Back to the Anglo-Saxons calendar
There were monasteries, monks, missionaries
and religion everywhere now. Unfortunately the missionaries who arrived in England and those in Ireland had slightly different views and so in 664 AD the Irish
and Roman based religions met at Whitby. The meeting was organised by a noblewoman, called Hilde, who also financed the building of Whitby Abbey.
One of the weird things they had to agree on was the date of Easter. This had caused problems in Northumbria the year before when half the royal
family were celebrating Easter while the other half were still fasting for Lent. The problem had started because early Christians had decided to celebrate
Easter at the same time as the Jewish feast of Passover. This happened on the 14th day of the first lunar month in the Jewish calendar. A lunar month is one
which starts with a new moon.
However, at this synod, it was decided that Easter would always be celebrated on a Sunday and it would be on the first Sunday after the first
full moon after March 21st. This followed a decision made by the church in Rome in 325AD. If the full moon falls on a Sunday then Easter is on the following
Sunday. The earliest Easter can ever be is March 22nd and the latest is April 25th.
This gives you some idea of how difficult it was in those days to enforce,or even practice, one religion. There were no newspapers, everything
that was written was handwritten and if you wanted a copy you had to handwrite a copy. News and information, even instructions, would travel very slowly.
Forward to 687AD
