So
here's my 'Ways that the date of Easter is calculated each year' bullshit:
There
are two giant dice with all the possible dates in March and April, and every so
often the Prime Minister and the Archbishop of Canterbury get together and
throw one each and they set the dates for the next few years.
There's a secret book that was edited out of the Bible. 'The Book of
Bunnies'. It is held in storage at the Vatican and is only accessible by three
select bishops per generation. That book contains a code that randomises the
date each year, so no enemies of the church can pinpoint a good day to attack.
Turtles. Trained turtles...
God, in the form of a hungover Jewish bus driver in New York, appears once
a decade to dictate the dates to a special group of nuns - 'The Sisters of
Silliness' - who write the dates down using a special ink made of camel's blood
and rat's urine.
It is, quite simply, the third weekend after the anniversary of the day when Cleopatra
had her shoe stolen by a passing hawk when she was sunning herself after a
particularly taxing meeting with some Persians. As the original manuscript
naming that day has been lost, it is now calculated as being the third weekend
after the first goshawk hatches from a designated nest on the banks of the
Nile. The nest in question is chosen by being the first one built using a twig
from a particular acacia tree that is next to a hidden monastery, deep within a
secluded wood. The particular tree is picked by the monk who that year has been
granted the title "Keeper of the Sacred Walnut' (normally whichever monk
is closest in height to five feet ten, and closest in age to 24.)
And here's the real one, just to remind you, and to show that my own 'ideas'
weren't so far-fetched...
Easter is set as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the
Spring equinox.
That's a very simplified explanation, and if you want to really have a laugh,
look up 'computus paschalis' (which is the church's method of working it all
out), and read the lengthy history and complicated details...It really is
ridiculous.
RC 26-4-25
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