El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-02-24
"HE great Christian festival o

-HE great Christian festival Of
Easter. marking the anniversary
l. of the resurrection Of Christ, falls
/ this year within one day of its earliest
possible date. 1t comes on Sunday,
! March %. Last year it fell on Sunday,
April T. Some years it occurs several
weeks later still
| All other anniversaries except Easter,
and the holy days associated with it.
! fall on a fixed day Of each year, and
| people who are not familiar with VIVA
I is called the ecclesiastical calendar are
] often greatly puzzled to account Tor the
wandering Of this great festival, whose
/ extreme dates may De as mucn as 4lFe
/ weeks apart A late Easter has more
I flowers and more sunshine an early
I one like that Of the present year. some
1 times feels the last chill Of the departed
winter.
me primary reason for the variable
date of Easter is the fact that II IS the
only great festival in Christian cOun-
/ tries that depends directly upon the
monthly motion OF the moon. AT the
same time, it is affected by the yearly
motion Of the sun, since Its date IS
governed by the vernal equinox, which
is the point in the year when the sun
crosses the equator from the southern
into the northern hemisphere
When Easter Comes.
But the year and the month are not
Z
to say, there is not an even number OF
lunar months IN year. A lunar month
is not the same as a calendar month,
but IL represents the time from one
full moon 70 the next which is, on the
average. about % days. l. hours, A
minutes. A year, which is measured
by the apparent motion OF the sun, IS
on the average 365 IA days. Now this
cannot be divided by the period Of
lunar month without remainder. In
consequence, a full moon may occur at
any time in the course Of an ordinary
month
Faster is that it must fall upon the
Sunday Immediately following the first
full moon, which occurs on or after
March p, which is the regular date
of the equinox
Last year the first full moon fol-
lowing the equinox happened on April
I, which was a Monday The next fol-
lowing sunday, April Z, was then. ac-
cOrdins to the rule, Easter day. This
year the fun moon OF the equinox, or
the paschal moon as it is called in the
church calendar, falls on March p.
which Is a Saturday, and the next day,
the 25d, being Sunday. becomes Easter
day.
System Made 400 Years B. c.
InaSmuCh as Christmas day, which is
celebrated as the anniversary of the
every year. December %, IL would ap-
pear much simpler TO keep Easter also
as near a fixed date as possible 1t
could not be absolutely fixed because
of the settled custom Of celebrating
il on a Sunday. but. as the astrOnO-
mer ClaNluS pointed out centuries ago
reasonable degree of regularity
could be introduced by making Easter
the first Sunday after the equinox
without regard to the phase OF the
moon. If that rule were adopted the
date Of Easter would stiu be a movable
one, but its wanderings would be kept
within a week of a fixed date
The existing system of determfnins-
the date Of Easter is based upOn q
discovery made more than 400 wears
before Christ by the Greek astronO-
mer Melton He found that 235 lunar
months are almost exactly eouaI i'm
total length TO IS years of 365 IL 6avs
each. There is a difference of onlv
about two hours in the course of tho
10 years This period is called the
MetOnio Cycle. and its division into
years gives rise to the Golden Num-
bers," which indicate the place of any
year in the cycle At the beginning
Of the cycle. which, as used in the &C.