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"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -Morrow
"Take care of the minutes, and the hours and years will take care of themselves." -Anonymous
"Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile." -F.P. Jones
Profile | Contact Me | Archive | Newest | Diaryland
2005-03-28
hoppy easter
03:23
It's a few hours past, but Happy (Western) Easter!
Some interesting words regarding Easter, as sent to the ISS crew. I haven't looked up the details to verify, but from what I know, it's pretty close. Take it for what it's worth; I find this kind of thing pretty interesting.
"Each year, on the first Sunday after the full moon which falls on or after the vernal equinox, western Christians observe Easter. Now, this is not as straightforward as it seems - the "full moon" referred to is not the actual full moon but the 14th day of the "calendar, or ecclesiastical, moon" which may vary from the real full moon by a day or two. Also, rather than use the date of the actual equinox, the church uses the 21st of March as a convenient approximation.
Note that we said "western Christians". The eastern Orthodox church observes Easter on a (usually) different date which is determined by a completely different rule. This year, there is more than a month difference between the two Easters.
In most Christian countries, the word for Easter reflects its origins in the Jewish Passover which is called pesach in Hebrew. Thus, in both Greek and Latin the word is pascha and in Italian it is Pasqua. French has Pâques, Spanish has Pascua, Dutch is pask and Russian is �����. So, why is English different?
Believe it or not, the word Easter is about as Christian as Easter eggs. Which is to say, not Christian at all. In the early days of the English church, it adopted an existing pagan festival and gave it a Christian interpretation. In pagan England, the vernal equinox (the real one, that is, not March 21) was celebrated as the festival of Eostre, Teutonic goddess of the dawn. Her name is linguistically similar to several Indo-European words which mean "dawn" indicating that Easter is related etymologically to east, the direction of the sunrise."
And so begins another week of the fun shift, working 2-10 a.m. Beware early morning ramblings...
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