Show eam 4 mv A K I 1 29 fill V ka 0 A astl J I 1 4 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON T TS S an early easter this year for easter faster sunday falls on march 27 last year it came on april 3 and next year it will come on april 18 16 for all the red letter das on our calendar easter Is the most variable the only thing certain about it Is that it al ways comes on a sunday and it Is limited to either one of two months march and april then there are other limits too that Is it cannot come earlier than march 22 nor later than april 25 why all this variation in such an important annual festival the reasons go back into an dent clent history the festival now known as easter was celebrated by ancient israel as the passover for many centuries before the birth of jesus christ it was based upon the events which too took place when the hebrews were saved from the destruct C alon which was nas visited upon the egyptians as given in exodus 12 27 the first christians be ing in the main jews continued for a long time to observe the passover as well as other ancient ceremonies but gradually these early followers of the cross began to substitute the christ for the paschal lamb of israel in the passover ceremonies eventually there arose a difference of opinion between the christians of hebrew descent and those of gentile descent as to the time when thebe ceremonies should be celebrated those of hebrew descent declared that the day of the death of jesus should be the date of the end n ng of the paschal fast which in hebrew rites always was on the fourteenth day of the moon in the evening therefore the easter festival which followed might f fall all on any day of the week those of gentile descent however wanted the first day of the week sunday to be the first day of the resurrection festival thus the friday preceding would be observed as the date of the crucifixion without paying any attention to the day of the month the fast continuing until midnight of saturday the dispute over this point was complicated by the irregularities of the time of full moon in rel relation atlon to the year the hebrew sacred year began at the instant of the vernal equinox but this time Is subject to slight changes due to the astronomical fact of perturbation of the mo tion of all bodies in the solar system the hebrews based their years on lunar changes whereas we now determine the exact length of a year by the sun and astarb which Is more ac curate it Is notable that the ancient hebrews always had trouble with their chronology be cause they based the beginning of each month on the first sight of the new moon the trouble was principally due to the tact fact that the moon revolves around the earth in 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes and 1112 11 seconds and the earth around the sun in 31 seconds therefore the moon makes 13 revolutions to the earth a s one full moon times are also out of harmony with the spring equinox and this fact caused trouble in determining time in ancient times the result of all these complications was that by applying the jewish rules to easter the dates of the crucifixion and the resurrection two days which were supposed to be fixed for all time varied constantly for years the difficulty between the chris eions of jewish descent and those of gentile descent continued not being able to decide the recurrence of easter the council of the early christian church finally appealed to the astron omers in alexandria egypt for aid however the scientists were not of much assistance for they had no lunar tables such as we now have computed by master mathematicians they at tempted to make male rules but the variations of the full moon in reference to the year would not cause easter to fall on sunday any more than any other day all wanted it to come on sunday so each nation celebrated to su t itself so that it would come on that day thus in A D the bauls celebrated easter on march 21 in italy it tell fell on april 18 and in egypt it fell on april 25 eventually the selection of a certain sunday was definitely fixed during the sixth century A D it was designated as the sunday between the fifteenth and twenty first days of the moon in the first month of the jewish lunar years it was directed that the computation should be made according to the tables of Vict orlus of acque balne introduced in A D because of the fact that britain had ceased to be a part of the roman empire the sixth century decree did not affect the british church at first and it con tinned to calculate easter on a basis previously aal roved it pome the matter was f finally dis tv V va ak K 4 I 1 president hoover greeting the crowd gath ered for the annual easter egg rolling on the lawn of the wh te house 2 sunrise ces on easter morning in the garden of the gods near colorado springs colo 3 the easter lily illy one of the loveliest of all easter symbols 4 the hollywood bowl hollywood calif where an impressive easter eater morning service Is held every year posed of at a synod held at whitby in yorkshire in A D after which the clergy of the british isles conformed to the general practice of the western church accordingly easter Is now observed by both the roman catholic and protestant churches on the first sunday after the full moon or tour four day of the moon on or next after march 21 so it cannot be earlier than march 22 nor later than april 25 thus it Is possible for the astronomers and mathematicians to tell in ad vance on what dates easter will come each year and they are now known for more than a century in advance that of course Is based upon the assumption that our calendar will continue unchanged but there Is a possibility poss ability that some time within the ne t f few evi years a new calendar system will be adopted and in that case easter sunday will be a fixed date instead of a variable one so in case you re interested in knowing what will be the easter dates for the next few years here they are 1933 april 16 1934 april 1 I 1935 april 21 1936 april 12 1937 march 28 1938 april 17 1939 april 9 1940 march 24 1941 april 13 1942 april 5 1943 april 25 1944 april 9 1945 april 1 I 1916 april 21 1947 april 6 1948 march 28 1949 april 17 1900 april 9 just as easter Is now a variable date so has it a variable meaning to many different people to the child who cannot grasp its religious sig ance it means a day whose symbols are rab bits little chiel ens and easter eggs to those children too who like to think of any festival time in terms of so something methin g good to eat cat easter time means candy eggs candy rabbits and other candy symbols of the day not to mention those fragrant sugary piles of the mystically marked confection known as hot cross buns how d d a bakery product come to be asso elated with easter anyway it goes back to the days of the ancient saxons who worshipped easter as goddess of the dawn and benign giver of new life with the coming of the vernal equi nos nox that was long before they had ever heard of christianity and the resurrection in their joy at the return of new life in the springtime they brought the easter goddess their sweetest cakes cales at the same time eating great numbers of I 1 them themselves they clung to this custom even after they had embraced christianity some of the early chris tian leaders were a bit dubious of preserving such a relic of a heathen rel glon but some tol arant person who was also a genius for corn com promise suggested to the priests that they bless the pagan cakes marking marling them with the cross thus the saxon easier easter biscuit was made fit tor for k arm W christian consumption and for centuries after wards it was felt that they were endowed with some special spiritual qualities A few cross buns baked on good friday not only would not molder as would other bread but if kept agh out the year they would be an efficient medicine for various ills when crumbled in a cup of water and thus taken into the body to most people easter means a time for corn com ing forth in new clothes and although some of our philosophers have bewailed the extravagance of the easter stile parade as a sign that we hae lost the significance of the day in reality it Is in keeping with the essential spirit of easter which is shared by christian and pagan alike it Is the idea of re tion of revived life after alpar apparent ent death it marks the climax of the year when all nature awakes from sleep throw throve s os off the death like chill of winter and be to live anew with all nature pointing the way by bedecking herself in new raiment it is only natural that mankind should celebrate the surge of new life by putting on new apparel so when milady appears at church on easter sunday in a new frock and aud a new hat it is not mere human vanity expressing itself she puts them on because she must she has responded to the fundamental instinct by responding thus to the call of spring to the message of renewed life there is an old british tradition that it Is good luck to wear something new on easter day but that is a mere outgrowth of the essen bial idea of the eastertide par far as some of the symbols of easter and their meanings for different people may seem to be removed from the essential spirit of easter raster they are in reality not so far removed for all of them are based upon the idea of ressu rec tion and if resurrection is the spirit and the message of faster then the inmost essence of that spirit can be summed up in the one word immortality if man can find an answer to the old old question that has troubled him through the ages the question does death end all he can find it in the message of easter it is reas aurance that he does not face a hopeless task even if he did not have the comfort of his religion to help him arrive at that belief he finds it in the mere fact of living each day each year an I 1 each lifetime he sees the cycle repeated the sun comes up in tho the morning and goes down into darkness at night but he knows that it will come up again the next morning each 24 hours he sees the miracle of resurrection bew ew life Is manifest in the animal and vegetable kingdoms with each recurring spring it ripens in the heat of summertime and mellows into maturity in the autumn only to die in the cold of winter but he knows that life will begin again next 3 ear car each 12 months he sees the miracle of resurrection A baby Is born passes through childhood grown into youth reaches man estate and then declines into old age IN what hat if the darkness of death Is only a matter of a few years away he ile has seen the recurring miracle of resurrection every 24 hours and every 12 months why should not man reasoning logically from his tl is e eldrence el dence of which he Is aware every day of his life believe that the cycle of a I 1 fatime includes a resurrection just as does the dally daily ccle and the yearly cycle he ile does so bel eve and from that belief comes conies his bel ef in the life everlasting in tm lin mortality perhaps it would be more ic curate to say he chooses to believe for few men of any have ever solved the riddle of life to their utter sat Is faction they constantly grope for the truth seeking always seeking the answer to the un solved ems of 1 f fe e they have the never ending longing in their heas for everlasting life and they choose to believe and take comfort from the belief that they shall have it so whether he be man or modern civilized Livili zed man whether he be christian or heathen the assent al sp nt rit of eister the message of easter Is the same it i Is a message of hope a message of joy and a promise ze and a fulfillment in one by western newspaper Newa paper union |