms of worship such as Gregorian chants and Plainsong - and his influence even extended to church architecture.

He adorned his altars with cloths and sacred vessels, taught his countrymen how to build churches with stone instead of wood, and even built four stone churches which resembled St Peter's in Rome in that they were impressive basilicas. I believe the crypts of two still exist, one at Ripon and the other at Hexham.

Leading the Celtic argument was Colman, the abbot of Lindisfarne, but Wilfrid won the day by reminding the gathering that Christ had appointed Peter (the rock) as leader of his church in the famous phrase "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and to thee I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Wilfrid used this to stress that the Roman tradition of the church, which included the monks' style of tonsure and the method of determining the date of Easter in England, should be followed. The Synod agreed.

Still following the Roman tradition which was established at the Council of Nicea in AD 325, Easter Sunday continues to fall on the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after March 21 or within the next 28 days. This is in spite of the fact that both the Vatican and the World Council of Churches have agreed that a fixed Easter would be sensible.

The Eastern Orthodox churches, however, follow the Jewish calendar, which means their Easter does not necessarily fall at the same time as ours. If you travel to Greece at this time of year, for example, you might find yourself celebrating two Easters.

Easter is forever associated with eggs and, although most now seem to be the chocolate variety, the eggs in question used to be from birds, both in the wild and from domestic poultry.

The reason for this link is that in pagan times the period we know as Easter, then celebrated in honour of the goddess Oestre, was celebrated as a time of renewal, and the perfect symbol of that new life was an egg.

It was the most obvious representation of new life and even resurrection, one which was used by most religions whether or not they believed in God or Christ. There is little doubt that our pagan ancestors considered the egg to be something of a miracle, and it made sense for the fledgling Christian church to continue featuring the egg's symbolism in its teachings. It was Pope Paul V who later associated the egg with the Resurrection by compiling a prayer to that effect.

One of the fun methods of using the egg was in pace-egging ceremonies. The name comes from paesteg or pace egg, deriving from Paschal (Easter), and the idea was to boil hens' eggs until they were hard and then dye the shells in a wonderful range of colours and designs. Families then went off to find a suitable hillside or even a steep slope in the garden, there to roll their eggs downhill one by one until the shells broke. The eggs were then eaten along with the other ingredients of a picnic. Sometimes, it took a while before the stubborn shells of some eggs were broken, but children enjoyed a great time on Easter Sunday, sometimes called Troll Egg Day.

I have happy memories of those youthful outings, but there does not appear to be the same interest in egg rolling as there was, say, 40 or 50 years ago. I am sure the advent of chocolate eggs has brought about this change.

Looking back, however, it seems the custom has endured for many centuries. I have a note in my files which says that the household accounts of King Edward I for 1290 include an item listing 450 eggs which had to be coloured and distributed at Easter. The cost of the eggs was 1s 6d, ie 18 pence or, in today's money, seven and a half new pence. The methods of colouring the boiled eggs were many and various. I can recall the flowers of the gorse being boiled with eggs to make their shells a beautiful yellow. A variety of natural dyes were also used, such as cochineal, onion skins, lead from a copying ink pencil and even coloured cloths, together with a host of other agents. If it was not possible to find a suitable dye, the shells were painted by hand.

It is fascinating to consider that in spite of all our efforts to colour the shells of birds' eggs, some birds do it so much better!

Another wonderful treat at Easter is the hot cross bun and it seems the ancient Egyptians had a similar offering to their goddess of the moon.

Whether this led to a similar offering being used in this country is open to debate, but the Anglo-Saxons prepared similar special dishes for their goddess of spring and light. One of them was a small spiced bun. It has been argued that the cross on a hot cross bun is not a Christian symbol, but a means of representing the four quarters of the moon.

I am told that hot cross buns baked on Good Friday are very good for preventing fires in the household if they are hung in the rafters. And it is said they never go mouldy