Frazz by Jef Mallett for April 21, 2019

And completely biased against the people down under.

gee wow

gee wow

It’s coincidental but no causality.

Makes as much sense as anything else.

Spring break used to happen the week before Easter

Some schools aren’t even scheduling spring break around Easter anymore.

GEEK ALERT!!! This year, the rules of setting Easter had a little glitch from the science of the timing. The tradition of the church is that the equinox is the 21st of March, regardless of when it actually occurs, and the “Full moon” is the 14th day of the 29.5ish day lunar cycle, regardless of when the moon is actually full based on orbit. This year, the scientific moon was full at 1:42 UTC March 21 while the vernal equinox was at 21:58 UTC on March 20, 4 hours earlier. But, it is tradition and not science that drives the church, so instead of Easter being march 24th, it is today. I know, no one cares but us geeks, freaks and nerds.

He’s got a point since we’re having summery days here.

The spelling of “paschal” surprised me here. I would have gone for “pascal” and would have been wrong of course… Otherwise, lovely and relevant background for the strip, in spite of the fact that Mercury appears to be in an overly eccentric orbit. Am I the only one to notice it?

Spring break here was last month.

Spring break is usually around the middle of the term, not coinciding with Easter.

Curiously, among Hindus, Zoroastrians, and Mithraics, the equinoxes (which were seen as ushering in the change of seasons) were the Big Celestial Deal—the solstices were unimportant.

Using a date like March 21 causes problems. An equinox and a full moon are events like an explosion. Easy to tell which comes first when they are close together … don’t need to see either.

But dates change continually around the world… like New Years.

In our Sunday paper comic section, there is always a leading panel that never shows on GoComics. Any idea why this is not ever included?

An obsolete term for a form of insanity characterized by alternating lucid and insane periods, believed to be influenced by phases of the moon.

Very punny!

PostsFrazz17 hrs ·

Easter scheduling has always fascinated me. Not so much the details of how it’s done, but that it’s done that way at all. Or, primarily, this: Why does Easter float around while Christmas gets its own set calendar date? And which, ultimately, is the more consistent? You’d think Easter would be less consistent, bouncing around spring like that, but at least it’s on the same day of the week every time.

There’s just enough information there to form a theory or three. And little enough information that it’s a pretty good bet those theories will be pretty screwball.

Nice job working in the secondary bit for the moon: lunacy