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Easter —
The Movable Festival
In the book of Genesis
(chapter I, 14) we read’: “Let
there be light . . . and let them
be for signs, and for seasons,
and for days, and for years,”
thus, the Sun and the Moon
were the primitive man’s com
pass, and later became the reg
ulators of his calendars. The
Jews (and’many other-ancient
nations) adopted the Lunar
calendar, which by its phases
tecords weeks and months
through encircling the Earth-
every synodic month (29 days,
12 hours, 44 minutes and 3 1-3
seconds), the- year thus being
354 days, 8 hours. 48 minutes
and 40 seconds.
The rest of the world keeps
the Solar calendar, marking
the four seasons and the tropi
cal year ok 365 days, 5 hours.
48 minutes and 46 seconds, as,
a result of the Earth circling
round the Sun. The Lunar
calendar has additional seven
embolistic months within every
Metallic cycle of lit years that
('finalizes it with -the Solar
calendar.
The Solar calendar was intro
duced by Julius Gaesar. with
11 u' help of astronomer Sogi-
gones. in the year 46 B.C. and
known as the Julian calendar,
in 1582 Pope Gregory XIII
"adjusted" it. It again needs
“fixing," and there are about
by JACOB L. FRIEND
SOUTHERN ISRAELITE COLUMNIST
30 different plans and schemes
for the reform of the Solar cal
endar at the United Notions,
and the matter is still unde
cided . . .
There is yet a third calendar,
an -astronomical calendar, in
troduced in 1582 by a famous
non-Jewish scholar Joseph Jus
tus Scaliger who named his
calendar in honor of his father
Julius, and the dates under
Scaliger’s reckoning are called
Julian Dates, not to be confus
ed with the Julian calendar of
Julius Caesar. The dates in
the astronomical calendar a-
void the use of lfionths and
years. It reckons dates from
an arbitrary point, January 1.
4713 B.C. the days beginning
at noon. Universal Time.(UT).
Thus, the date of the beginning
of the present year January 1.
1,967 was Julian Day: 7,439.-
492.0 It was the inventor oi
the astronomical calendar who
declared: “There is nothing
more perfect than the calcu
lation of the Jewish year."
Easter is the chief festival of
the Christian year commemo
rating the resurrection of Je
sus on the third day after cru
cifixion. It is a movable* feast
of the church, its date is not.>
fixed by the Solar calendar
for the reason that the tradi
tion of its occurance is inter
connected with the Lunar Cal
endar. As a consequence, the
following feasts are also move-
able: Ash Wednesday (40 days
before), Palm Sunday, Good
Friday, Ascension (40 days af-
-ter) and Pentecost.
During the first centuries of
the present era there was a
lengthy dispute of the date for
its celebration and only in the.
year 325 of the present era was
this settled by the First Council
of. the Christian Churches at
Nicaea, in Asia Minor. The rul
ing of the Council .was that
Easter should be observer on
the first Sunday following the
U.lh day of the Paschal Moon,
'securing after the Vernal Equi
nox, Mjprch 21. In other words:
It is to be celebrated on the
first Sunday after the ^Full
Moon that occurs after March
21 or on any day of the 28
days following that date. If
the Full Moon falls on a Sun
day then Easter will be the
following Sunday. It therefore
follows that the earliest date
on which Easter can fall is
March 22. It fell on that date
in 1761 and 1818, but will not
occur again in any year in the
present century. The latest pos
sibility date for Easter is April
25. It fell on that, date in 1943
and will not do so* again before
the year 2038.
The Paschal Full Moon is
in reality the 14th day of the
Hebrew month of Hissan, the
Eve of the Jewish Passover.
The Greek word “Paschal"
Moon is derived from the Heb
rew word “Pesach,” which is
the name of the offering of a
lamb (Exodus: XII, 6 et al).
which was consumed on the
first night, of the festival Pes
ach (Passover).
Now the first day of Pass-
over must occur between Mar
ch 26 and April 25 inclusive 1
and cannot fall on either Mon
day, Wednesday, or Friday
During the present Hebrew
year 5727, due to it being a
leap year of 13 months (385
days), the first..day of Pass-
over will be on April 25. The
Protestant churches celebrated
Easter this year on March 25
The Greek Orthodox Church
will observe Easter five weeks
later, i.e. on April 30. 1967
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