Happy first Sunday after first full moon on or after the spring equinox

There was a stramash in Aberdour when crowds flocked down to the Silver Sands only to find that the car park was closed (Picture: Scotsman/NationalWorld)

Which caused something of a stramash in Aberdour where crowds flocked down to the Silver Sands only to find that the car park was closed. This caused such traffic chaos in the village that the police had to intervene. To put this into perspective, it’s only once in a blue moon that the police ever have cause to visit Aberdour. It is simply one of the most law-abiding places in Scotland. It is rare to find such an idyllic and tranquil spot less than thirty minutes drive from a capital city.

My wife and I took a weekend break there a few years ago. I had written a birthday card to a friend which must have fallen out of my pocket on the way to the post office. So I bought a book of stamps and another card, which I popped in the post. A couple of days later, my friend phoned to thank me for both of his birthday cards. Some public-spirited individual must have picked up the card, put a stamp on it and stuck in the post. So, it is understandably rare for the polis to have any need to go there.

Apparently, Fife Council had been caught on the hop. They had not realised that the school holidays had already started. Hang on, they’re the council. Are they not also the people who set the dates of the school terms? Surely they just had to ask some bloke in the office next door. This reminds me of a similar incident that happened a few years ago, at a show in Ayr Town Hall. When I arrived, the organisers explained there was not going to be an interval because the venue could not open the bar. They had not applied to the council for a licence. It was the Town Hall! The guy who issued the licences was literally over the corridor from the person who ran the gigs.

Nevertheless, I do feel some sympathy for whoever got themselves confused over in Fife. It’s nigh impossible to have a clue when Easter is going to fall from one year to the next. If you do not know how they calculate it, let me explain. Easter Day is always the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox. Simple, huh? Why in this day and age is the date of a major festival decided by such prehistoric mumbo jumbo? No one can actually be certain that Christ was born on December 25 but that’s when Christmas is every year. New Year’s Day in always January 1, Hallowe’en is always October 31, and the Cup Final is always the last Saturday in May. The SFA don’t need to resort to astronomy before they book Hampden Park. I can never understand how people are able to give up drinking for Lent. So when’s Lent? Well, it begins forty days before the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox. You’d have to sober up well in advance to try and work out that particular puzzle. Happy Easter!