While you were in bed this morning of March 20, 2008, at 05:48 the Vernal (Spring) Equinox occurred, before your very closed eyes.
Men since the Middle Ages, my father among them, have said that "Easter would be observed on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox". This statement was true in 325 AD, when it was established by the Council of Nicea.
Reconciliation of the Lunar calendar of the Bible and the Hebrews, with the Julian and then Gregorian solar calendars of the Romans and the Western Europeans left us with the determination Easter date, by the lunisolar calendar. Apart from and ecclesiastical definition of the “Pascal Moon”, the formula remains.
Every year about this time, I recite the phrase; “Easter falls on the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox", and I think of my Dad, Joseph Gordon Ames.
On clear mid-winter nights in Amesdale, the moon didn’t go unnoticed. The glow that "Pascal Moon" over a frozen landscape, feeling first affects of lengthening days, was a harbinger of respite from a long winter. In the dark of night, waiting by the tracks for the early morning mail dispatch and pickup from a passing train, which happened to be running late that night, Gordon surely rehearsed that formula, with thoughts of warmer nights.
Or perhaps, the formula was rehearsed as he walked the half mile homeward from a evening of improvised entertainment at the hall. He surely paused with Beatrice by his side, to catch a breath and gaze at the moonlit sky on their return from an excitement charged night of Gordon’s violin playing for the a dance, so popular in the community. The night may have been cold crisp sky with northern lights in the sky, prolonging their dance into the sky above.
For us, those who now live in towns or cities, beneath skies awash with urban lights, we seldom notice the beauty of night sky, the revolving stars, nor the phases of the moon which mark the passage of time. Yet the memories of such evenings, imbedded in our minds and hearts, are sweet reminders of days when we and folks we loved spent precious moments along the pathway home, sharing the priceless view of a moon bathing the earth with its glow, or standing in awe beneath a heavenly panorama of an aurora of green and red, blue and violet dancing in the cold night sky.
Today, Thursday, March 20th is the Vernal Equinox. Tomorrow, Friday, March 21 will be the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. Sunday, March 23rd is Easter Sunday. In your life time, you will never again experience an Easter so early in the year.
Men since the Middle Ages, my father among them, have said that "Easter would be observed on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox". This statement was true in 325 AD, when it was established by the Council of Nicea.
Reconciliation of the Lunar calendar of the Bible and the Hebrews, with the Julian and then Gregorian solar calendars of the Romans and the Western Europeans left us with the determination Easter date, by the lunisolar calendar. Apart from and ecclesiastical definition of the “Pascal Moon”, the formula remains.
Every year about this time, I recite the phrase; “Easter falls on the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox", and I think of my Dad, Joseph Gordon Ames.
On clear mid-winter nights in Amesdale, the moon didn’t go unnoticed. The glow that "Pascal Moon" over a frozen landscape, feeling first affects of lengthening days, was a harbinger of respite from a long winter. In the dark of night, waiting by the tracks for the early morning mail dispatch and pickup from a passing train, which happened to be running late that night, Gordon surely rehearsed that formula, with thoughts of warmer nights.
Or perhaps, the formula was rehearsed as he walked the half mile homeward from a evening of improvised entertainment at the hall. He surely paused with Beatrice by his side, to catch a breath and gaze at the moonlit sky on their return from an excitement charged night of Gordon’s violin playing for the a dance, so popular in the community. The night may have been cold crisp sky with northern lights in the sky, prolonging their dance into the sky above.
For us, those who now live in towns or cities, beneath skies awash with urban lights, we seldom notice the beauty of night sky, the revolving stars, nor the phases of the moon which mark the passage of time. Yet the memories of such evenings, imbedded in our minds and hearts, are sweet reminders of days when we and folks we loved spent precious moments along the pathway home, sharing the priceless view of a moon bathing the earth with its glow, or standing in awe beneath a heavenly panorama of an aurora of green and red, blue and violet dancing in the cold night sky.
Today, Thursday, March 20th is the Vernal Equinox. Tomorrow, Friday, March 21 will be the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. Sunday, March 23rd is Easter Sunday. In your life time, you will never again experience an Easter so early in the year.
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