The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-03-21
EASTER CANNOT COME ON ANY FIXED DATE
TIME is GOVERNED BY THE
POSITION OF MOON-SYSTEM
BEGAN 400 YEARS B. @.
If 1t Were Not, 1t Might Be Placed
Like Christmas, On a Certain Date
of Each Year.
rade at
in Your
BY Garret p. Serviss.
(From New York American

BY Garret p. Serviss.
(From New York Americana
The great Christian festival of
Easter, marking the anniversary of
the resurrection of Christ, falls this
year within one day of it's earliest
possible date. 1t comes on Sunday,
March 23. Last year it fell on Sun
day, April Z. Some years it occurs
several weeks later.
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 what is called the ecclesiastical
calendar are often greatly puzzled to
account for the wandering of this
great festival, whose extreme dates
may be as much as five weeks apart.
A late Easter has more flowers and
more sunshine; an early one, like
that of the present year, sometimes
feels the last chill of the departed
Winter.
The primary reason for the vari-
able date of Easter is the fact that
it is the only great festival in Chris
tian countries that depends directly
upon the monthly motion of the
moon. At the same time, it is affect
ed by the yearly motion of the sun,
since it's date is governed by the ver-
nal equinox, which is the point in the
year when the sun crosses the equa-
| tor from the southern into the north
ern hemisphere.
Easter Comes on Sunday Following
First Full Moon.
But the year and the month are
not commensurate lengths of time
that is to say, there is not an even
number of lunar months in a year.
A lunar month is not the same as a
calendar month, but it represents the
time from one full moon to the next,
which is, on the average, about 80
days, 12 hours, A. minutes. A year,
which is measured by the apparent
motion of the sun, is on the average
365A days. Now this cannot be di-
vided by the period of lunar month
without a remainder. In conse-
quence, full moon may occur at any
time in the course of an ordinary
month.
But the rule for finding the date
of Easter is that it must fall upon
the Sunday Immediately following
the first full moon, which occurs on
OF dIIGT MdTCH Il, WHICH Is JuO
regular date of the equinox.
Last year the first full moon fol-
lowing the equinox happened on
April 1, which was Monday. The
next following Sunday, April z,
was then, according to the rule,
Easter Day. Thisyear the full moon
of the equinox, or the paschal moon
as it is called in the church calendar,
falls on March %, which is a Sat-
urday, and the next day, the twenty
third, being Sunday, becomes Easter
Day.
System of Determining Easter Made
400 Years B. G.
Inasmuch as Christmas Day, which
is celebrated as the anniversary of
the birth of Christ, comes at fixed
date every year, December 20, it
, would appear much simpler to keep
Easter also as near fixed date as
possible. 1t could not be absolutely
:: fixed because of the settled custom
of celebrating it on a Sunday, but,
as the astronomer Clavius pointed
out centuries ago, reasonable de-
gree of regularity could be introduc-
ed by making Easter the first Sunday
/. after the equinox without regard to
u Iu6 phase Ol Inc u1OOu IL IudI Iulo
; were adopted the date of Easter
would still be a movable one, but it's
wanderings would be kept within g.
, week of fixed date.
I The existing system of determining
the date of Easter is based upon a
discovery made more than four hum
, dred years before Christ by the
Greek astronomer Meton. He found
> that 235 lunar months are almost
! exactly equal in total length to 19
! years of 365 Il days each. There is
difference of only about two hours
q in the course of the 19 years. This
period is called the Metonic Cycle,
= and its division into years gives rise
9 to the Golden Numbers" which in
a dicate the place of any year in the
: cycle. At the beginning of the cycle,
= which, as used in the ecclesiastical
calendar, is reckoned from January
1 1, of the year /, B. c., a new moon
: happened to fall on January l.
: Every 19 years since then there has
been a new moon at the beginning of
+ January, but during the intermedi-
Il ate years of the cycle the first new
9 moon of the year occurs at different
b dates in January, which are always
= the same for years occupying the
n same place in the cycle. This place
n is called the Golden Number, and by
g It's aid, through somewhat compli-
n Gated system of computation, the
8 date of the paschal moon can be cal
culated any number of years in ad-
" vance.