23/03/2008 @07:32:46 ^07:55:12

Easter

Easter is ridiculously early this year. Apparently though everyone's been saying this on the radio and suchlike, so I won't go on about it too much.

I did a test. For the previous reason I won't bother posting the results, but you can replicate it easily. Try:

seq 1900 2008 | xargs -l1 ncal -e | grep March | sort -n | head # earlies
seq 1900 2008 | xargs -l1 ncal -e | grep April | sort -n | tail # lates

The important bit is ncal which can calculate the date of Easter in a given year. There is a complicated formula for it which I don't know off the top of my head*

* In my younger days, had I known about it, I would have certainly learnt such a formula and enthusiastically quoted it at anyone who'd listen. I was that kind of child, the kind you want to smack and say "Do you want to die a virgin? Shut up!"