About Easter
“AREN’T my hands a sight!” laughed the boy named Billy. “Wish Somebody would tell me how to get these colors off.”
“I should say they are a sight,” said Somebody; “all the colors of the rainbow and several more besides. What’s on them?”
“Easter egg dyes,” said Billy; “they splashed, but we got some beauties.”
“Try some salt and vinegar and a nail brush and soap,” said Somebody. “You’ll find some on my wash stand.”
The boy named Billy scrubbed with right good will. “It’s coming off,” he said. “Say, Somebody, please tell me why Easter doesn’t stand still, like Christmas and New Year’s Day. What makes it come in March one year, and likely as not in April the next? A day is a day, isn’t it? Then why do we never know when to look for it? Last year we gathered pussy willows, and this year it’s cold enough to skate.”
“It is puzzling until you understand about it,” said Somebody, as Billy came back with his hands as clean as could be expected. “Let’s talk about it. There seems to be no authentic record of the actual date of Christ’s death and burial and resurrection. We know that the Crucifixion was on Friday, and the Resurrection was on Sunday, but the date has never been accounted for, although Easter has been celebrated as a church festival since the early days of the Christian church.
“To settle all such disputes it was finally decided by the Council of Nicaea in 325 A. D. that the celebration of the festival commemorating the Resurrection should fall on the first Sunday after March 21st and the full moon.”