The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-12-07
Chronological Cnriosities.

the days of the ancient Greeks. From
the Middle ages down to our own they
were the repositories of astrological
predictions, pandering to the creduiity
of the supersi,ious public. Now they
are more and more becoming store
houses of chronological, astronomical,
economical, historical, political and
statistical records, all brought up to
the latest date. Primarily. however,
and principally they we're instruments
for computing time, designed to fur-
nish tables of the days belonging to
the several months. The Anglo-Sax-
ons called their tally sticks, or some
kind of notched instruments, on which
they carved the course of the moon
during the year, to fix the times of the
new and full moon and the festival
days, almauaght. 1t was used forsthe
computation of civil and ecclesiastical
dates. The usual derivation OF the
word almanac, it is true, traces the
word to Arabic, respectively Coptic
origin. 70 the Arab of Syria alma
nakh means temperature or atmos-
phere, which reminds Of Cowpcr $
lines
"vo watch the storms and hear the sky,
And give all almanacks the lie
The almanac itself has, of course,
undergone many changes in its long
aud honored career. So hoary headed
and ancient parsonage as Father
Time, says recent writer on the sub
ject, must necessarily have acquired,
in the course of his ceaseless journeys,
considerable number Of curiosities
and eccentricities. With these, of
which the almanac keeps record, few
people have much acquaintance. That
the year has three hundred and sixty
FIVE days, twelve months, fifty-two
weeks, and starts on the frs. OF Jan
uary, is about the extent of most peo-
ple S knowledge Of chronology and
calendar.
The most important church festival
of the year is Easter, because by its
date are fixed all the movable holidays
of the year. For the first three cen
turies of the Christian era thee churches
of the East and the West observed
Easter atdiferens times. The Eastern
church observed Easter on the same
day as the Jewish Passover. while the
West or Roman Church celebrated
Easter on the Sunday following that
date. The Celtic Church observed
Easter at different time from either,
but at the Council of Whitby, in 664,
the English church formally attached
itself to the Church Of Rome by
adopting her time Of Easter celebra-
tion. In 325 A. D. the Council of
Nicaa fixed the date Of Easter. AS
the moon had been full on the night
after the cruci6xion. it was agreed
that Easter must depend upon the
phases of the moon, and therefore be
movable feast; and it was fixed on
the first Sunday after the full moon
of the spring equinox. The Bishop
Of Alexandria, Egypt, was charged
with the duty Of making the necessary
astronomical calculations, as that
science was most advanced in that
city. Every year, about Epiphany,
he issued circular letter-the "Llber
Paschalis, Easter book, communica-
ting the result of his computations
and fixing the date Of Easter. He
also, in this sort OF almanac, COM
mented on ecclesiastical and other
questions of the day. In England the
date of Easter is fixed by act OF Parll-
ament and by the rubric of the church.
Easter has range of thirty-fve days
ia which it can fall, the earliest date
Is March 22d, and the latest April
10Th. In 1878 it fell on March 22d,
and cannot do so again until 22oo.
In 1856 Easter fell on the latest pos
sible date, April 25th. This had not
occurred siace 1876, and will not occur
again until 1913, the only time in the
twentieth century, and 203S. A new
attempt is just being made to fix
narrower limit for easter by conhnlng
It's occurrence to the week from April
4th to 11th.
There are some curious facts con-
nected with the days Of the week on
which centuries and months begin.
No century can begin on Wednesday,
Friday or Saturday. The month of
October commences with the same day
of the week as January, except in a
leap year. September and December
also start on the same weekday, and
SO do February, March and November.