be found set against each year, in Table I. In Leap-year, it is to be observed, that, owing to the insertion of an additional day after the 28th of February, the order of the letters are there displaced one day; and consequently they give occasion for two Sunday letters for every Leap-year, the first of which shows Sunday for January and February, and the second for all the remaining ten months of that year. The stated times, which we are concerned to observe, are, the days of religious and civil observance. Of these, some are fixed; and they are accordingly inserted in the Calendar, over against the day of the month to which they are severally assigned. Other stated times are moveable; depending upon one principal day, which varies its place in the Calendar every year, because that place is to be determined by the day of the full moon of the month of March of each year. That principal day, is EASTER-DAY; upon which depend all the days of religious observance, that have not a fixed 'place assigned to them in the Calendar. Easter-day, is always the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon, or next after, the 21st day of March; and if the full moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter-day is the Sunday following. Easter-day cannot fall earlier than the 22d of March, nor later than the 25th of April; which two days are therefore called, the Easter limits. As the fixing the great festival of Easter, which governs the whole series of moveable days of observance, depends upon finding the full moon upon, or next after, the 21st of MARCH; it became necessary to establish some common and universal rule, which should serve for the whole Christian church, for determining that moon, and the great festival which was to be regulated by it. This gave rise to the invention of THE EPACT, already mentioned; by means of which, Easter-day has been determined since the year 1582, when the Epact was first publicly employed for that purpose by Pope GREGORY XIII. This ecclesiastical epuct, however, as it has already been intimated, though of sufficiently general accuracy for the purposes to which it is applied, is nevertheless defective in minute exactness; for which reason, astronomers have calculated exactly the annual differences of the solar and lunar revolutions, and have reduced those differences into Tables of astronomical epacts; for which, see M. de la Lande's Astronomie, Tom. I. p. 102, (Tables), and Tom. II. p. 239, &c. When Easter-day is known for any year, all the other moveable days of observance are known by the following rules. Advent Sunday is always the nearest Sunday to the Feast of St. Andrew, whether before or after; which feast is always fixed to the 30th of November. Maundy Thursday, is three days before Easter-day. Good Friday, is two days The number of Sundays, after Trinity, and after Advent, are determined, by the distance of Easterday from the Feast of St. Andrew, and by the distance of the Feast of St. Andrew from Easter-day following. All these days are shown in Table II., where, by finding Easter-day for the year, in the first column, all the other moveable days for that year are found also. The Sundays between Ash-Wednesday and Easter-day, are called Sundays in Lent; and the Sundays between Easter-day and Whit-Sunday are called Sundays after Easter. Besides these days of religious observance, certain periods are fixed for the business of our courts of judicature; which are called the LAW TERMS. Easter Term begins 17 days after Easter, and ends the Monday following Ascension-day. Trinity Term begins 12 days after Whitsuntide, and continues 19 days. Michaelmas Term begins the 9th or 10th of October, and ends the 28th or 29th of November. Hilary Term begins 23d or 24th January, and ends 12th or 13th February. |