As has been our custom ever since these broadcasts started nearly four\u00a0years ago, we shall devote tonight’s program to the subject of Easter. There\u00a0have been few times in human history when men so obviously needed the Easter\u00a0message of hope and renewal as we need it today. Pessimism, frustration, despair\u00a0assail us on every hand. We are told our country was never more prosperous,\u00a0yet every fami Iy’s share in the national debt is over six thousand\u00a0dollars. We are told there are signs of a revival of religious and moral principles,\u00a0yet corruption reaches into the highest levels of business, professions\u00a0and government.(The season of Lent in 1954 had already begun when we learned\u00a0the news of incredible destruction wrought by the H bomb)* When in thousands\u00a0of years on earth, man seems tochave learned I ittle more than how to ki II each\u00a0other more efficiently, more horribly, and in greater numbers, God may well be\u00a0asked the question of the psalmist, “What is man that Thou art mindful of him?”<\/p>\n
Into such doubting and cy.nical thinking comes this day the Easter message,\u00a0telling us that the basic principle is not death, but life — not despair, but\u00a0hope not frustration, but faith. That which was dead sti I~ lives. The last,\u00a0lone hope of the disciples, nai led to a Roman cross of grim despair, has sprung\u00a0a live again. The dark frustrations of Gethsemane, buried In an even darker\u00a0tomb, have given way to abiding faith. What is man that Thou are mindful of\u00a0him? Man is the embod i ment of life — life to be made eterna I because the\u00a0Ange I of the Lord rolled away the stone from the door.<\/p>\n
This sentence was apparently added when this script was re-broadcast in 1954.\u00a0Easter customs have changed much through the ages# and some of them have\u00a0changed within comparatively recent years. In my boyhood, in a Maine vi J I age\u00a0under the foothirlls of the Wh i te Mounta I ns, I never saw any recogn i ti on gi ven\u00a0to Good Friday. I suppose the reason was that, in the first decade of this\u00a0century, in Maine communities Good Friday was given special significance only\u00a0by Roman Catholics and Episcopalians. Neithe,r of those faiths had a church in\u00a0my boyhood town. We had four churches — Congregational, Methodist, Universalist\u00a0and Advent — and none of them paid any attention to Good Friday, though\u00a0all of them celebrated Easter.<\/p>\n
Nor do I recall any recognition of Palm Sunday, and what is more, there\u00a0was no nOT ice of Lent. I cannot reca II that I had ever heard of Lent unt i I I\u00a0was a student in college. Ash Wednesday had no meaning in my rural Maine vi 1-\u00a0lage.\u00a0My earl iest recollection of Easter is of hearing my mother and my aunts\u00a0talking about new clothes, and when I was about ten years old I went with my\u00a0father on the grocery wagon one Sunday afternoon, carry i ng Easter I i I ies from\u00a0the church to the homes of sick folks. And’ have a fond memory of hearing\u00a0the joyous Easter story read from the scripture by a woman preacher sti II living,\u00a0residing now at the Sunset Home here in Watervi lie. For, when I was a\u00a0boy in grammar school, the minister of my rural church was Miss Hannah Powe’ 10\u00a0Since few boys pay any attention to fashions and clothes, probably the\u00a0ladies did don new hats and new dresses at Easter, half a century ago. But,\u00a0frankly, I cannot remember anything about it. I can recall that, a couple of\u00a0times a year, Aunt Mary Woodbury, the village dress maker, would cane to the\u00a0house, bUT I have no reco Ilect i on at a II of the creat ions made by those vis its\u00a0nor whether they occurred at Easter time.\u00a0Certainly in my boyhood town there were none of those sunrise Easter servi\u00a0ces. The once a year church goers — and I suppose there were some of that\u00a0breed even fifty years ago — had to go inside a church edifice and at a conventional\u00a0church hour. There was no rushing to a hi I I top for sunrise service,\u00a0then rush I ng Jus t as mad I y off to the country club to see if the second green\u00a0was dry enough to use.<\/p>\n
For a reference to Easter 75 years ago, I am indebted to Clifton McMullen\u00a0of the Watervi lie Senti ne I staff. Mrs. McMullen’s great grandfather was Joseph\u00a0Clark, a prominent lumberman of Somerset County, and In 1878 proprietor of the\u00a0hote I at The For,ks, whl ch I tol d you about severa I weeks ago. Mrs. McMullen\u00a0has in her possession a letter which Joseph Clark received from one Charles\u00a0Boon in April, 1878. The letter Is addressed from Parlin Pond and says:\u00a0“Mr. Clark. Dear Sir: P lease send up to me one ga lion of mol asses and a\u00a0dollar’s worth of flour by stage and I will send you fish for them as soon as\u00a0I catch them. I have no ice chisel or I might send them sooner. Easter Is co<\/em>mi\u00a0ng on and I want someth i ng better on Pa 1m Sunday as we II as the next Sabbath.\u00a0I have nothing here but Indian meal, and that wi II not make bread without stove\u00a0or baker, and have none of either. I have nothing to put either roo lasses or\u00a0flour in that can send, but whatever comes I will rem I t back by return of\u00a0i!~\u00a0stage. Yours truly, Chas. Boon.”<\/p>\n We hope and bel ieve Mr. Boon got his Easter supplies, for we understand\u00a0Joseph Clark was a gracious and ~indly man. How we should count our Easter\u00a0blessings and be ashamed of our complaining and our confusion when we think of\u00a0Mr. Boon 75 years ago in the wilderness up around Parlin Pond, asking only for\u00a0molasses and flour to celebrate Easter.\u00a0Evidence that little attention was paid to Easter a hundred years ago Is\u00a0shown by a perusal of the old newspapers. For Instance, the Kennebec Journal\u00a0I n the sprl ng of 1859 was comp lete I y s I lent on the subject of Easter. Although\u00a0it contains plenty of Items pertaining to churches, there is no evidence that\u00a0Easter Sunday was regarded as di fferent from any other Sunday down in the State\u00a0Capital in 1859.<\/p>\n But the Journal did give recognition to another spring observance that\u00a0has long since passed Into ob II vion In Ma Ine. I refer to Fast Day. In Its\u00a0issue of Aprl I 22, 1859 the Journal said: ”We issue our paper this week sanewhat\u00a0In advance, in order to accomodate ourselves and our friends in the observance\u00a0of the annua I State Fast — the po lit i ca I Sabbath of the year, In\u00a0which the effort of all should be made to repent of and put away the sinfulness\u00a0of the i r I i vas. It I s thought by some that every form of d lsease in the\u00a0physical system is but an outward expression of the moral and spiritual states\u00a0of men. If that be so, then the real curative process should be very thorough.\u00a0One of our duties on this Fast Day Is to look into the matter.”<\/p>\n We are sti II plagued by the w I de I y shi ft i ng date of Easter. Un II ke\u00a0Christmas, the other great festival of the church, it does not give us the conven\u00a0lence of fa II I ng a Iways on the same day of the mo.nth. I n a II western\u00a0Christendom the date of Easter is fixed as the fi rst Sunday after the fi rst\u00a0full moon after the varna I equinox. The vernal equinox is the astronomer’s\u00a0term for the time when the sun crosses the equator in the turn from winter to\u00a0summer. That date is usually the 21st of March, although the exact time may\u00a0vary from afternoon of the 20th to afternoon of the 22nd. I f the ‘moon reaches\u00a0Its fu lion the night of the 20th, and the exact hour of the equ i nox has come\u00a0the same afternoon, and the following day is Sunday, that day, March 21, is\u00a0Easter. That combination of events can happen only once in several thousand\u00a0years. More usually mentioned in the accounts of Easter as its earliest possib\u00a0Ie date is March 22nd.<\/p>\n When the equinox falls on March 21 and the moon has been at its full on\u00a0the previous night, it will come to the full again on April 18th. If that date\u00a0is a Sunday, Easter will not come until the following Sunday, April 25. That\u00a0is the last possible date for Easter. Easter may f.all then anywhere between\u00a0March 21 and Aprl I 25. In the. 200.\u00b7 years between 1901 and 2100 Easter wi II not occur on either March 21 or 22. The’earl iest date for Easter in that whole\u00a0period of two centuries wi II be March 23, and that wi II happen just twice. In\u00a0fact one of the occasions has already come and gone, for it was In 1913. It\u00a0w I I I happen aga I n I n the year 2008.\u00a0On the other hand, twice during this 200 .years from 1901 to 2100 Easter\u00a0w I II fa lion the latest poss i b Ie date, Ap rll 25. One of those occurences was\u00a0only nine years ago in the midst of the war In 1943. The other occasion wi II\u00a0be In the year 2038. Twice also Easter will fallon April 24th in that long\u00a0period, in 2011 and in 2095.<\/p>\n School and college students speak so frequently of thei r Easter vacation\u00a0that they find It hard to understand why the vacation does not always coincide\u00a0with Easter. The truth is that, in most schools, the vacation is a spring recess,\u00a0pretty we II f I xed to fa II with I n a stated period I n the ca lendar year.\u00a0With the date of Easter shifting as much as 35 days, the spring recess would In\u00a0some years come so I ate as to leave I itt Ie room for c I asses between its end and\u00a0graduation, If the recess Included Easter Day. You wi II therefore find that\u00a0most schools make no attempt to have their spring vacation habitually Include\u00a0Easter, although it does frequently include it.<\/p>\n The gospe I s record that our Lord ce lebrated the Passover on Thursday,\u00a0whi Ie the Jewish priests, Including Caiaphas, the high priest before whom the\u00a0accused Jesus was brought, celebrated it on Friday, the day of the crucifixion.\u00a0Since the Jewish day Is always counted from sunset to sunset, the explanation\u00a0may lie in the Jewish and non-Jewish differences In the account. At an’y rate\u00a0the difference led to bitter and bloody controversy in the ear Iy church. It\u00a0was not unti I the Counci I of Nicaea in the year 325 that it was decided that\u00a0Easter sha II a Iways fa lion a Sunday, but It left a method of fixing Easter\u00a0that causes a lot of confusion in the modern world. Not only school terms,\u00a0but law terms, business arrangements, and Industrial plans are affected by a\u00a0moving Easter. Ever since 1900 Chambers of Commerce, both national and international,\u00a0have passed resolutions favoring a fixed date for Easter, as we have\u00a0for Christmas. When the International Congress of Chambers of Commerce met\u00a0in Rome in 1923, an ardent resolution for a fixed Easter was addressed to the\u00a0Holy See, In 1925 the matter was referred to the League of Nations, which\u00a0summoned a conference of the Roman, Eastern Orthodox and Ang I i can churches,\u00a0and it was agreed that there existed practically a unanimous wish throughout\u00a0the Christian world for a fixed Easter.<\/p>\n About fi fty years ago a bi II was introduced Into the British Pari iament\u00a0fixing the date of Easter as the second Sunday in April. One of the arguments\u00a0for the bi II was that it is the nearest Sunday to the generally accepted date\u00a0of the event which Easter commemorates. Although it is impossible to give uncontestable\u00a0proof of the exact date of crucifixion and resurrection, the weight\u00a0of scholarly opinion fixes the criciflxion as having occurred on Friday, Apri I\u00a07, A.D. 30.\u00a0In 1928 Pari iament fina Ily passed a fixed Easter bi II, stating that Easter\u00a0should always be on the first Sunday after the second Saturday in Aprl I. But\u00a0the bit I contained a joker — the provision that it should not become effective\u00a0in the Angl ican church unti I it had international acceptance. That acceptance\u00a0has never been secured, and Easter stil I fluctuates by 35 days, as It has done\u00a0ever since the Counci I of N i cooa 1,627 years ago.<\/p>\n Trying to fix dates and arrange calendars to coincide with Mother Nature\u00a0Is a difficult Job, because any division the mathematician makes just doesn’t\u00a0come out even. As everybody knows, there iss light Iy more time than 365 days\u00a0in a solar year. That’s why we have to have Leap Year every four years. Even\u00a0that added day doesn’t quite even things up; so in the even hundred years,\u00a0Leap Year is every 400th year.\u00a0The modern fixing of Easter Is accord Ing to ca lendar tab les prepared for\u00a0Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, when he reformed the whole calendar, in an attempt\u00a0to reconcile the solar year with the lunar year. It was simply an impossible\u00a0job, and those tables sometimes produce strange results. For Instance, in 1923\u00a0the fu II moon fe I I exact I y on the Sunday g I van by the tab les for the ce lebratlon\u00a0of Easter; as a result the Resurrection, going by the real moon, was being\u00a0celebrated before the Crucifixion.<\/p>\n But a II th1s about the date of Easter is of mere pass Ing interest. What\u00a0counts is the significance of Easter, whenever It falls. Let us never forget\u00a0that Easter, coming at the time when the buds and seeds of spring come into\u00a0being, reminds us that no Roman cross could end a glorious life; that we are\u00a0not doomed puppets In a mechanical universe; that, however dark and fearsome\u00a0the way, however shut up in the tomb of despair, the Angel of the Lord will\u00a0rol I away the stone from the door.<\/p>\n Year: 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #144, broadcast on April 13. 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[787,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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