paschal moon

With nicotine-stained fingers, she pushes aside
the net curtains of the clouds and stoops
to look through your bedroom window.

One of the things I miss when I’m in the UK is the night sky.

Here in Spain I can step outside in the middle of the night to admire the view without disturbing anyone except the cats – who think any human movement means it’s time to be fed. We’re far enough away from the village that we aren’t bothered much by light pollution so I’m far more in tune with the phases of the moon and the constellations, and I get to admire skies like the one in the photo.

Today is Maundy Thursday (a bank holiday in most of Spain), and a half-remembered rule about the date of Easter has suddenly gelled for me as I look at the photos I took last night:

Easter Sunday is the Sunday following the full moon that falls on or after the spring equinox.

In fact, it isn’t quite that simple. If you want to know more, Wikipedia seems to have a very complete piece on Computus – the calculation of the date of Easter – as well as on the Paschal full moon.

Since the precise time of the full moon was March 27th at 9:30 GMT and the photo was taken in the early hours of March 28th, I’m not sure it actually counts as full. But I think it’s close enough.