Column 1
NOBODY alive today has celebrated Easter on March 22 – the earliest date on which Easter can be marked – and nobody alive today ever will. That’s a remarkable statistic.
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GOOD morning. This year, Easter Sunday is March 23, only one day later than the earliest it can ever be in Western Christian churches. The last time Easter fell on March 23 was the year 1913 and the next occasion will be in 2160, 152 years from now.
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AS for the earliest possible Easter Sunday, March 22 – the last time that event took place was in 1818, and the next time will be in 2285, hence our opening claim. Some years ago in your Column, we made a valiant effort to explain why Easter tends to annually wander about the calendar; this year, with our fingers crossed, we’re daring to try again.
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EASTER is always celebrated on the Sunday following the Paschal full moon, which in turn is based on historical tables and doesn’t necessarily correspond to lunar events. The Paschal full moon can vary as much as two days from the lunar full moon, with dates ranging from March 21 to May 18, hence the movements of Easter itself.
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ADD to these calculations the fact that Christians neglected to record the actual date of the resurrection of Jesus, and it’s not hard to see why there have been bitter arguments since the beginning of Christianity over the Easter observance dates.
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TOMORROW is Good Friday, always observed on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday; on this day Christians commemorate the passion, or suffering and death on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many spend this day in fasting, prayer, repentance, and meditation on the agony and suffering of Christ on the cross.
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On Easter Sunday, Christians will celebrate the resurrection of the Lord, on the third day after his death on the cross; the day marks the end of the 40-day period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline known as Lent, undertaken by the devout in preparation for Easter. We hope this Easter weekend is both a holy and a happy period for our readers. Cheers!
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– Dee Nesenolis
Editorial