Easter is too early
Could someone tell me who decides the date of Easter each year? Is it the Government, is it the Church? Whoever it is they screwed up big time this year.
I was in Ullapool on Friday and Saturday, a lovely west highland town that relies on tourism. The chap who runs the campsite there looked across the site where there less than half a dozen caravans, one tent and one camper (mine). He shrugged and told me it was the quietest Easter in Ullapool he had ever known. “There’s going to be a big long lull in business now until the summer season starts,” he lamented.
The weather, of course, was foul. Arctic blasts all weekend, which had been well documented by the media, so people obviously decided to stay at home and sit by the fire. Even the schools have been more sensible than those who decide the dates of Easter. Many schools have decided to have their week-long holiday sometime in April when, hopefully, the weather might be a little better.
I bit the bullet and went on the hill on Easter Sunday. I chose a short day in view of the weather - Meall Cuaich near Dalwhinnie and boy, was in wild. Gale force winds, stinging pellets of snow and hail, mixed visibility and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Isn’t it curious how we can distance ourselves from the nasties of the weather, wrap up well, and simply enjoy the physical challenge? I went out feeling faintly depressed at the prospect - I came home almost euphoric.
Later this week I hope to swap the vagaries of the Scottish spring for sunshine and snow in Morocco. I’m leading a trek to Toubkal in the High Atlas so while I hope there’s enough snow to make it feel like a winter ascent, I’m hoping there will be plenty of North African sunshine too.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I’m told it’s the earliest Easter in nearly a century. There’s a simple algorithm, apprently, for calcualting when Easter day falls for any year since the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar which in Britain was September 1752.
It involves (apparently) calculating the Golden Number, the date of the Paschal full moon and the Dominical Number and so on………..
Enjoy Morocco!
March 24th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Did you say a “simple” algorithm? Wouldn’t it be nice if it had a fixed date - just like Christmas?
March 24th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I did say ‘apparently’! Since I retired early a few years ago, it doesn’t really matter to me when Easter falls and generally I avoid going away,whatever the date, since favourite places are usually very busy. Come to think of it, I never got the Easter holiday when I worked anyway!
The local ‘holiday Monday’ seemed to rule.
I do feel for campsite owners though and others involved in tourism. I have a friend who owns a lovely site on Skye and I’m sure the early Easter will not have found favour with him.
All the best and thanks for the interesting site. Yours and Alan Kimber’s are easily the best walking and climbing sites around.
March 24th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
It seems that the weather was the culprit here rather than the moveable feast day. If Easter had been three weeks ago the site might have been full.
March 24th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
You might be right Des, although I can’t recall any decent weather in the Scottish highlands three weeks ago. I think the point I’m making is that, presumably, the festival of Easter is supposed to coincide with the new life of spring, the re-incarnation of the land, the promise of things to come - or am I just being too fanciful?
March 24th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
balme emperror claudius for it all
Cue “What have the Romans ever done for us …..” thoughts
March 24th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
The people who decided the date of Easter won’t hear you unless you have a time machine Cameron! It was decided by the Church in 325AD as the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 20. It can occur anytime between March 22 and April 25. Next year it’s April 20.
A fixed date would make more sense. But when?
March 24th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
April 20 sounds good to me. Thanks for the info Chris.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
You can indeed blame the church - and thank wikipedia…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter#Date_of_Easter
March 24th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Isn’t it also related to the Jewish calendar and passover (which has been celebrated since the Jews left slavery in Egypt). related to the fact that Jesus’s crucifixion was at the time of passover.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Public holidays in Scotland are a mess. Edinburgh still takes Queen Victoria’s birthday as a local holiday! I don’t understand why…
The changing date is one of the great things about Easter. Let’s remember the origin of the word ‘holiday’…
April 8th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Easter in Wales was pretty horrible too. If you ever wander through the blog pages of us lesser mortals, re Dawn-outdoors blog, I have a write up there. it was the mud that finished me. Tent, rucksack, boots etc, all slung in the bath to be scrubbed.
April 8th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
No such thing as lesser mortals in the outdoor community, Dawn. Everyone’s blog is of interest. I’ll have a look…
April 8th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Cameron, am hoping that a new tent will be through in the next week or so. fantastic for Backpackers meet. it is a Mountain Laurel design.
April 21st, 2008 at 7:44 am
Had a similar experience to you up in a campsite near Fort William at Easter - 3 tents (including ours) and 4 camper vans. Climbed Meall na Teanga and Sron a Choire Ghairbh on a day which a Glasgow lady described as “Once in a season” - sunshine, crampons over the compressed snow - glorious! Gulvain a couple of days later was a different story with waves of indifferent weather every 10 minutes it seemed. In the end we were driven back down from the south summit by howling winds and stinging snow which felt like being sand blasted. Close encounter with red deer running infront of our bikes onto a raised bit of ground above the track and then standing defiantly above us made it all worthwhile.