White Violet. _Viola alba._
Dedicated to _St. Francis_ of Paula.
[63] Butler.
[64] Ribadeneira.
~Moveable feasts.~
⁂ AN ERROR _under the above title having crept into the_ Every-Day
Book, _at p. 190, and also extended to the_ list _of “Moveable
feasts,” the reader will please to correct that list, &c. by the
following statement._
_Shrove Sunday_ is the Sunday next before Shrove Tuesday. It is also
called _Quinquagesima_ Sunday.
_Shrove Tuesday_ is always the seventh Tuesday before _Easter-day_.
_Care, or Carle Sunday_ is the fifth Sunday in Lent, and the second
Sunday before _Easter-day_.
_Maundy Thursday_, also called _Chare_ or _Shere_ Thursday, is the day
before _Good Friday_.
_Good Friday_ is the Friday in Passion-week, and consequently the Friday
next before _Easter-day_.
EASTER-DAY is always the first Sunday after the first _full_ moon, which
happens on or next after the 21st of March; but if the _full_ moon
happens upon a Sunday, _Easter-day_ is the Sunday following.
_Octave or Utas of a Feast._
_The Octave_ or _Utas_ of each feast is always the eighth day after it
occurs; for example, the feast of St. Hillary is the 13th of January,
hence the _octave_ of St. Hillary is the 22d of January.
†⸸†THESE CORRECTIONS _would have been made in the sheet itself, but a
great number of copies having been printed, before the error was
discovered, it became necessary to postpone the rectification._ See NOTE
below.[65]
[65] Mr. NICOLAS obligingly informs me, that since his “_Notitia
Historica_” was printed, he has ascertained that the rule laid down
for _Shrove Tuesday_, in that work, was not correct, and that having
made some alterations in the event of a second edition being demanded,
and finding I had cited the part containing the error, he thought it
right to send me a copy of his corrections, from whence the preceding
list is formed. There can scarcely be a doubt that a second edition of
Mr. Nicolas’s “_Notitia Historica_” will be required speedily, because
the series of Tables, Calendars, and miscellaneous information which
it contains must be eminently useful, not only to the legal
profession, antiquaries, and every historical and topographical
inquirer, but to general readers, many of whom daily suffer
inconvenience without such a source of reference. W. H.
~Easter.~
EASTER-DAY is distinguished by its peculiar name, through our Saxon
ancestors, who at this season of the year held a great festival, in
honour of the goddess Eastor, probably the Astarte of the eastern
nations. The French call this festival _Paques_, derived from the Greek
_pascha_, which is also derived from the Hebrew _pesech_, meaning
passover; and whence we have the English word _paschal_, applied to the
lamb, which formed part of the evening meal, the last of which our
saviour partook, before his death, with his twelve missionaries. In
Cambridgeshire the word pasch is still in use, and applied to a flower
which appears at this time on the Gogmagog hills and its environs. The
day is of importance in a civil, as well as in a religious, light; for
on this day depend the openings of our courts of law, which take place
after it, and the festivals of the church are arranged in conformity to
it. By the act of parliament on this subject, and the rule given in
conformity to it in the “Common Prayer-Book,” which of course every
body has an opportunity of seeing, “EASTER-DAY _is always the first_
Sunday _after the_ Full Moon, _which happens upon, or next after, the
twenty-first day of_ March; _and if the Full Moon happen upon a Sunday_,
Easter-day _is the Sunday after._”
One would think, that when such precise directions had been given, and
the state of the moon on any day is so clearly and easily ascertained,
that there would be no difficulty in following them; but experience has
proved that contrary deviations from the act of parliament have been
numerous. These have been pointed out at various times, but without any
effect on the public. In the year 1735, Henry Wilson, of Tower-hill,
styling himself mathematician, denounced the errors on this subject in a
very ingenious work, entitled “The regulation of Easter, or the cause of
the errours and differences contracted in the calculation of it,
discovered and duly considered, showing--The frequency and consequence
of that errour, with the cause from whence it proceeds, and a method
proposed for rectifying it, and reconciling the differences about it,
and for restoring the time of celebrating that great solemnity in its
primitive certainty and exactness, and that without the difficulty and
confusion which some have objected would attend such a regulation.” 8vo.
Within these few years an error in the observance of Easter took place,
and on all the almanacs fixing an improper day for its observance, a
memorial was presented to the lords in council and to the prince regent,
humbly soliciting their interference on this subject. It was noticed
also by Mr. Frend, in his “Evening Amusements;” and a clergyman of
Oxford published a pamphlet on the occasion. There was also, we believe,
one clergyman, who, disregarding the almanac, obeyed the rubric, and
read the services for Easter-day, and the Sundays depending on it, on
very different days from those adopted in other churches. It was
remarkable also, that in that very year, judge Garrow arrived at
Gloucester a short time after twelve o’clock at night, of the day on
which the assizes were to commence, and the high-sheriff very properly
representing his scruples, on the legality of then commencing the
assizes, they were delayed till the opinion of the judges could be
taken, and the consequence was, the issuing of a new writ. Thus the
difference of a few minutes was considered fatal to the opening of a
country court, though the courts of law at Westminster had been opened a
few months before, when a much greater error had taken place with
respect to Easter-day, on which, as before observed, the opening of
those courts depends.
To understand this subject we must refer back to the origin of this
festival, instituted in honour of the resurrection of our saviour, which
took place on the third day after his execution as a malefactor. Friday
had been fixed upon as the day of commemorating his death, and as that
took place on the day of full moon, the first full moon after the
twenty-first of March was fixed upon as the regulator of the festival.
The great point had in view was to prevent the festival of Easter-day
from being observed on the day of a full moon, but as near to it as
circumstances would admit, and in consequence there is a great
difference in the times of observing this festival; it being specially
provided, however, that it should happen _after_ a full moon. The Jews
observe their passover by juster rules; the day for the celebration of
it taking place on different days of the week: but the Christians having
fixed on Friday for the celebration of the fast on the death of our
saviour, the Easter-day, on the following Sunday, was accommodated to
it, and both were so fixed, that there could not be a full moon on the
Easter-day, nor for some weeks after it.
In this year, 1825, the full moon occurs at twenty-three minutes past
six in the morning of the _third_ of April; consequently, according to
the act of parliament, and the rubric of the church, Easter-day ought to
be celebrated on the _tenth_, and the courts of law ought to open, or
Easter term begin, on the twenty-seventh; but our almanac-makers thought
good to fix Easter-day on the _third_, and consequently Easter term is
placed by them on the _twentieth_, on which day it is presumed that
judicial proceedings will commence.
Easter-day is observed all over Christendom with peculiar rites. In the
catholic church high mass is celebrated, the host is adored with the
greatest reverence, and both Catholics and Protestants might be led from
it, to a more particular attention to the circumstances attending its
form and substance. The _host_, derived from the Latin word _hostia_,
meaning a victim, is a consecrated wafer, of a circular form, composed
of flour and water. Both substance and form are regulated by custom of
very ancient date. On the night before his execution, our saviour took
bread, and blessing it, divided it among his missionaries; but the bread
he took was not ordinary bread, but unleavened bread, such as is used by
the Jews during the passover week in the present days. This bread is
composed of merely flour and water, no leaven during the festival of
their passover being permitted to enter the house of a Jew. It is a kind
of biscuit of a circular form, and the _host_ thus, by its form and
substance, brings us back to the recollection of the Catholics, and the
rite celebrated by our saviour. It is the representation of the Jewish
cake, or unleavened bread, which is to this day eaten by that nation
during the passover week.
The Protestants have deviated from this custom, and in their churches
use leavened bread, without any regard to form, and they cut it with a
knife into small pieces, forgetting that our saviour broke the bread;
but some use leavened bread, and, as they cannot break it, they attempt
to imitate our saviour’s action by tearing it in pieces.
For those who wish to have a more comprehensive view of this subject,
the following works are recommended: Cardinal Bona on the mass; Dean
Comber on the liturgy; and above all, the Hebrew ritual, which is
translated into English, and to which both Catholics and Protestants are
indebted for greater part of their services.[66]
[66] This article on “Easter” is _communicated_ by the gentleman who
favoured the editor with the account of the “Vernal Equinox,” at p.
375.
~April 3.~