Was Shakespeare born on Easter?

[Ray Eston Smith]

This website (http://www.dr-mikes-math-games-for-kids.com/easter-date-tables.html?yblagulous=15%29) gives Easter dates in the 1500's. Unfortunately, the dates shown are for the Gregorian calendar, which wasn't used in England until after Shakespeare died. The website says Easter fell on April 12 in 1564. I think that means that in the Julian calendar, Easter of 1564 was on April 23 - Shakespeare's birthday.

There are many references to Shakespeare being born on St George's Day, but I haven't been able to find any reference to Easter coinciding with that date in 1564, which makes me doubt my above calculation.

If Shakespeare was indeed born on Easter, that fits in neatly with my theory that there was a rebirth motif in Hamlet: http://www.thyorisons.com/#Rebirth - The Rebirth of Hamlet

[Ray Eston Smith]

This reference claims Easter of 1564 was on April 9 on the Julian calendar.

William Shakespeare: his family and friends - Google Books Result
Charles Isaac Elton, Alexander Hamilton Thompson, Andrew Lang - 1904 - Biography & Autobiography - 521 pages
ordinary tables for finding Easter, we see that Easter Sunday fell on April gth, in the Julian year 1564, or 1564-5 old style. ... The next is Sunday, April 23rd, St. George's Day ; the next again is Tuesday, April 25th, St. Mark's Day; ...
books.google.com/books?id=zg8MAQAAIAAJ...

I think the discrepancy is because of the year. Probably this reference is correct and the other is wrong because it didn't account for the different year begin date. But I'm still looking for additional verification.

[AuntShecky]

I grabbed my World Almanac, but the perpetual calendar begins in 1821. (The good news is that it goes all the way up to 2080, so those who are sweating the Mayan prophecy get a reprieve.) Speaking of "doomsday," this web page is a really wonky complex way of figuring days of the week for a given year:
http://www.theworldofstuff.com/other/day.html
According to that page ^, April 23, 1564 did fall on a Sunday, so at least the day of the week is right for Easter.

BUT!
According to this web page listing chronological Elizabethan events, Easter fell on April 4 that year.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=72183

Another "but"!--
We're not even sure April 23 is the real birthday, as the Elizabethans weren't so obsessed with official documents, such as birth certificates back then. That's an approximation counting back from baptismal records.
http://askville.amazon.com/shakespeare's-birthday/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=6042042

I think a similar situation occurred couple centuries later with Beethoven, an approximation from his baptismal record. All these years Schroeder from "Peanuts" has been celebrating December 16:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_is_Beethoven's_birthday

So, maybe we're back to the proverbial Square One.

PS--Here in the modern Western world, we make a big deal about birthdays. I don't really think the tradition of
commemorating the day of one's birth was a high priority in the era of the Bubonic Plague. For the medieval and Renaissance Church, the day one died was much more important. Hence, the feast days for saints fell on the day
the holy ones bought it, and (assumedly) their souls went straight to Heaven.

The facts about Shakespeare's birthday then, shouldn't really have any bearing upon the motif of rebirth in any of his works, including Hamlet. The idea of Spring and rebirth, as well as the Christian doctrine of resurrection should provide you with enough corroborating evidence to make your thesis. By the bye, to early Christians, the feast of the Nativity (almost certainly NOT December 25)
was somewhat less significant than the Resurrection, which , according to the New Testament, corresponded with Passover.