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Sing a song of Seasons, Something bright in all. Flowers in the Summer, Fires in the Fall.

The Easter Cycle is divided here into 4 week sections, each week starting on an important Sunday in the church calendar (with dates for 2011 ).

February

Shrove Tuesday is the day before Lent starts. It can be as early as the 3rd February. In 2011 it is the 8 Mar.

Shrovetide	Sunday before Lent(6 Mar)	Lent I (13 Mar)	Lent  II (20 Mar)	Lent III (27 Mar)
Easter	Mothering Sunday (3 Apr)	Passion Sunday (10 Apr)	Palm Sunday(17 Apr)	Easter Sunday(24 Apr)
Hocktide	Hock Sunday(1 May)	Easter II (8 May)	Easter III (15 May)	Easter IV(21 May)
Whitsun	Rogation Sunday(29  May)	Ascension Sunday(5 Jun)	Whit Sunday(12 Jun)	Trinity Sunday(19 Jun)

June	Corpus Christi  is the Thursday after Trinity Sunday.  It can be as late as the 24th June. In 2011 it is the  23 Jun.

Click on Months above for Calendar Customs & Lore        See below for explanation.

Months & Days	THE CALENDAR	Star Signs
January Janus February Purification month March Mars April Opening month May Maia June Juno July Julius Ceasar August Emperor Augustus September 7th month October 8th month November 9th month December 10th month Sunday Sun Monday Moon Tuesday Tiw / Mars Wednesday Woden / Mercury Thursday Thor / Jupiter Friday Freya / Venus Saturday Saturn	More about the Natural Calendar The Prologue When April with his showers sweet The drought of March pierced to the root And bathed each vein in liquor of such power By virtue of which is created the flower The west wind also with his sweet breath Bring forth in every wood and heath The tender shoots and the young Sun Has through the Ram his half course run The small birds maketh melody That sleep all night with open eye (Compelled as nature encourages) Then folk long to go on pilgrimages And palmers go to seek strange strands To distant saints in foreign lands And specially from every shire's end Of England they to Canterbury wend The holy, blissful martyr for to seek Who helped when they lay ill and sick	Capricorn Cancer Aquarius Leo Pisces Virgo Aries Libra Taurus Scorpio Gemini Sagittarius

The Sun, the stars, the moon and Easter Day. The path of the earth around the sun (or the sun through the stars from an earth point of view) is divided into 30 degree sections named after the constellations of the zodiac in which the sun used to appear at the equinoxes and  solstices at a time in the past (6,000 BC: Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius & Pisces. 3,500 BC: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio & Aquarius.  1,000 BC: Aries, Cancer, Libra & Capricorn)  The sun is now in Pisces at the Spring equinox and heading slowly towards Aquarius due to the "Precession of the Equinoxes" < In the diagram (to the left) the earth is at the Spring Equinox and the sun is in Aries (or rather the position still known as Aries!). The diagram above ^ shows the full moons in a year with an Easter in early April. Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox (first point of Aries). The Lent Moon starts on the new moon close to Shrove Tuesday and is numbered (1) above. Easter full moon (2) is in the middle of Aries. Notice how the shorter lunar cycle results in the full moons becoming earlier in each following star sign.  After 12 complete moons there are still 11 days left over in the solar year so Easter the following year is earlier. Eventually the next years' full moon falls behind the spring equinox, an extra 13th moon is added and Easter jumps to a later date. Easter is calculated from a combination of the solar year, lunar cycle and 7 day week cycle. Easter dates and lunar cycles for the coming years are shown below.

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
New Moon (1)	17 Feb	7 Feb	25 Feb	14 Feb	4 Mar	21 Feb	10 Feb	1 Mar	18 Feb	8 Feb
Shrove Tue	20 Feb	5 Feb	24 Feb	16 Feb	8 Mar	21 Feb	12 Feb	4 Mar	17 Feb	9 Feb
Easter New Moon (2)	19 Mar	7 Mar	26 Mar	15 Mar	3 Apr	22 Mar	11 Mar	30 Mar	20 Mar	9 Mar
Easter Full Moon	2 Apr	21 Mar	9 Apr	30 Mar	18 Apr	6 Apr	27 Mar	15 Apr	4 Apr	23 Mar
Easter Day	8 Apr	23 Mar	12 Apr	4 Apr	24 Apr	8 Apr	31 Mar	20 Apr	5 Apr	27 Mar
New Moon (3)	17 Apr	6 Apr	25 Apr	14 Apr	3 May	21 Apr	10 Apr	29 Apr	18 Apr	7 Apr
New Moon (4)	16 May	5 May	24 May	14 May	1 Jun	20 May	10 May	28 May	18 May	6 May
New Moon (5)	15 Jun	3 Jun	22 Jun	12 Jun	1 Jul	19 Jun	8 Jun	27 Jun	16 Jun	5 Jun
New Moon (6)	14 Jul	3 Jul	22 Jul	11 Jul	30 Jul	19 Jul	8 Jul	26 Jul	16 Jul	4 Jul
New Moon (7)	12 Aug	1 Aug	20 Aug	10 Aug	29 Aug	17 Aug	6 Aug	25 Aug	14 Aug	2 Aug
New Moon (8)	11 Sep	30 Aug	18 Sep	8 Sep	27 Sep	16 Sep	5 Sep	24 Sep	13 Sep	1 Sep
New Moon (9)	11 Oct	29 Sep	18 Oct	7 Oct	26 Oct	15 Oct	5 Oct	23 Oct	13 Oct	1 Oct
New Moon (10)	9 Nov	28 Oct	16 Nov	6 Nov	25 Nov	13 Nov	3 Nov	22 Nov	11 Nov	30 Oct
New Moon (11)	9 Dec	27 Nov	16 Dec	5 Dec	24 Dec	13 Dec	3 Dec	22 Dec	11 Dec	29 Nov
New Moon (12)	8 Jan	27 Dec	15 Jan	4 Jan	23 Jan	11 Jan	1 Jan	20 Jan	10 Jan	29 Dec
Additional Moon (13)	-- ---	26 Jan	-- ---	3 Feb	-- ---	-- ---	30 Jan	-- ---	-- ---	28 Jan

This diagram shows the path of the earth around the sun through the standard zodiac positions. This is the tropical zodiac based on the position of the earth on the solstices and equinoxes and varies from that of the constellations themselves (siderial zodiac). Below are also the traditional Chinese divisions of the tropical year. Capricorn  Winter_Arrives  Little_Cold  Aquarius  Great_Cold  Rise_of_Spring  Pisces  Rain_Water  Awakening_Insects  Aries  Division_of_Spring  Bright_and_Clear  Taurus  Grain_Rains  Rise_of_Summer  Gemini  Slightly_Filling_Grain  Make_Haste_to_Sow_Seeds  Cancer  Summer_Arrives  Slight_Heat  Leo  Great_Heat  Rise_of_Autumn  Virgo  Limit_of_Heat  White_Dew  Libra  Division_of_Autumn  Cold_Dew  Scorpio  Hoar_Frost_Descends  Rise_of_Winter  Sagittarius  Little_Snow  Great_Snow

Star signs every 5 degrees for Dec 2010 - Dec 2011