March 31 is not always Easter. The date of the holiest day on the Christian calendar varies, depending, as it does, on the timing of the full moon relative to the spring equinox. From 2001 to 2100, it will land on March 31 five times — making March 31 one of the most common dates for Easter. There are eight dates from March 20 to April 25 on which Easter falls four times this century and 12 dates on which it will fall three times.
In other words, since 2009, the year during which March 31 was first recognized as Trans Day of Visibility, Easter has usually not fallen on March 31. It did in 2013, but not on any of the other 14 years. But Trans Day of Visibility has always been on March 31, as it was this year, along with Easter.
And that coincidence, occasioned by the vagaries of the religious holiday rather than the secular one, got a lot of people performatively angry at President Biden.
After all, it isn’t just that Easter and Trans Day of Visibility fell on March 31. They fell on March 31 during an election year, one that is underway as the trans community becomes a more frequent target of the political right. So March 31, Sunday, was Trans Day of Visibility, and it was (thanks to what the moon has been doing) Easter, and it came as Biden’s opponents look for reasons to attack him, and it arrived as support for the trans community has joined so many other things as being robustly partisan.
It’s barely worth documenting the outrage that was presented, given how predictable it is. The Washington Post’s Amy B Wang walked through some examples. As a general rule, the complaints centered on Biden’s recognizing the day of visibility, as though he and the White House didn’t also recognize Easter. (Biden, who attends church regularly, also included a reference to Jesus in his message. Trump … did not.) The outrage, then, is not about Biden giving precedence to Trans Day of Visibility but that he had the gall to recognize it at all.
Thanks to the unusual manner in which the date of Easter is selected, it will fall on one of 33 dates this century, from March 23 (in 2008) to April 25 (in 2038). Of all of the most commonly celebrated holidays that fall on varying dates, few might arrive on as diverse a set of dates as the Christian holiday.
What that means, then, is that Easter will necessarily overlap with other holidays or days of recognition. Had the holiday fallen on March 23 this year, for example, it would have overlapped with National Puppy Day. Had the White House published a video of Biden playing with a puppy alongside its Easter message, it would no doubt have been rebuked — but almost certainly not to the same extent.
Using the robust index of holidays (of varying significance) compiled by calendarr.com, you can see that, regardless of when it might have fallen this year, Easter would almost certainly have overlapped with something else. If it had been on April 2, for example, it would have conflicted with Autism Awareness Day. Had the White House issued a statement about autism alongside the president’s message about Easter, it seems safe to assume there would have been far less outcry.
To some extent, Biden got lucky. Imagine if Easter overlapped with Earth Day and he had released a statement about conservation or the climate? (Talk about issues that have become polarized on partisan lines.) Or if it overlapped with World Book Day, given the eagerness with which some on the right have targeted certain books as unacceptable? Or “National Joe Day”? Imagine if his Easter missive had been coupled with a celebration of people named Joe.
It is certainly the case that Biden and the White House intended to send a signal of solidarity with the trans community by recognizing the day of visibility. That’s what incensed his opponents; the overlap with Easter was just a way to accentuate the outrage. When Donald Trump was president, after all, the White House didn’t recognize Pride Month during his first year in office — a celebration that doesn’t even raise eyebrows in corporate boardrooms any more.
Next year, Easter falls on April 20, a date recognized by the United Nations as “Chinese Language Day” each year. If Biden is still president, it would be interesting to see if he trolls his opponents by recognizing it. If, instead, Trump has returned to the White House, it will be interesting to see if he mentions Jesus.
A previous version of this article incorrectly said that the date of Easter depends on the timing of the full moon relative to the solstice. It depends on the timing of the full moon relative to the spring equinox. The article has been corrected.
