     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:  October 31, 2000

     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:  October 31, 2000