l = ((57 - E) / 7)_r = ((57 - 26) / 7)_r = (31 / 7)_r = 3;
consequently, since p = P + (L - l),
p = 28 + (4 - 3) = 29;
that is to say, Easter happens twenty-nine days after the 21st of March, or
on the 19th April, the same result as was before found from the tables.
The principal church feasts depending on Easter, and the times of their
celebration are as follows:--
Septuagesima Sunday } { 9 weeks }
First Sunday in Lent } is { 6 weeks } before Easter.
Ash Wednesday } { 46 days }
Rogation Sunday { 5 weeks }
Ascension day or Holy Thursday } { 39 days }
Pentecost or Whitsunday } is { 7 weeks } after Easter.
Trinity Sunday } { 8 weeks }
The Gregorian calendar was introduced into Spain, Portugal and part of
Italy the same day as at Rome. In France it was received in the same year
in the month of December, and by the Catholic states of Germany the year
following. In the Protestant states of Germany the Julian calendar was
adhered to till the year 1700, when it was decreed by the diet of
Regensburg that the new style and the Gregorian correction of the
intercalation should be adopted. Instead, however, of employing the golden
numbers and epacts for the determination of Easter and the movable feasts,
it was resolved that the equinox and the paschal moon should be found by
astronomical computation from the Rudolphine tables. But this method,
though at first view it may appear more accurate, was soon found to be
attended with numerous inconveniences, and was at length in 1774 abandoned
at the instance of Frederick II., king of Prussia. In Denmark and Sweden
the reformed calendar was received about the same time as in the Protestant
states of Germany. It is remarkable that Russia still adheres to the Julian
reckoning.
In Great Britain the alteration of the style was for a long time
successfully opposed by popular prejudice. The inconvenience, however, of
using a different date from that employed by the greater part of Europe in
matters of history and chronology began to be generally felt; and at length
the Calendar (New [v.04 p.1000] Style) Act 1750 was passed for the adoption
of the new style in all public and legal transactions. The difference of
the two styles, which then amounted to eleven days, was removed by ordering
the day following the 2nd of September of the year 1752 to be accounted the
14th of that month; and in order to preserve uniformity in future, the
Gregorian rule of intercalation respecting the secular years was adopted.
At the same time, the commencement of the legal year was changed from the
25th of March to the 1st of January. In Scotland, January 1st was adopted
for New Year's Day from 1600, according to an act of the privy council in
December 1599. This fact is of importance with reference to the date of
legal deeds executed in Scotland between that period and 1751, when the
change was effected in England. With respect to the movable feasts, Easter
is determined by the rule laid down by the council of Nice; but instead of
employing the new moons and epacts, the golden numbers are prefixed to the
days of the _full_ moons. In those years in which the line of epacts is
changed in the Gregorian calendar, the golden numbers are removed to
different days, and of course a new table is required whenever the solar or
lunar equation occurs. The golden numbers have been placed so that Easter
may fall on the same day as in the Gregorian calendar. The calendar of the
church of England is therefore from century to century the same in form as
the old Roman calendar, excepting that the golden numbers indicate the full
moons instead of the new moons.
_Hebrew Calendar._--In the construction of the Jewish calendar numerous
details require attention. The calendar is dated from the Creation, which
is considered to have taken place 3760 years and 3 months before the
commencement of the Christian era. The year is luni-solar, and, according
as it is ordinary or embolismic, consists of twelve or thirteen lunar
months, each of which has 29 or 30 days. Thus the duration of the ordinary
year is 354 days, and that of the embolismic is 384 days. In either case,
it is sometimes made a day more, and sometimes a day less, in order that
certain festivals may fall on proper days of the week for their due
observance. The distribution of the embolismic years, in each cycle of 19
years, is determined according to the following rule:--
The number of the Hebrew year (Y) which has its commencement in a Gregorian
year (x) is obtained by the addition of 3761 years; that is, Y = x + 3761.
Divide the Hebrew year by 19; then the quotient is the number of the last
completed cycle, and the remainder is the year of the current cycle. If the
remainder be 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17 or 19 (0), the year is embolismic; if any
other number, it is ordinary. Or, otherwise, if we find the remainder