Easter Monday

Easter Sunday is the time of family dinners, family reunions, family church-going. Hunched over the wheel of his car, or lurching toward Boston in a train, comes the Harvard student from Delaware, or Ohio, or Louisiana. He cannot spend Easter at home, for the rock-bound Harvard calendar beckons her sons to Cambridge for Monday classes.

Fortunately, Christmas Day falls on December 25, so the faculty may accustom their minds to this date, and remember that there should be a vacation. Easter, however, presents many, many problems. It is on the first Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon, which means Easter Sunday may vary between March 22 and April 25. Astrologists have determined when it will fall until 2100 A.D.

May exams, which usually start about the twentieth, also present a tedious blockade to Easter with the family. If the spring recess were only a month before finals, (Easter will be on April 25 in 2038 A.D.), students would have a scant three weeks of cramming before the exam period. Yet incredulous as it is, some students have done admirably with only two weeks before January exams.

As the Harvard calendar extends far into the future, no immediate change is possible. But the family consciences of family professors and instructors can only be proud if they neglect to take attendance at Monday classes. Easter spirit requires no less.