The Date of Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday typically falls on a different date each year. Easter is always the first Sunday after or on the first full moon, after the Spring (vernal) Equinox in the Northern hemisphere and the Autumnal Equinox in the Southern hemisphere.

The date is determined by a combination of events centered around the lunar cycle, the solar cycle, the division of each year into 365 days and a 1,700 year old Church ruling.

The explanation starts with the fact that early Christians elected to link the date of Easter to the Hebrew calendar. The New Testament states that the Resurrection took place on the first day of the week following Passover. Sunday is the first day of a Jewish week; the Passover falls on the day of the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, which can fall on either March 20 or 21.

Chaotic, or what? The result was that different churches ended up celebrating Easter on various days. And to try to clear up the confusion, the Roman Emperor Constantine I organized a major summit meeting.

The first Ecumenical Council was held at Nicea in present-day Turkey in the year 325. It decreed that Easter would be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon that occurred after the Spring Equinox. This retained a lunar connection as a sort of “memory” of the Jewish calendar system, and ensured that the feast would be on a Sunday. Because lunar phases occur independently of the solar year, this means that there is a “window” of several weeks during which Easter may be celebrated. By this reckoning, in our calendar, Easter must occur between March 22 and April 25.

So, go to your calendar, and find the first day of spring – then find the first full moon immediately following that. And Easter will be the first Sunday after (or on) that first full moon. Note the difference in the southern hemisphere: Easter falls on the first Sunday on or after the first full moon after the Autumnal equinox, not after the first day of Autumn.

The system that was slowly developed throughout the Middle Ages is the base for what we use today.

10 Ways to Get Kicked Off a Flight

10 Ways to Get Kicked Off a Flight

We’re all aware of the very reasonable Federal Aviation Administration no-nos that prohibit weapons, smoking and “interference” with airline personnel. But the airlines have their own rules, too. Some are less than obvious or a bit vague, and all are open to interpretation by and enforceable at the discretion of the crew. Let’s count the many things that might get you banned from boarding or booted from a flight before takeoff…

Read the whole article about getting banned!

Winning at Customer Service

Use these tips to make your customers loyal and happy. Check out tip #11 by our very own, Adam Bates!

Customer service is the key to success in most businesses. As an entrepreneur and business owner, you have a product which you want to sell to the public. Of course, there is always a similar product out there competing for attention. So what exactly can set your business apart? If the price is similar, product, and ways of getting said product are the same there is one thing which can give your business the advantage – customer service. If you treat your customers with more care and attention they are more likely to buy your product. If something were to go wrong, they would rely on you to make things right. It sounds simple, but customer service can be a tricky slope to climb sometimes.

Rescue a CEO and CEO Blog Nation asked entrepreneurs for some of their best tips on having better customer service.

Read what Adam has to say!

Travel Warning For North Korea

Travel Warning For North Korea, DPRK

The Department of State continues to warn U.S. citizens about travel to North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK). Travel by U.S. citizens to North Korea is not routine, and U.S. citizens crossing into North Korea, even accidentally, have been subject to arbitrary arrest and long-term detention. Since January 2009, four U.S. citizens have been arrested for entering North Korea illegally, and two U.S. citizens who entered on valid DPRK visas were arrested inside North Korea on other charges. This replaces the Travel Warning issued for North Korea on September 11, 2012, and it reminds U.S. citizens about the serious risks involved in traveling to the DPRK. Read More »

Missionary icon turns 200

LONDON (RNS) When journalist Henry Morton Stanley found the world’s most famous missionary barely alive at the tiny village of Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika on Nov. 10, 1871, he gave the English language one of its most famous introductions: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Famous missionary icon turns 200.

As Britain marks David Livingstone’s 200th birthday on Tuesday (March 19), Christians are being reintroduced to one of the greatest missionaries and explorers of the 19th century. A new book, meanwhile, introduces a darker side to Livingstone’s globe-trotting career and the corrosive effect it had on his marriage.

That 1871 meeting in the heart of Africa is the stuff of legend.

Read more about the missionary icon here!

New Pope Chosen

New Pope Chosen

The new leader of the Catholic Church is the Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio who has taken the name of Pope Francis.

Bergoglio, 76, is a Jesuit from Buenos Aires and is the first pope from South America. He is also the first pope to take the name ofFrancis.

The new pontiff stepped onto the Vatican balcony dressed in white to address the roaring crowd in St. Peter’s Square where he humbly and calmly asked for the peoples’ prayers.

“Let’s pray always for each other. Let’s pray for the whole world. May there be a great brotherhood,” Pope Francis said in Italian.

Read the entire article here!

Mission Trip Update!

T.E.C. Mission – Through Eyes of Children: Mission Trip Update

Here is a group of our clients doing great work on their missionary trip. Please take the time to check out their website here. This blog entry focuses on one of their updates about providing eye care clinics in Nicaragua.

“Arriving at the Jinotepe church for our first eyeglass clinic made us feel like we had arrived at home. Everyone was so welcoming. People were sitting under a big tent set up outside the front of the church to give us the space to work inside the little building. We saw about 85 patients Saturday. What a blessing it was to see some of the faces light up when people realized that they could see so much better with their new eyeglasses. It was a long but satisfying day.”

Read the entire article here!

An Islamic Sudan May Become a Reality

Sudan is quietly slipping toward becoming an Islamist state. Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has said he wants to adopt a “100 percent” Islamic constitution now that the South has split off.

Christians worry they won’t be able to practice their faith–a concern that’s been borne out in action by Sudan’s recent crackdowns. Matt Parker, Vice President of Operations at Kids Alive International, says, “Although the government itself is saying there is religious freedom, really those are empty words.”

Read the entire article here!