1.31.2008

Early Easter

It is hard to believe that we are less than one week away from Ash Wednesday, the day that signals the start of the liturgical season of Lent. This year is extraordinary in that Easter will fall on March 23rd. That is almost as early as Easter can get.

If you want some nice recreational reading, try looking up "Computus" on Wikipedia. That is the article on how the dates for Easter (both western and Orthodox) are calculated. Here is a brief sample from a long article:

"The method for computing the date of the ecclesiastic Full Moon that was standard for the Latin (Catholic) church before the Gregorian calendar reform, and is still used today by Eastern Christians, made use of an uncorrected repetition of the 19-year Metonic cycle in combination with the Julian calendar. In terms of the method of the epacts discussed above, it effectively used a single epact table starting with an epact of * (0), which was never corrected. In this case, the epact was counted on 22 March, the earliest acceptable date for Easter. This repeats every 19 years, so there were only 19 possible dates for the ecclesiastical Full Moons after 21 March."

Who ever knew it was so complicated? I still am not sure whether the earliest possible date for Easter in the western church is March 21st or 22nd, but I do know that this year Easter falls on March 23rd, and that is early!

I also know this: in spite of the various calendars and lunar cycles and algorithms cited by the article, Easter is much more than a day on the calendar. It is, for me, the single most powerful thought in the universe. It is the belief that no matter what bad thing happens, there is a good thing that is even more powerful; that no matter how hopeless the situation might seem, there is a God that can always transform it; that death cannot defeat life, evil cannot overcome good, and hate cannot remain victorious over love.

Admittedly, I am getting ahead of the calendar. First, we must move through the season of Lent, a time that calls us into darkness and introspection, a time of preparation, the seed being buried in the dark ground before it can spring forth in new life. But it does not hurt, I think, to recall that, even in the depths of winter and in the most somber of moments, there is one thing we can always count on: just as spring will inevitably arrive, the journey through Lent will inevitably lead to Resurrection joy. It cannot be stopped.

And, for me, it can't come too early!

Don Underwood