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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

大切な期日 Important dates

やくすことができない。。。
今年はイースターが早い。何で?ユダヤけいのすぎこしの祭から。まん月の時にかんけいする。
マザリングサンデーはいつも四じゅんせつの4日曜日。

I can't translate this...

I was wondering why Easter is so early this year (23rd March), and hence all the other dates like Mother's Day, so I did some research.

You may or may not know the reason already...

Easter celebrates the day when Jesus Christ rose from the dead. This occurred on the day after the Jewish festival of Passover. The Jewish calendar is influenced by the moon, and so Easter Day is the first Sunday after the full moon which happens on or after the Spring Equinox (21st March). Each year, Easter Day will be somewhere between 22nd March and 25th April.

Mother's Day in the UK is similar to Mother's Day in other countries (always in May). The reason why it falls on a different day to other countries (this year 2nd March), is because even though Mothering Sunday was only created about 400 years ago, it has its roots in Christianity. It is always on the 4th Sunday of Lent, and on that day people in small villages went to the nearest big church (the Mother Church). Young working English girls and boys were allowed one day off a year to visit their families and this was usually Mothering Sunday.

Churches in England used to give children in Sunday School small bunches of spring flowers to give to their mothers to thank them for all their love throughout the year (maybe they still do). I remember making a card at Sunday School and collecting my bunch of flowers for Mum. I also remember each year on the Saturday going shopping with my brothers and sister to choose flowers from the florist, and some pretty wrapping paper, and then secretly putting the flowers in milk bottles of water in the garage so that they kept cool and fresh. For years I thought that it was a real secret and that Mum had no idea what we were doing! Then on the Sunday, we would get up and wrap the flowers as a bouquet and give them to Mum in the morning. Happy memories!

2 comments:

Mountaincat said...

I was also expecting Easter in April, but true - it is very early this year. It always gets warm after Easter, I wonder if it will be case this year.

Alison said...

Well...

According to the forecast, it's supposed to be 18C tomorrow (OK yappari 11C on Wednesday...) Isn't summer in Japan supposed to be properly switched on on the 1st April?!!