Sunday, January 20, 2008

Already?

I got curious and consulted the tables in my Prayer Book, which give the date of Easter from 1786 through 2013 (which latter is coming right up!)

There are only three dates of Easter which will yield a year with no Second Sunday after Epiphany:
March 22 (the earliest possible date),
March 23 (oddly, my birthday), and March 24.

The last time it fell on March 22 was 1818.
The last time it fell on March 23 was 1913,
-----also 1788, 1845, and 1856, and this year.
The last time it fell on March 24 was 1940,
-----and before that in 1799

That's 8 times in 227 years.
Yup, Fr. Hart, it does happen sometimes:
about 3 1/2 percent of the time.
Since I was born in 1941, this is my first year ever
with such a short Epiphanytide.

----------ed

12 comments:

Fr. Robert Hart said...

Probably the last for both of us.

poetreader said...

Since I don't have an updated table to consult, nor the patience to figure it out by the rather esoteric formulas provided, I don't know when the next such year may occur, but, when the Table in my BCP runs out (2013) I'll be 72. So, you're probably correct in that. Of course, I could live into my 90s (not sure I really want to) and in that length of time it seems very possible there could be another.

ed

Alice C. Linsley said...

Of course, none knows when we will be blessed by the Great Epiphany of the Lord's return!

Maranatha!

Anonymous said...

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_easter2.pl

By googling in "date of easter," I found the above link, which seems highly reliable. You can check any year you wish. For example, in AD 2050, Ash Wednesday wuill fallon Feb 23 and Easter Day on Apr 10.
Laurence K. Wells

bt, what happened to my comment on Septuagesima? Was it too shocking for the gentle readers of Continuum?

Anonymous said...

Actually, if this had not been a leap year, the Easter Date would have been the 22nd, the earliest possible.
I will be 73 in 2013. Of course after that date we could become engaged in figuring the Easter Date using the incredibly complex tables found on page lii in our prayerbooks, or buy an Ordo Kalendar. For me, rather than calling my brother for assistance in figuring the date, (an MIT grad nuclear physicist) I will buy the kalendar.
Joseph DeHart, ACC priest (still trying to find by "Google" user name and password.)

Fr. Robert Hart said...

Fr. Laurence

Your comment showed up where you placed it. That is, on last year's post of the sermon. You went there via the link I provided, and so your comment was attached to that earlier post. Look now, and you will see it. The software does not give me the ability to move it.

Anonymous said...

I am told that this is the earliest it will be for at least the century, possibly the millennium.

Anonymous said...

Apparently I was wrong about the millennium (or my sources were), but it would seem that the next 23 March Easter is in 2160. I don't plan to be here for it.

Warwickensis said...

March 25th seems to be the next earliest date for Easter in my monastic diurnal in 2035. My Monastic Diurnal only goes up to 2066 though, so it'll see me out!

poetreader said...

by a judicious use of the copy/paste function I was able to reproduce Fr. Wells' comment where he intended it to appear )on the front page where Fr. Hart indicated the repost of his sermon). Good comment and worth sharing!

ed

poetreader said...

It does appear that 2160 is the only year upt to 2200 with Easter on any of those three dates. That year it will fall on my 219th birthday. I expect to be celebrating offplanet that year.

ed

John Dixon said...

Before y'all go quietly off to the glue factory some of us plan on staying around and building some more new churches and we are going to need a new American BCP.

I'm only 50 and I plan on workin' the fields for a while.

Canon Rodier where are you? We need a new BCP.