TRADTIONAL EASTER WEEKEND?

“In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.” (Matthew 28:1)

Is it just me or did it seem REALLY weird that Easter fell SO early this year?  I like it best when Easter falls in April, especially when it falls around the 2nd Sunday of April.  It just kind of seems like that’s “where it belongs”.  I also know that Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead around Passover time, so it always seems to me that it should fall during Passover.  Many years, Easter DOES fall during Passover, but many years, it DOESN’T.

If you’re into news and politics, you may remember that Ted Kennedy’s “Traditional Easter Weekend” of drinking and frivolity took place on the last weekend of March in 1991.  I also remember that Easter fell on Sunday, March 30 in 1997 (which would be like THIS weekend instead of last weekend).  I remember that because on Easter Sunday, March 30, 1997 the high temperature was around 70.  It was a beautiful summer-like day.  Ironically by 12 Noon on Monday, Marcy 31, it was snowing like it was late December.  In fact, that was the year we had the “April Fool’s Blizzard”.  Technically the snow stopped around 5 a.m. on April 1 but it started around Noon on March 31.

I learned some interesting facts about the DATE in which Easter falls from the “Smart Shopper” which goes to homes in Webster, MA.  The publishers are Cheri MacKinney and Jim Winslow.  (Tim McCarthy, one of our church Deacons brought the article from the “Smart Shopper” to show me.)  According to MacKinney and Winslow, Easter will NOT fall as early as March 23 again for another 220 years!  They also stated that the date for Easter is based upon it being the first Sunday following the first full moon following the Spring Equinox.  (Incidentally, most Eastern Orthodox churches do not celebrate Easter on the same date as Catholics and Protestants...it’s usually later, and I don’t know the reason for that.)

I looked ahead  and found out that Easter in 2009 will be in April and I’m glad about that.  For me, having Easter on March 23 was about what it would be like to have Christmas on November 30 or Thanksgiving on Columbus Day.  Hey, wait a minute- in Canada Thanksgiving Day IS Columbus Day!  

I’d better stop... I’m all “calendared out”.  I hope you had a nice “traditional Easter weekend”!