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Two Plus Two Equals Five
Although I was a qualified historian, it fell to me, on occasion, to teach mathematics. I might have found it easier to knock nails into concrete using my head. It wasn’t as if I had to impart the complexities of differential calculus. My repertoire never advanced beyond demonstrating how to read railway timetables or calculate the cost of a Chinese takeaway. Had I been required explain the computation of the date of Easter I might have been reduced to a gibbering wreck.
Has it occurred to you that, this year, Lady Day fell in Holy Week so it was transferred to two weeks later. This might seem a simple thing to understand but, as The Feast of the Annunciation is the celebration of the conception of Our Lord, it must follow that Christmas Day, which is exactly nine months later, should be moved to the early part of January.
While your imaginations are running riot with what would happen if this were implemented, let us go back to Easter. The Gospel accounts of the Crucifixion and Resurrection link the dating firmly with Passover. Passover is a lunar festival. It is always at the time of the full moon. Good Friday could quite easily be on a Monday. By lucky coincidence, this year Passover begins on Maundy Thursday. For once we have hit it right, unless, of course we take the timing from The Gospel according to S. John, which is not quite the same as from the other three accounts. You’ve lost it, haven’t you? A nation which observed the millennium in the wrong year and followed this up by making itself believe that the Coronation took place in 1952 can hardly be expected to understand the concept of the first full moon after the vernal equinox.
The plain fact is that the Church, fed up with the bickering about when Easter should fall, just came to a decision. Not a unanimous decision. The Orthodox always come to their own conclusions so they will be celebrating the Resurrection on 5 May, which might have better weather. Some bureaucrat in an office in the Home Counties is, even now, trying to regulate the date so that it is constant, like May Day isn’t. Whatever they do, we couldn’t care less. The date is irrelevant. The fact is all that matters. Jesus died and rose again. Whether in March, April or May is of no consequence.
God bless you all, Fr Allan.
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