Show HOW EASTER EAStER TIME IS FIXED With ith Easter less than a week away th tIme question Is again propounded that is III s so o often orten asked each cacti succeeding ing year How is the time of or Easter fixed 7 It may be he not a matter of or common knowledge but it is nevertheless true that Easter Sunday depends on the moon The moon being somewhat uncertain as to regularity of its it movements in a given ghen number of years rs it necessarily follows that Easter Sun Sunda Ia does dos not fall tall upon the same amt date elate in each Year ear year There are art formidable formulae by w the time of Easter can be absolutely fixed They Thee ThE involve dominical letter the Hie golden ohlon number and simple little things like hike that but hut for all aU practical purposes the determination det of or the Easter time is this fc 1 Easter Ealter is that day da following the thC four fotr fourteenth day of ot the calendar year which falls upon or next after March H 1 Regulated by Calendar East r i as every one Gue knows know Is Ts the prin principal principal cipal cl al anniversary of the Christian Chris lan your observed in commemoration of nf f the tIme resurrection resurrection resurrection of ot Jesus Jis Christ The T e anniversaries saries sarles ries originally were wr regulated by b the calendar of o in which months were coterminous with the revolutions revolution of the Ule moon The resurrection took place just alter the Jewish festival of the The Christians of Jerusalem and after them those of the Asiatic churches chur hes gener generally generally ally aUy held the least feast fea t of ot Easter simultaneously simultaneously with the passover but this custom was not acceptable to the Gentile Chris Christians of Italy and the west who preferred to 10 celebrate Easter on the Sunday fol 10 following following lowing the fourteenth day of ot the moon The difference in this practice led to grave dissensions be we n the east cast anti antl the west but were werl ar at a length adjusted at atthe atthe atthe the council of ot Nice in 32 the western custom prevailing and becoming uni universal versal yen versa I Calculating the Time In order to find the time for Easter In Inan any an given glyen year one ont should calculate the exact time of the new moon In that year ear for tor March and try whether the four tour fourteenth day da of that moon the first day of the new moon being as the first would not fall earlier than the in n which ease case the Sunday following f the tha fourteenth day might be presumed to be Easter Easier But in the event that this four fourteenth fourteenth da day Ml earlier than March 21 1 It I L i concluded that the new moon of oC April II I must be taken The ecclesiastical calen calendar calendar calendar dar and astronomical calendar differ sometimes as much as two days das so o that the ecclesiastical calendar is rather an aa ideal one The ecclesiastical calendar avoids conflicts for under the astronomical lea ical calendar ca it would be sometimes pos Ims possible sible for two sections of a city on either elthel side of or a meridian to celebrate Easter on op different days das The ecclesiastical calen calendar len lendar dar takes no account of oC differences of If less thana a day Recurrence of the Festival In order to simplify the complexity of or orthe the ecclesiastical I calendar advantage is taken taker of oC the discoveries of a famous Athenian astronomer Melon Iton In the fifth firth century before the Christian era who found that in a period of or nineteen solar years the sun and moon return almost ex exactly to l p same sanu relative positions which they the occupied at the beginning of the th thI period I the difference amounting to lit little little tle the more than the space pace the moon would move over in n two ho hours The calendar therefore assumes that Easter will recur in the same ord order r every een nineteen years throughout an entire century and some sometimes sometimes sometimes times throughout more than one century The Easters themselves do not necessarily ily lIy recur on the same days of the month of oC March or April in each of or the success successive successIve ive We series of oC nineteen years but would do so If I the tile same amI days dos of the week al at always ways was corresponded to the same days das of ot ottilE the tilE month This Tills however i Is not usually the case ease and as Easter must be Sunday this rule becomes slightly variable but Easter in any an stated year can in be definitely fixed T 1 by y calculating both the place of the year in the cycle of nine nineteen nineteen nineteen teen and also the day of oC the week on which the year began The latter Is called the dominical letter of the year Easter Governs Many Festivals The principal feasts and fasts of ot the Catholic and other churches are depend dependent ent upon the time when Easter occurs These are Sunday Sunda nine weeks before Easter Ash Wednesday the Wednesday of the seventh week before Easter Faster Good Friday which is the Fri Friday Frida Friday day da next before betor Easter Ascension day da which Is the Thursday of oC the sixth week after Easter Whitsunday the tbt seventh Sunday after aCter Easter Trinity Sunday the time eighth Sunday after Easter and many man others |