Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1883-04-19
Why Easter Comes SO Early
This Year.

Editors Tribnae.:--In your issue
of last week, gave brief synop-
ais of the fact "Why Easter Dsy
came 80 early this year." promising
to give the necessary data in fu.
ture article tol its solution; Az to the
finding Of the Epact, Golden Mum.
ber, Dom inical Letter, etc.
Frat, tho Epsct is the number eI-
pressing the moou's a.c in days on
the lst OF January The solar ex-
ceeds the lunar year by eleven days,
81 that when u new moon occurs on
the first of January of AN tonic
Cycle, the T. pact is 0; for each sue
ceeding year eleven IL added, and
when the number exceeds thirty,
thi,ty is subtracted. The Epact
may also be found by multiplying
tho Golden Numbef by eleven, sub
tracting ten aud dividing by thirty,
the remainder less one will be the
Epxct.
Secondly, according to the Meton-
ic system 235 moons ages make er-
actly, or nearly SO, nineteen years;
this number Of years ia called the
Metonic Cycle, aud the Golden Mum
ber is the figure which tells how
much OF it has passed, or the mum
ber of years since new moon hap
pened on the first Of January
The Golden Number is found by
adding Que to the given year, sepa-
rate the hundreds Of the year from
the numbers less than a hundred;
divide the hundreds by four, TO tho
quotient add five times the remain
der; divide the number less than q
hundred by twenty, and add the
quotient aud remainder together;
finally add the two results togel her,
The sum if nineteen, or less, il the
Golden Number; if it exceeds nine
teen divide by nineteen aud the re-
malnder will be the Golden Number.
Thirdly, for Dominica Letter:
The first Sunday in January is de-
noted in the calendar by one of the
first seven letters of the alph bet,
which il called the Dominica or
Sunday Letter. When the first Sun
day Of the year occurs on tho first
of January, it is A, when on the
second Of January, b, aud so on to
G.. Now, the Dominica Letter is
found by the following calculations:
Separate the hundreds from the
k..r Il Al
given year, divide the hundreds by
four, the remainder will be 0, /, 2
or 8; these remainders are denoted
by the letters A, b, g and D, and
have respectively the values /, 3, 5,
Y, which for convenience sake are
called centurials. Take half the
number of the figures less than
hundred of the last leap year, and
add to it seven, and subtract from it
the excess of fours in the given year,
and add the centurial already found.
Divide this sum by seven, aud il
there be no remainder the Domini-
cal Letter is @; if there be re-
m iinder OF one it is a, Of two, B,
aud 80 on.
Fourthly, Ecclesiastical full moon
is the fourteenth day Of the moon
which happens on or next after the
2lst Of March. 1t is found by add
ing to four times the Golden Num-
Der if odd, ten, if even, 25; the re-.
suit in either case il greater than 30
and less than so il the time Of full
moon considered as day of March;
If the result be not greater than ~
or less than so, add or subtract once
or twice 80 to make it so, the result
will be the date of full moon and
the Sunday following Easter Sunday.
Not having space for examples or
calculations here, we will defer it
for. future article. and will give
table for finding Easter Sunday for.
ever, in our next. JoHs CoHMNs.