EASTER, a festival of the christian church, observed in memory.of our Sa viour's resurrection.
In the primitive ages of the church, there were very great disputes about the particular time when this festival was to be kept. The Asiatic churches kept their Easter upon the very same day the Jews observed their passover ; and others on the first Sunday after the first full moon in the new year. This controversy was determined in the council of Nice, when it was ordained that Easter should be kept upon one and the same day, which should always be a Sunday, in all christian churches throughout the world.
But though the Christian Churches differed as to the time of celebrating taster, yet they all agreed in skewing particular respect and honour to this fes tival ; hence, in ancient writers, it is dis tinguished by the name of dominica gnu dii, i. e. Sunday of joy. On this day pri. soners and slaves were set free, and the poor liberally provided for. The eve, or vigil, of this festival was celebrated with more than ordinary pomp, which conti nued till midnight, it being a tradition of the church that our Saviour rose a little after midnight ; but in the east, the vigil lasted till cock-crowing.
It was in conformity to the custom of the Jews, in celebrating their passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, that the primitive fathers ordered, that the fourteenth day of the moon, from the ca lendar new moon which immediately follows the twenty-first of March, at which time the vernal equinox happened upon that day, should be deemed the paschal full moon, and that the Sunday after should be Easter-day ; and it is upon this account that our rubric has appoint ed it upon the first Sunday after the first full moon immediately following the twenty-first day of March. Whence it appears, that the true time for celebrat ing Easter, according to the intention of the council of Nice, was to be the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox, or when the sun en tered into the first point of Aries; and this was pope Gregory's principal view in reforming the calendar, to have Easter celebrated according to the intent of the council of Nice.
Having first found the epact and domi nical letter, according to the method de livered, see • CHRONOLOGY and trAcT, Easter-day may be found by the two fol lowing rules.
1. To find Easter-limit, or the day of the paschal full moon, counted from March 1 inclusive, the rule is this : add 6 to the epact, and if this sum exceeds '30, take 30 from it; then from 50 sub tract this remainder, and what is left will be the limit ; if the sum of the epact, ad ded to 6, does not amount to 30, it must be subtracted from 50, and the re mainder is the limit required; which is never to exceed 49, nor fall short of 21.
2. From the limit and dominical letter, to find Easter-day : add 4 to the domini cal letter : substract this sum from the limit, and the remainder from the next higher number which contains 7 without any remainder; lastly, add this remain tier to the limit, sand their sum will give the number of days from the first of March to Easter-day, both inclusive.
Thus, to find Easter-day for the year 1808, for instance. First find the epact 3, which added to 6 gives 9 : and as this sum does not amount to 30, it must be subtracted from 50, and the remainder 41 is the limit. Then adding 4 to 2, the number of the dominical letter B, sub tract this sum, viz. 6, from the limit 41, and the remainder 35 from 42, the next superior number that contains 7 a certain number of times without any remainder, and there remains 7, which, being added to the limit 41, gives 48 for the number of days from the first of March to Easter day, both inclusive: hence, allowing 31 for March, there remains the 17th of April for Easter-day. Here follows the opera tion at length.
3+6=9 50 — 9 = 41 = paschal limit Dominica! letter B = 2 2r4=6 41 — 6 = 35 41 + 7 = 48,from which subtracting 31, the number of days in March, 17, there remains 17, the day of April answering to Easter-day for the year 1808.