PNCC Holy Days and Feasts
Enter a Year:
PNCC Holy Days and Feasts in 2008
| Holy Day or Feast | Date |
|---|---|
| New Year's Day | 01-01-2008 |
| Scholarship Sunday | 01-27-2008 |
| Anniversary of the Death of Bishop Francis Hodur (1953) | 02-16-2008 |
| Septuagesima Sunday | 01-20-2008 |
| Sexagesima Sunday | 01-27-2008 |
| Quinquagesima Sunday | 02-03-2008 |
| Ash Wednesday | 02-06-2008 |
| Institution of the PNCC (1897) | 03-09-2008 |
| Palm Sunday | 03-16-2008 |
| Maundy Thursday | 03-20-2008 |
| Good Friday | 03-21-2008 |
| Easter | 03-23-2008 |
| National Day of Prayer | 05-01-2008 |
| Feast of the Fatherland | 05-11-2008 |
| Feast of the Ascension | 05-01-2008 |
| Pentecost | 05-11-2008 |
| Trinity Sunday | 05-18-2008 |
| Corpus Christi | 05-22-2008 |
| Our Lady of Czestochowa | 08-26-2008 |
| United Youth Association Sunday | 08-31-2008 |
| Feast of Brotherly Love | 09-14-2008 |
| Spojnia Sunday | 09-28-2008 |
| Feast of the Christian Family | 10-12-2008 |
| Christmas Day | 12-25-2008 |
This program calculates Holy Days and Feasts of the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC) as well as Easter Sunday in the Western (PNCC, Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant) Christian traditions. Calculations work for dates between 1902 and 2037.
History
Prior to 325 A.D., churches in different regions celebrated Easter on different dates, not always on Sundays. The Council of Nicea (325) clarified this by stating that Easter would be celebrated on Sundays. Still a number of methods were used until a method defined by Dionyisius Exiguus was adopted in about 532. This was not widely accepted until it was described and defended by the Venerable Bede in his De temporum ratione (725)1.
Aloisius Lilius (d. 1576) devised the system that would become the basis of the Gregorian Calendar, as well as the tables that would be used to determine the date of Easter. Christoph Clavius modified the tables slightly, and was one of the prime defenders of the Gregorian calendar. The tables used to determine the date of Easter (in the West) since 1583 are the modified tables of Clavius. All algorithms for calculating the date of Easter since then are based on these tables.
Easter is the Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon. The Paschal Full Moon may occur from March 21 through April 18, inclusive. Thus the date of Easter is from March 22 through April 25, inclusive. The date of the Paschal full moon is determined from tables, and it may differ from the date of the the actual full moon by up to two days. This definition, along with tables may be found in "The Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Ephemeris and American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac". This definition that uses tables instead of actual observations of the full moon is useful and necessary since the the full moon may occur on different 'local' dates depending where you are in the world. If the date of Easter was based on local observations, then it would be possible for different parts of the world to celebrate Easter on different dates in the same year.
Algorithms
The algorithm used to calculate Easter is from Practical Astronomy With Your Calculator, 2nd Edition by Peter Duffett-Smith. It was originally from Butcher's Ecclesiastical Calendar, published in 1876. This algorithm has also been published in the 1922 book General Astronomy by Spencer Jones; in The Journal of the British Astronomical Association (Vol.88, page 91, December 1977); and in Astronomical Algorithms (1991) by Jean Meeus.
The algorithm used to calculate floating dates related to the date of Easter (see table below) are from Bob's Scripts.
Algorithms for all other date calculations are from US Holiday Calculations in PHP, Version 1.02, by Dan Kaplan of AbleDesign.
Feasts Related to Easter
| Days Before Easter | Days after Easter |
|---|---|
| Septuagesima 63 | Rogation Sunday 35 |
| Sexagesima 56 | Ascension 39 |
| Quinquagesima 49 | Pentecost 49 |
| Ash Wednesday 46 | Trinity Sunday 56 |
| Palm Sunday 7 | Corpus Christi 60 |
| Good Friday 2 |
In the PNCC and in Orthodox churches Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays are still honored in the pre-Lenten season. In the Roman Catholic Church they were honored prior to Vatican II. These three Sundays before Lent starts have as their Gospel Readings: the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and Christ's reminder of the Last Judgement.
Rogation Sunday was the Sunday before the Rogation. The PNCC still honors Rogation days as days of increased fasting, prayer, supplication in the days before Ascension Thursday.
1-Jim Morrison