The Dominion MONDAY, MARCH 28, 1932. RATIONALISING TRADITION

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 155, 28 March 1932, Page 8

The Dominion MONDAY, MARCH 28, 1932. RATIONALISING TRADITION

In some respects the progress of civilisation has consisted in various attempts to rationalise tradition. Ancient customs, deeply rooted in social, religious, and national sentiment, but hampering in practice the efforts of mankind to adjust itself to new conditions and the increasing complexities of modern life, have been found to be not easily amenable to change. ■Having in many instances pioneered the way, the advocates have handed their causes to the politicians, and the latter have, tempered their actions to the whims and prejudices of public opinion. One of the most interesting of these reformative efforts, and of acknowledged importance to the more efficient regulation and operation of modern social machinery, is the proposal to rationalise the Calendar and stabilise the Easter date. Persistent advocacy of these changes, which strike deeply-rooted tradition as perhaps no outstanding social question has done for centuries, has carried the question finally to the League of Nations. In recent years Geneva has become the recognised forum for the discussion and attempted settlement of so'cial questions affecting humanity in general. Substantial and very valuable work, largely ,of an educational kind, has been accomplished in regard to the regulation of the drug traffic, social hygiene, conditions of labour, and other problems concerning the welfare of society. In handling the question of Calendar reform and the stabilisation of the Easter date the League has approached it from two points, ,the first being to construct from various suggestions a scheme that would give a static character to dates and periods, and the second to reconcile religious prejudice with the idea of secular interference with a movable feast. , By 1929 the League had reached the point of declaring that “public opinion no longer regards the present Calendar as a law of Nature or as a sacred and inviolable institution. Its inconveniences are felt by the business and commercial world, by scientific statisticians, and by professional men who must conform their annual activities or studies to its caprices.” A special committee, which included representatives of the Holy See, of the CEcumenical Patriarch, and of the Archbishop of Canterbury, expressed the view that neither the stabilisation of Easter nor the reform of the Gregorian Calendar was likely to encounter insurmountable difficulties. In October last these questions were carried a stage further by a resolution of the General Transit Conference of the League, to which they had been referred, that the most appropriate date for Easter would be the Sunday - following the second Saturday in April, that the Council of the League should invite the opinions of the religious authorities on the suggestion, and that these should be communicated to the various Governments before April 30, 1933. As to the Calendar itself, the Conference considered that the moment was inopportune for a general reform—it should be reformed radically, or not at all. Radical reform would involve the introduction of perpetual calendars, alternatively of twelve or thirteen months. “Failing a very strong movement of public opinion in favour of. one or other of these systems,” concluded the Conference, “their introduction would be very difficult or even impossible, particularly as they must give rise to opposition on the part of various religious communities and certain social organisations.” All this does not carry the appearance of definite progress, but the League considers that the work so far accomplished has not been in vain. The reform of the Calendar and the stabilisation of Easter have become public questions, and have been definitely introduced into the sphere of practical politics. The next phase of the question is the education of public opinion, and the initiative in this connection might well be taken by the organisations in society which form the links between the peoples and Parliaments of the various countries.