Lent, Easter Fall On Unusual Days This Year

While churches are only now looking to take down Christmas decorations, already we see Lent on the horizon — in a little over a month!

Call it a bit different, calendar-wise — Lent — this anno.

Start with Ash Wednesday: this year Lent begins on Saint Valentine’s Day (making it a bit of a challenge for the pious ones who may have to make a choice between what they are giving up and heading with a wife/husband or girlfriend/boyfriend to a restaurant. And the chocolate!).

Now go to the Annunciation of the Lord:

It’s on March 25 in 2018 — which is also: Palm Sunday. (The Annunciation has thus been transferred to Monday, April 9).

Another little complication. This of course follows a Christmas Day that fell on a Monday. Technically, in the Church, according to the liturgical calendar, Ordinary Time doesn’t officially begin until the Monday after the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which (usually) falls on the Sunday after Epiphany (January 6th). (This means that the Christmas season actually extends beyond the popular “Twelve Days of Christmas.”) So Lent will begin just a month after Christmas ends.

Easter itself?

April 1 — in the secular world, in North America, also “April Fool’s Day.”

No doubt, there will be some in the public arena who make a bit of jest with that.

But perhaps, if that happens, one can ask who is “funnier” (foolish), those who believe that such dates matter or those who, despite 2,000 years of testimonies, still refuse to acknowledge the fact of His Resurrection…