EASTER(1) April 1999 EASTER(1)
NAME
easter - Calculates easter date
SYNOPSIS
easter [ -rac ] [ -hvVf ] year
OPTIONS
-r Calculates Palm Sunday, instead of Easter.
-c Calculates Ash Wednesday, instead of Easter.
-a A full calendar is displayed, showing Ash Wednesday, Lent Sundays,
Palm Sunday and Easter date.
-f Displays days resting to date specified. If this is a past date,
displays days resting to next Easter.
-V Turn on verbose mode. Each step in obtaining Easter is displayed.
-v Displays version information and exits.
-h Help text.
DESCRIPTION
easter displays date of Easter of the given year, in the format day
month.
The Gregorian reform is assumed to have ocurred in October 1582. That
is, the days within 5 and 13 October 1582 didn't never exist.
Nowadays, virtually all countries have adopted the Gregorian Calendar.
Note this program calculates Easter as the Catholic Church does. This
date is different from the Greek or Ortodox Church Easter.
Ash Wednesday is 46 days before Easter. Palm Sunday is Sunday before
Easter. Lent is the period between Ash and Palm Sunday. Each Sunday
in Lent is given a number (I, II, III, IV, V).
SEE ALSO
cal(1)
BUGS
Easter is calculated with present day (Gregorian) method, even for
pre-1582 years. This is not really a bug, but a feature, because
easter was designed for future prevision, and not for past analysis.
- 1 - Formatted: December 15, 2025
EASTER(1) April 1999 EASTER(1)
A method for calculating Greek Easter is missing.
Ability to format the output date is not supported yet.
AUTHOR
Antonio Luque Estepa <aluque@esi.us.es>
- 2 - Formatted: December 15, 2025
