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Why not every year?
Posted by JohnW on 25 April 2011 - 3:24pm.
I know that its unusually warm for most of us this weekend but why can't we have our Easter break at thus time every year?
I know the days off are based round a religious event but I'm sure most people in the country would prefer days off when the weather is nice rather than when its likely to snow.
I'm not trying to offend anyone but why should what seems like the majority of us suffer because a smallest minority want to take part in ceremonies to mark an event that they don't even seem to be able to agree when it happened. I say if they can have Easter at the end of April this year then they can do that every year.
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Indeed
Easter should be a fixed date. No?
Can't followers of that faith just agree on a date? Or just borrow one from an older festival. Say maybe pagan?
that faith = which faith?
according to the BBC the Vatican approved a fixed Sunday in April and put it out to the other churches a good few years ago. Obviously no agreement yet.
Well...
the name comes from the pagen festival Eostre which was on or after the equinox. The original missionaries craftily linked new religious festivals to older pagen ones so the not-bothered-either-way fraternity didn't rise up in protest and just went with it. Allegedly.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm
Snow.
"I'm sure most people in the country would prefer days off when the weather is nice rather than when its likely to snow."
What, like Christmas?
As for me, I've always associated the Easter break with sunshine and the promise of Summer - no matter what date in April it falls on. And I live in Dublin, not exactly a sunseeker's paradise.
Leave it as it is, I say.
Blame Us
I sit in the place that decided exactly when Easter should be (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synod_of_Whitby for details), in the UK at least, though the First Council of Nicaea (in AD325) decided the Roman system.
I kind of like the idea that Easter moves around a bit, though making the school holidays a bit more regular might help)
It's not moveable:
Easter is the first Sunday after the full moon following the northern hemisphere's vernal equinox. Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned to be on March 21.
In Western Christianity, using the Gregorian calendar, Easter always falls on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25, inclusively.
Eastern Christianity bases its calculations on the Julian Calendar. Due to the 13 day difference between the calendars between 1900 and 2099, March 21 corresponds, during the 21st century, to the 3rd of April in the Gregorian Calendar. Easter therefore varies between April 4 and May 8 on the Gregorian calendar.
PS If you think it should be a fixed date, then why don't we do as many continental countries do: if an event happens to fall on a Saturday or a Sunday, as it will from time to time, tough luck and you don't get a day off.
Lack of consistency
How come if the marking of Easter moves about depending on an ancient calendar, why doesn't that happen with Christmas as well?
I'd be quite happy for days based on "actual events" to move around and happen in the middle of the week.... as long as I can have my holiday when I want it. Just like the extra day off this week, a straw poll in our office suggests that a lot of people would rather use the extra day when it suited them instead of when everybody else is off work.
As far as I understand it...
Easter is indexed to the Jewish festival of Passover, which is decided by the lunar calendar. Christmas is indexed to the Winter Solstice, which is a fixed date - and linked to the Solar calendar. Hence the movement of the Easter date.
As a worshipper of both Sun and Moon, I'm quite happy with this arrangement.
Christmas
Sort of.
It's really just a rebadging of the Roman Saturnalia festival, which was in the final days of the year. That itself was tied to the Solstice. Even the giving of gifts seems to come from the festival (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia)
Yes. Exactly.
Christmas certainly makes no attempt to mark the date of Jesus' birth, which was probably in the summer - as far as anyone can tell.
If we're honest about it, it's not just
religious festivals that move. For example, we move May Day to suit our UK preference for Mondays and Fridays off.
The principle in many continental countries, btw, is you're only entitled to the day off it falls Monday to Friday. You don't get a lieu day if it's on a weekend - that's just tough luck.
But I've a lot of sympathy with the idea that we cut public holidays back to a bare minimum and give the rest in additional holiday entitlement at work. I suspect the problem then would be around legislating for holiday entitlements and some employers being less generous than others.
It's the law
Employers have to give you 21 (I think) days off a year. That includes Bank and Public holidays. We're not entitled, unless it's already been negotiated, to any more. If your employer gives you 25 days plus bank holidays that means they give you 33 days and cost wise it shouldn't be much of a burden on them for you to take them at different times of the year.
By the way, we no longer have a May Day bank holiday, next week we will be (hopefully) enjoying an "Early May Bank Holiday" so it's can now always be on a Monday in the same way as Spring Bank Holiday and Summer Bank Holiday are.
well, apparently
according to a mate of mine who is a confirmed god botherer of the Roman persuasion, a fixed date for Easter was proposed for Easter as recently as 1990. A Sunday in mid April was the suggestion. None of the other denominations could agree. 'Twas ever thus.
Easter Act 1928
Something else for the coalition to disagree on?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Act_1928
Easter is very pagan in its symbolism.
All about fertility, fecundity and new growth. Eggs, rabbits and yellow things. About the only thing with any obvious religious significance are hot cross buns.
On a similar note
A big thumbs up for two 4 day weekends in a row. We'll have that again please.
You say that now,
but you might feel differently halfway into the yawning chasm between 31st August and 25th December...