The divergence between the Eastern and Western calendars with respect to Lent and Easter is pretty much at its widest this year. Roman Catholics and those Protestants who observe Lent will mark Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Fast on the 17th instant, whereas on the Orthodox Calendar Lent begins on March 15th. Western Easter is on April 4th and we celebrate the Resurrections on May 2nd. One upside to the late date for us is that the Apostles Fast (no longer kept in the West) will be extremely short, just fourteen days for those on the Old Calendar. For those of us on the New Calendar... if you blink you will miss it.
I’d say this year we need as much Lent and Easter as we can get.
ReplyDeleteThe principal reason amongst Anglicans for baptizing catechumens on Whitsunday rather than during the Great Vigil of an early Easter was because doing so earlier is good way of killing people in northern climes. This year would be such an example.
ReplyDeleteEastern Catholic so our parish calendar follows the western dating.
ReplyDeleteAs such, it's Cheesefare for us today.
Bless me and forgive me, for I am a sinner.
When did the West cease to observe the Apostles Fast and why?
ReplyDeleteI have never found any detailed discussion of this. It is known from the sermons of Pope Leo the Great that it was observed in Rome. And St. Jerome referred to it as the summer Lent. But when it ceased to be observed, and why, is a mystery to me. The Eve of the Feast was still a fast day as recently as 1917. That's as much as I have ever been able to find out. It's one of those mysteries for which there seems no clear answer, akin to the western change in the manner of making the sign of the cross. One possible explanation, purely speculative, is that the fast was never universally observed in the West and may have simply faded organically over time in those places where it was.
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