Re: Food Checkout Week

In article <memo.20080218195358.1968B@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Paul Dormer <prd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>I think as far as most English (don't know about the Scots), Easter
>is the whole period from Good Friday to Easter Monday.  For specific
>days, I'd say Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter
>Monday.

Interesting.  I wonder, then, why the Compact OED says
<http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/easter?view=uk>

    the festival of the Christian Church celebrating the resurrection
    of Christ, held (in the Western Church) on the first Sunday after
    the first full moon following the northern spring equinox.

The 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia at
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05224d.htm>
isn't quite as explicit
(and I haven't the time to do more than skim), but seems to
distinguish Easter [Sunday] from Holy Saturday from the octave of
Easter.

<http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/Easter>
has

    1. an annual Christian festival ... observed on the first Sunday
       ...
    2. Also called Easter Sunday. the day on which this festival is
       celebrated.
    3. the Easter season; the week following Easter.

<http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861607275>
defines the period as "Easter weekend".

Which is not to say that you're wrong -- that "Easter" does not
currently mean in England Good Friday->Easter Monday.  It's just that
I find it odd that I see little hint of it in dictionaries -- though
probably onelook.com (my source for these cites) has an American bias.

-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]