Dating Easter II: The Good Friday Blizzard
This was Pope Gregory XIII’s idea of Spring? Even in Rome it’s a bit colder than usual right now, according to the Weather Channel.
It’s a shame people in the Midwest had their Good Friday services cancelled owing to the snow in the north and the flooding in the south. This year Orthodox Pascha (Easter) is 5 weeks later, and so is everything leading up to it – the Great Fast (Lent), Great Holy Week…. Like some Orthodox say, we’re not married to tying this liturgical season to (Northern Hemisphere) Spring. But ironically, for a good while the Orthodox Paschalion (our scheduling of Easter, Lent, etc.) will continue to tend to do so better than the Gregorian, until in some distant future ours drifts into Northern summer … which will still be more Spring-like than March! And like some weather expert said, “early Spring” snowstorms aren’t unusual! So what we have is a technical Spring — scientific? legalistic? “juridical”? ‘outer-space’?! — that alot of people usually experience as still Winter!
Now, Western Easter can occur any time from March 22 to April 25 (NS) inclusive. So obviously wintry weather becomes less and less of a possibility with each passing day – a phenomenon I believe most people associate with Spring! For now, Orthodox Pascha can occur any time from April 4 to May 8 (NS) inclusive – 13 days later on average, basically a whole half of a month. So logically Orthodox Pascha should tend more to reflect the Western-valued association of Lent and Easter with Spring than the West’s own Paschalion!
I’m not making light of the blizzard or accompanying flooding at all, and any deaths, injuries, damages, losses, even inconveniences being suffered. (God have mercy on them.) Rather the opposite. It’s tragic at any time of year, and even moreso during most of these people’s great holiday, the Paschal Triduum, Easter weekend. Would that they could postpone Easter to a later weekend.
As Orthodox usually do — 1, 4, or 5 weeks later.
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Pingback on Mar 22nd, 2008 at 5:52 pm
[…] Easter II: The Good Friday Blizzard buddy bella wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThis was Pope Gregory XIII’s idea […]
March 22, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Leo Peter I am at a loss to really understand the point of this post. It rather seems to take a contrarian and contradistinctive tone over and against the West for the use of a more accurate calendar…
Why you start the post with a humerous rhetorical question about was Pope Gregory XIII’s idea of Spring? befuddles me… certainly revising the calendar for accuracy wasn’t about making the calendar sync up with New England March blizzards… Of course I don’t think the Orthodox make effort to justify their use of a calendar losing days for the same reason either!
The fact that there will be blizzards in some places is a function of the universiality of the Church. Come the Byzantine dating of Pascha, there could easily be blizzards in Siberia and Alaska – the most Orthodox state in the union.
One also wonders what the wheather is like in Finland and for the Orthodox in Estonia that are celebrating Easter this very day! You should wish your brother Orthodox well in those nations.
A blessed Easter to all Catholics and Orthodox celebrating it tomorrow!
May 13, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Hi Simplesinner,
See my further discussion just posted here.
September 10, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. 🙂 Cheers! Sandra. R.
October 7, 2009 at 9:27 am
I found your article quite useful and interesting. I have bookmarked the site for later usage. Peter