What Time Should We Celebrate Jesus Walking Out of the Tomb This Weekend?

As Refinery 29 reports, this Sunday billions of Christians around the world will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which famously occurred three days after he died from crucifixion at the hands of Pontius Pilate and his ruthless Roman soldiers. But one question remains: What time is Easter?

Though the inspiring story of paternal love and the importance of self-care has been told countless times throughout the years in books like the Christian Bible, films like The Passion of the Christ, and television specials like It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown, it’s often hard to remember precisely when Jesus opened his eyes, twirled out of those filthy robes, and triumphantly exited that tomb to begin the journey back to his disciples.

Though there’s no way to know for certain, coming up with a rough estimate is not as complicated as one might initially think! Thanks to the trusty Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, we know Jesus died—and was subsequently entombed—on a Friday, sometime around Passover (aka mid-April), sometime around 33 AD. Now, because we know the iconic Mary Magdalene (Slay!!!) and her buddies discovered his empty tomb shortly after sunrise that Sunday morning, and because she was allegedly the first person to have seen him post-resurrection, we can—based on the Almighty’s notorious flair for the dramatic—assume the actual miracle occurred right at sunrise in the area. (The sun rises… and the son rises. Get it? Of course you do.)

So! Based on the NOAA’s Solar Calculator (a fun tool I suggest you all fiddle around with sometime), sunrise at Jesus’s tomb (40.4536° N, 141.1481° E) in mid-April, 33AD occurred at roughly 5:19 a.m. local time.

And with that, here are the times Americans should celebrate this weekend, based on their time zones. (If you’re in a different time zone, do the math yourself. It isn’t that hard.)

EDT

Saturday, April 15, 2017