EASTER SUNDAY.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20498, 17 March 1932, Page 11

EASTER SUNDAY.

DESIRE FOR FIXED DATE. DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. (UNITED PRZB3 ASSOCIATION—BT ELICTRtC TEMC.HAPH— COPYSIGHT.) (Received March 16th, 11.15 p.m.) LONDON, March 16. In the House of Lords, when Lord Desborough raised the question of putting into operation tho Act fixing Easter Sunday as the day following the second Saturday of April, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Cosmo Gordon Lang, said there was unanimity among industrial, commercial, educational, and judicial interests in favour of the convenience of a fixed Easter. . The ecclesiastical authorities had no objection on the grounds of dogma or essential principles, but the Church of England strongly felt that there should be no change till all the leading Christian communities consented. Tho Holy See in Rome held the lcey to the position, and he hoped it would consent.

Lord Lucas said the Government favoured tho Act, and hoped that all religious bodies would consent.

[Easter Day this year is on March 27th, as it was in 1921 and 1910. The next occasion when it will fall on the same date (if the present method of assigning the date bo maintained) will be the year 2005. Easter Day is tho first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after tho 21st day of March, and if tho full moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter Day is the Sunday after. This definition (says an authority) is contained in an Act of the British Parliament and tho preamble to the Act explains that the day of tho Full Moon depends on certain tables that have been prepared. By the above ordinance Easter falls on one of 35 days.]