Pastor Jeff November 2007

     Dear Members and Friends of Salem Lutheran Church,

     Get ready for a wild ride! It’s the beginning of November, and Lent is right around the corner. I’m sure many of you assumed that I meant to write “Advent” or “Christmas” instead of “Lent,” but that would not be a safe assumption. The reality is that Lent really is just around the corner, thanks to the unusual way that the Church calculates the date of Easter.
     Easter Sunday, at least in Western Christianity (the Orthodox churches and others calculate Easter using a different method), falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox (March 21st/22nd). The Vernal Equinox is the first day of Spring, and it also is one of the two days during the year in which night and day are of equal length (12 hours, of course). The key is the “first full moon.” Depending on the lunar calendar, it could be as many as thirty-three or so days after the Vernal Equinox that Easter occurs, if there is a full moon just before the Vernal Equinox (which means waiting another 27 or so days for the next full moon) and if that next full moon falls on a Monday (which means waiting another six days for the next Sunday). In short, this means that Easter could fall as late as April 23rd or so.
     Or it could be that Easter is just a day or two after the Vernal Equinox, if the full moon occurs right after the Vernal Equinox, and right after that there is a Sunday. There are precise times for these events, in fact, so it is possible that these three things could occur within minutes of each other. In short, this means that Easter could fall as early as March 22nd or so.
     What does all this mean for 2008? Easter Sunday next year is on March 23rd, just a day or two after the Vernal Equinox! Thus to find when Lent starts, you count back from Easter forty days, not counting Sundays, which then is always a Wednesday (Ash, that is.) This means that Ash Wednesday for 2008 is February 6th! (It could have been worse, since there’s an extra day in February being a leap year).
     For the city of New Orleans, this will be a big challenge, since Mardi Gras (the day before Ash Wednesday) is only two days after the Super Bowl, which is being played in the Superdome there! For us, however, it means that Lent really is just right around the corner, just three months away. This means that we’re in for a wild, but exciting ride!
We have Veterans Day celebrations and a Thanksgiving Eve service in November, followed by mid-week Advent services, Christmas programs & cantatas, and four Christmas Eve services in December, followed by only five Sundays in the new calendar year before Lent is upon us. And it’s going to be great! So mark your calendars and join in all the festivities.

     In Christ,
     Pastor Jeff