The Evening Star THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1927. A FIXED EASTER.

Evening Star, Issue 19533, 14 April 1927, Page 6

The Evening Star THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1927. A FIXED EASTER.

Easter, which is again approaching, is the most important feast of the Christian year. But it would be much more conveniently observed from a business and holiday viewpoint, if it were less of a movable feast. Except that of Christmas, combined with New Year, it makes the biggest holiday break in the year, and a disadvantage of its varying incidence is that half the world is generally uncertain up till a week or so beforehand when it is going to fall. It should know, but when the dates can vary over such a long period it finds it very easy to forget. Since the eighth century in Western Christendom Easter Day has been celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon, or after the fourteenth day of the moon, following March 21. Thus it cannot fall before March 22 nor after April 25. The fourteenth day of the Calendar moon, or ecclesiastical full moon, which regulates the date of Easter, falls, however, usually on the loth or 16th of the real moon. The date is worked out for us by competent authorities, or there might be no end to our confusion; but even so there is much inconvenience in this want of fixity. It may fall in the last days of March, when business firms are preparing their returns for the end of the financial year, making the worst dislocation of their routine, or, if it happens too late in April, the prospect must bo the smallest for a fine weather holiday. All these disadvantages are incr -sed in England, where the date of Easter governs law, university, and school terms and business arrangements generally. It is no wonder, in these circumstances, that in the Old World there has been a growing agitation for a fixed Easter. It is a movement which has gained many strong and influential supporters in recent years. A fow weeks ago Mr Withers, one of the members for Cambridge University, introduced a Bill in the House of Commons “to regulate the date of Easter Day.” We do not know what has been or will bo the fate of -his measure, but tbo wayhad been so well prepared for it that its friends were not without hope that it might be passed. ‘The Times’ gave it its blessing in a leading article, in which it explained that the Bill was based on the report issued last October by the special committee of the League of Nations appointed to inquire into the reform of the Gregorian Calendar. On this larger question, after considering nearly two hundred schemes sent in by thirty-three different countries, the committee was unable, at the time when it reported, to present a definite judgment. It advised, however, that the date of Easter should ho fixed for the Sunday following the second- Saturday in April. The date would then vary between April 8 and April 14, instead of over a period of thirty-five days. It seems a good suggestion. A fixed Easter should go naturally with a fixed summer time, already adopted by Great Britain and the countries of Western Europe. Since the Rrayer Book is to be generally revised, few objections can be felt by English Churchmen, it is pointed out by ‘ The Times,’ to “ alterations in the Table of Movable Feasts and the cryptic machinery of the Golden Numbers.” Decisions already expressed give no reason to believe that the proposal is likely to meet with any invincible objections from religious bodies. A resolution which was adopted by the Upper House of the Convocation of Canterbury in April, 1925, stated that there was no dogmatic reason why the church should oppose a fixed date for Easter, but that the Church of England should not consent to the change unless it were accepted by the other Christian communities. The Greek Church has laid down that, if all the other churches are in agreement, it has no objection to a fixed Easter provided it is fixed on a Sunday. The Roman Catholic Church sees no sufficient reason for. .the change, but agrees that tiier© are no difficulties involved from cue point of view of dogma. The Archbishop of Canterbury, in supporting the suggestion six years ago in the House of Lords, said that, without speaking in any way officially, he bad reason to believe that the attitude of tho Holy See was one of willingness to sanction the change provided that a practically unanimous request to that effect was received from the'» principal Governments. The idea has been approved by the English ‘ Tablet.’ Secular support has been given to it in Britain by tho Federation of British Industries, many Chambers of Commerce, civil authorities, and colleges and schools; by railway and shipping companies, bankers, lawyers, financiers; by the whole of the largo section of the community that goes holiday-making in the spring of the year; and, as their representatives, by a large number of members of Parliament belonging to all political parties. It is claimed that the demand for it has not been less strong in the European countries. An Easter that should come between April 8 and April 14 would be much more conveniently fixed, sp far as this country is concerned, than at some dates on which it can fall under present circumstances. We may yet see it so established.