1 Date of Easter-day
Easter-day shall, in the calendar year next but one after the commencement of this Act and in all subsequent years, be the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April, and section three of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, the new calendar, tables and rules annexed to that Act, and section two of theCalendar Act 1751 are hereby amended and shall be read and construed accordingly, and, in particular, theCalendar (New Style) Act 1750 shall, as respects such calendar years as aforesaid, have effect as if in the “Rules to know when Moveable Feasts and Holy Days begin” contained in that Act, for the words “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 happens upon a Sunday, Easter Day is the Sunday after”, there shall be substituted the words “is always the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April”.
Perhaps the problem is that the Christian Churches have to be consulted before the change can be made:
This Act shall commence and come into operation on such date as may be fixed by Order of His Majesty in Council, provided that, before any such Order in Council is made, a draft thereof shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament, and the Order shall not be made unless both Houses by resolution approve the draft either without modification or with modifications to which both Houses agree, but upon such approval being given the order may be made in the form in which it has been so approved: Provided further that, before making such draft order, regard shall be had to any opinion officially expressed by any Church or other Christian body.
A schedule to the 1750 Act mentioned above is still in force and provides as follows:
EASTER-DAY, on which the rest depend, 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 happens upon a Sunday, Easter Day is the Sunday after.
Odd that we remain governed by a religious law now 261 years old, which in fact makes our lives governed by the moon. High time HMG brought into force an Act of Parliament, now 83 year old, so that we might have the modern certainty of a fixed calendar, rather than the mystical whim of the lunar progress......
Given that there is absolutely no chance that either the Catholic church will change the date of Easter (and only a small chance that anyone other than indigenous UK churches will either), this makes absolutely no sense - even less than current arrangements. We would be left celebrating Easter on a different day to the rest of the western world. Moreover, Catholic employees would no doubt feel aggrieved to lose the Good Friday.
ReplyDeleteThis Act of Parliament dates back to an era when Britain carried considerably more weight than it does now and when it felt far more able to ignore the way foreigners did things - it is utterly out of keeping with the modern world.