The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-06-02
EASTER CuRiOSiTiES.
How Order Is Brought Out of the Appa
ent Chaos of the Calendar. %

No" Oruer is orOuShG OuC OF the Appar-
ent Chaos of the Calendar. 20
A paragraph has been going the
rounds of the newspapers stating that
Easter in 1886 fell on April %, and that
this had not occurred before since 1884,
and would not happen again until 1943.
This paragraph is useful only so far as
it serves to draw attention to the rarity
of the occurrence of Easter ON any
given day, but, unfortunately it con-
tains an erroneous statement, for Easter
has occurred on April rs since 1881
namely, in 1871. However, the subject
itself is worthy of attention, since it
seems admirably to illustrate some OF
the curious features of the calendar and
to show how order is brought out of APP
parent chaos, for there are many SEEM
ingly discordant and inharmonious ele-
ments entering into the problem Of de-
terming certain dates, which, after long
periods, are found to blend and har-
monize with mathematical precision.
Every one knows that Easter is the
Sunday following the first full moon oc-
curing after March 81. and since this
moon may fall on any day between the
Dist of March and the Goth of April, it is
apparent that the chances Of its falling
on any given day are very remote. II
the question of weekday were ignored
and only the day of the month were
| taken into account, then, according to
the well-known meteorlc cycle, Easter
would fall on the same day once in Mines
teen years with great regularity, for the
error in this cycle is very small, as is
shown by the following:
! Days. Hrs. Min
S5 iunations require. ..........G,9s9 Is 81
l9Julian years (36oa days. ...6,939 Is
The Church rule for determining
Easter is based upon this cycle, conse.
quently if we make list OF the dates on
which the Paschal full moon OCCURS
we shall find no two dates to be the
same for nineteen successive years
but the twentieth will occur or
the same day of the month with ths
first, when the whole series viii
be repeated However, it is no
with the day of the month so much a:
with the day of the week that we have
to deal, and here is where the difficult,
comes in, and the rarity of securing az
agreement of the day of the week ant
the day of the month, necessary in tn
case of Easter, is best illustrated by tn
following, the results of calculation
based on Ferguson's lunar tables from
1884 down to the present year:
In 1884 the first full moon afte
March 81 fell on Sunday, April Is
consequently the following Sunday
April %, was Easter Sunday. Nine
teen years afterwards, in 1852, the frs
full moon after March II again fell o.
April Is, but this time April Is, instea
of being Sunday, was Wednesday, an
the following Sunday. four days later
was the 22d instead of the 25th. Agai
after nineteen years, in 1772, we fin
, similar dates, but April Is this year OF
Cured on Friday, and the followln
Sunday was the Goth. In 1891 the Pa
chal full moon fell on Monday, Apr
10, and Easter consequently fell on til
25th, as it did in 1885, There figure
seem to indicate the occurrence of Easte
! on any named date at regular inte,
walls of three meteoric cycles of ono
every fifty-seven years, and such woul
undoubtedly be the case were it not fc
the fact that the question of leap-yeal
enters into the problem. Between liz
!. and 1871 leap years occurred regularl
= !. every four years, but after 1871 thel
was a period Of eight years when non
: occurred; 1896 was leap year and the
there was no other until 1894, the d.
cree OF Pope Gregory having reduce
the year 1900 to 565 days. In co,
sequence of this, at the end of fifty-seve
: years following 1871, in 1S4S, whe
Easter should have fallen on April 2;
l. it fell one day short, on April "a. |
:, 1867, nineteen years after 1S4S, tt
J, Pascfal full moon fell on April 1
Il which was Thursday, and the followin
o Sunday-was the Dist. In this year tt
Y Paschal full moon falls on Sunda,
n April IS and Easter On April 20, al
then after the lapse of tifty-seve
years, namely, in 1913, it will fall {
. the same day again. Louis Glob