Why "Calendar"?

Why is it called a "calendar"?

The word comes from the Latin Calendae or Kalendae, which was the old Roman name for the first day of the month. That word in turn probably comes from the Latin calo ("I call" or "I announce"), a reference to the announcement made by the priests when a new month began at the new moon.

The spelling Kalendae is peculiar. The letter K is extremely rare in Latin, and since calo is spelled with a C, there is no obvious reason for the K. If anybody can explain this variant spelling, I would be very pleased to hear about it.

Best wishes,
Claus

All Easter Dates

It is very difficult to find an
appropriate illustration for this article,
so here's a picture of an aardvark.

The kind Dr. Stockton, who frequently comments on this blog, made an interesting note to my last blog entry regarding the time span required to experience all possible Easter dates. This deserves a separate article.

Regardless of whether you use the Julian or the Gregorian calendar, Easter Sunday falls between 22 March and 25 April, a total of 35 possible dates. How long a lifespan is required if you want to experience every possible Easter date?

For both calendars, the shortest possible span of years that covers all 35 dates is 72 years.

If you are a follower of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which still uses the Julian calendar, you're in luck. You may just be fortunate enough to experience all possible Easter dates. The 72-year period from 1980 to 2051 covers all Easter dates. But if you are a Westerner (Roman Catholic or Protestant) and use the Gregorian calendar, you'll have to wait until AD 6920 for the start of such a 72-year period.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have this question: What is the largest number of consecutive years required to cover all 35 possible Easter dates?

For the Julian calendar, the answer is 247 years; the last such period started in 1737. But under the Gregorian calendar, a total of 1887 years may be required to cover all possible dates for Easter. The next such period starts in AD 171,813!


Best wishes,
Claus

Easter words

Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday. These are all words that relate to the events surrounding the Easter celebrations. What do these words mean?

Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter Sunday) is so named because on that day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and people spread palm branches on the road before him.

On Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter Sunday) Jesus celebrated the last supper with his disciples. On that occasion he said, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." This command or mandate is the source of the word maundy.

On Good Friday Jesus was crucified. It may be argued that it is not very appropriate to call this good. Other languages use other terms: In German the day is called Karfreitag ("Grievous Friday"); the Scandinavian countries use the term Langfredag ("Long Friday").

On Easter Sunday Jesus became alive again. The word Easter has pagan origins. Apparently it comes from the Old English name for April, Ēostur-monath, which in turn was named after the Anglo-Saxon goddess Ēostre. Other languages use words of a Biblical origin to refer to Easter. For example, French pâques and Scandinavian påske come from Hebrew pasah ("to pass over"), which refers to the angel of death passing over the houses of the Israelites on the eve of their exodus from Egypt under Moses.

Happy Easter!
Claus