Easter On The Titanic

[Sahand Miraminy]

Hey All,
I noticed that Easter Sunday fell on April 11th in 1912? I never heard anyone talk about it so I thought I might bring it up. That would be kind of creepy if it was Easter when it hit the Iceberg!

 

[Lee Gilliland]

That's interesting, Sahand, as I don't recall ever hearing of Easter services on board, although of course there must have been.

 

[Deborah Kogan]

Easter Sunday did not fall on the 11th in 1912... Note that on Sunday on the Titanic, it was the 14th. It was the Sunday after Easter (that's why you never heard of Easter on the Titanic)...For those who are going on the maiden Southampton - New York transatlantic of the QM2 in April, you will also be experiencing the Sunday after Easter on the ship, with the same readings in the morning service....

 

[Mark Baber]

Sorry, Sahand, but Easter was 7 April in 1912; 11 April, the day after Titanic sailed, was a Thursday. See http://www.ely.anglican.org/cgi-bin/easter.

 

[Sahand Miraminy]

Hey All,
LOL TYPO! I meant the 11th of 2004. But anyways you all still answered my question. Its weird how the date changes for Easter. THANKS A BUNCH YALL!

 

[Deborah Kogan]

Yes, Easter was on April 7 in 1912. I got my information from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer... The first Sunday after Easter (actually called the Second Sunday of Easter) has the same readings of Psalm and Gospel this year and in 1912, but the Lessons are different, because 1911/12 was an "A" year, and this is a "C" year in the lectionary. On the morning service done by Captain Smith in 1912 they would have read: Psalm 111 or 118:19-24, Acts 2:14a,22-32 or Genesis 8:6-16; 9:8-16, 1 Peter 1:3-9 or Acts 2:14a, 22-32, and John 20:19-31.

 

[Fiona Nitschke]

Its weird how the date changes for Easter.

Can't say I agree, as there's a series of 'rules' that determine when Easter falls each year. To paraphrase from Brewer's (and half remembered early history lectures), Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, the full moon on the vernal equinox or within the next 28 days. Why the vernal equinox? This goes back to Easter's roots in the heathen festival Eastre, celebrating the Teutonic goddess of dawn, also celebrated at the vernal equinox.

As such Easter Sunday is between 22 March to 25 April, more than a month's worth of possibilities - hence some years Easter is 'early', others it's 'late'. All of this was laid down by the Council of Nicea, 325 AD. (The Eastern Church (Orthodox) celebrates Easter independently.)

Trivia, eh. Nothing like it. Oh, and you're right: this post has absolutely nothing to do with Titanic. Er, if Titanic had sunk at Easter 1912, you can bet your garters that the sermons, editorials and popular 'mourning' songs/souvenirs/etc would've made even greater hay with allegories on sacrifice.

 

[Inger Sheil]

G'day Sahand - as a bit of aside trivia for you, at least one of the Titanic's officers was receiving and sending Easter eggs to his family in the week before sailing.

Several of the Titanic books refer to the impact Easter had on work and crew pay the weekend before when the ship was in Southampton, so the topic has been covered in Titanic literature.

Had the accident occured on Easter Sunday it would certainly, as Fi suggested, have come up in the mourning literature of the time did, much as the possible significance of Abraham Lincoln's shooting on Good Friday and death on Easter Saturday didn't escape the sermons and preachers in 1865.

 

[Deborah Kogan]

Fiona:
Easter is linked to the Jewish festival of Passover, which in turn is linked to the vernal equinox... In later times, those in various European lands found it handy to connect Easter with previous vernal equinox holidays....

 

[Donald J A Smith]

As Deborah points out - "actually called the Second Sunday of" - it was still 'Easter' aboard. Just as the spring season was celebrated - I'm sure - by the ladies in the display of their splendid new 'outfits' and bonnets, mention of Easter and Titanic always calls to mind the famous photograph that had been taken at Southampton one week earlier in which the ship herself is 'dressed-overall' to mark the occasion.

 

[Fiona Nitschke]

Hi Deborah, you're absolutely right. I didn't comment about Easter's links to Passover (Pesach/Pasch) in my haste to slip in a quick OT post on the roots of Easter's timing without going into full detail. Please accept my apologies for any offence caused, however inadvertantly.

 

[Deborah Kogan]

Fiona: That's o.k.!

 

[Inger Sheil]

Here are a couple of extracts of letters by Steward George Beedem, published in Titanic Voices, that refer to work and pay arrangements for Good Friday.

I am standing by the ship today to see she doesn't run away. Nobody has been working on her being 'Good Friday' so I have a day's pay to come.

In another letter, dated 5 April 1912, he wrote:

Good Friday & I have been at work all day.

On the 9 April he wrote:

I have not been paid for Good Friday there were only 10 of us working & none have been paid through some fool leaving us off the list.

 

[Christa Erin Pereira]

I was interested to hear that easter eggs were being exchanged. They would have been expensive I bet. Does anyone know how long chocolate eggs have been exchanged for? I wonder if they would have tasted the same. My parents often comment on how English chocolate is so much creamier than Australian chocolate...

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Chocolate eggs had been available for a hundred years before Titanic, but keep in mind that for most people these didn't take over from the traditional exchange of real eggs, hard boiled and decorated with coloured dyes or painted patterns. For more info on the chocolate versions, try this link (but not in you're on a diet):

The origins of Easter (Cadbury)