Saturday, March 29, 2008

Vancouver Museum
The Vancouver Museum is a local museum located in Vanier Park, Vancouver, British Columbia. It is housed within the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre building and is the largest civic museum in Canada. The museum was formerly located in the upstairs of the old Carnegie Library and includes in its collection artifacts collected from around the world by Vancouver residents, including a mummy purchased in Egypt during World War I, taxidermy of local game and wildlife, popular culture artifacts collected locally from the late 19th and 20th centuries, and journals written by local middle and upper class women chronicling their travels throughout the British Empire. The museum was founded by the Art, Historical, and Scientific Association of Vancouver, which formed on April 17th, 1894 with the object of cultivating "a taste for the beauties and refinements in life." The society collected curios and artifacts and displayed them in various locations until the museum opened in its first permanent location in the library on April 15th, 1905. Its current location was built as part of Canada's centennial in 1967.

Friday, March 28, 2008


A brand name of household appliances produced mainly by Whirlpool (and various other manufacturers, such as Panasonic for vacuum cleaners), Electrolux and Mabe Mexico for white goods and sold by Sears Holdings Corporation in the USA.
Kenmore Appliances
Kenmore Products

BBQ Grilles
Washing Machines
Dryers
Dishwashers
Microwaves
Refrigerators
Stoves
Vacuums Cleaners
Sewing Machines
Other household products

Thursday, March 27, 2008


The Deeside Way (commonly known as the Old Deeside Line; the Royal Deeside Line or simply the Deeside Line), is a pathway that travels along the bed of the now removed Deeside Railway, along the north bank of the River Dee in Scotland.
While in operation, the railway was used by the British Royal Family during travel to their Scottish retreat at Balmoral, hence the local name the Royal Deeside Line.

Deeside WayDeeside Way Deeside Railway
The Deeside Railway was a line that travelled from Aberdeen to Ballater as a stretch of the Great North of Scotland Railway.
Its tracks have since been removed in their entirety and the path opened as a track to the public. However Royal Deeside Railway preservation society are reclaiming part of the line to build a heritage railway from Banchory to Milton of Crathes.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Canadian currency tactile feature
The Canadian currency tactile feature is a feature on current Canadian banknotes. Bills in the "Canadian Journey" series have a tactile feature to indicate denomination in the upper right corner of the face side of the bill, as suggested by Canadian National Institute for the Blind administrator Bruno Thériault. This tactile feature is a series of raised dots; it does not use standard Braille because the Canadian Federal Government, in consultation with the blind and visually impaired, decided a different system is more accessible. The principal designer was Dr. Susan Lederman, a professor of Psychology at Queen's University.[1]
The currency denomination must be recognized easily, and standard Braille was deemed too sensitive. Thus Canadian currency uses a system based only on full blocks of Braille cells (6 dots). The denomination is expressed by the number and (only for the $100 bill) arrangement of the blocks.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Bobby Higginson
Robert Leigh Higginson (born August 18, 1970 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a former outfielder in Major League Baseball who played his entire career for the Detroit Tigers. He has a career batting average of .272. He attended Temple University.
Higginson was drafted by the Tigers in the 12th round of the 1992 draft. His rookie year was 1995 when he played 130 games for the Tigers. Higginson batted .300 in 1996 and 2000, scored over 100 runs in 2000 and drove in over 100 runs in 1997 and 2000. In 2000 he became one of eight players in baseball history to hit .300, score over 100 runs, hit 30 home runs, hit 44 doubles, drive in over 100 RBI and steal 15 bases in one year. His career high of 30 home-runs came also in 2000. At his best, he was considered one of the better-fielding outfielders in baseball. He twice led the majors in outfield assists.
As of 2006, Higginson's baseball career has ended. After injury limited him to 10 games in 2005, he was removed from the Tigers' 40-man roster before the season ended. At age 35 and with his best years far behind him, he was unsigned by another team. He ended his career never having played on a team that had a winning season. He was a member of three of the worst teams in the history of major-league baseball: the woeful Detroit Tigers of 1996, 2002, and 2003.
Higginson is now a partner in a limousine company in Oakland County, Michigan and divides his time between Michigan and Florida.

Detroit Tigers (1995-2005)
Spent entire career with the Tigers

Monday, March 24, 2008


Snow Patrol are a Grammy Award-nominated alternative rock band which formed in Scotland, with the majority of their members being from Bangor and Belfast, Northern Ireland. They are currently based in Glasgow and are signed to Polydor Records. Originally formed as an indie rock band, Snow Patrol have sought a more alternative rock and powerpop sound in recent years on the heels of mainstream success with the songs "Run", "Chasing Cars" and more recently, "Signal Fire" from the Spider-Man 3 soundtrack. The band's latest album, Eyes Open, was nominated for the category of Best British Album at the 2007 BRIT Awards.

Snow Patrol History
Originally formed in late 1994 as "Shrug" by students Gary Lightbody and Mark McClelland at the University of Dundee in Dundee, Scotland, the band started by performing gigs at the university and surrounding pubs before changing their name to Polar Bear (or Polarbear) in late 1995. The name was changed to Snow Patrol after an error printing early demo CDs. In the early days, the band used to pretend to be members of the Scottish band Belle & Sebastian in order to gain free entry to the Student Union club at the Glasgow School of Art
At this point, Jonny Quinn, from Northern Ireland, joined as permanent drummer. With him the band released their next EP "Little Hide" on Jeepster Records while still living in Dundee (its cover was a blurred photo of a football crowd watching Dundee United F.C. at Tannadice Park, taken by Gary Lightbody). A follow-up single "One Hundred Things You Should Have Done in Bed" was a minor independent chart hit. Both of these early singles were heavily promoted by Jeepster - with videos included as computer files on the CD singles, and Snow Patrol starting to appear on television. Their first MTV interview was in 1998, and they briefly appeared on a Channel 4 documentary about Jeepster Records (which concentrated mostly on Belle and Sebastian) that same year. Two albums on Jeepster followed: Songs for Polarbears in 1998 (including a slightly remixed version of their debut single "Starfighter Pilot") and When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up in 2001 (both recorded while the band lived in Glasgow). Also in 2001, Gary collected a group of Scottish musicians, from such acts as Mogwai and Belle and Sebastian together to perform as a "supergroup", The Reindeer Section, who have so far released two CD albums. Gary also performed vocals on a single by Cut La Roc.

Early years
After being dropped by Jeepster, guitarist Nathan Connolly joined, and the band signed to the mainstream Polydor label. They gained mainstream success with their song "Run" (which debuted at No.5 in the UK singles chart), as well as the album it was from, the 2003 release, Final Straw which was produced by Jacknife Lee. The record peaked at #3 in the UK albums chart. Archer's final date with the band was September 27, 2003 in the St Andrews Students' Association. They followed the success of "Run" up with three more singles from the album: "Chocolate", as well as a re-release of "Spitting Games", both reaching the top 30, and "How to Be Dead" reaching number 39.
The release of Final Straw in the United States in 2004 saw the album notching up well in excess of a quarter of a million sales and becoming the 26th most popular British album of that year.
On March 16, 2005, McClelland left the band, with Lightbody stating 'a whole new set of new and unexpected pressures... have unfortunately taken their toll on working relationships within the band, and it was felt the band could not move forward with Mark as a member.' Former Terra Diablo member Paul Wilson replaced him on bass. In April 2005, Snow Patrol declared longtime touring keyboardist Tom Simpson an official member of the band.
In mid-2005, during their tour to support Final Straw, the band toured with U2 as an opening act on U2's Vertigo Tour in Europe. That summer also saw Snow Patrol playing a small set in London at the worldwide benefit concert Live 8. After finishing their opening act duties and extensive 2-year tour of Final Straw in late July, the band took a few weeks off and began writing and recording songs for a new album. Snow Patrol's new version of John Lennon's "Isolation" was released on December 10, 2005 as part of the Amnesty International campaign, Make Some Noise. The song was later issued on the 2007 John Lennon tribute album, Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur.

Breakthrough success
The band completed recording Eyes Open in December 2005, with Jacknife Lee returning for production, and this album was released in the UK and Ireland on the May 1, 2006, with the first UK single "You're All I Have" having been released on the April 24, 2006. The album was released in North America on May 9. While "Hands Open" was the first American single, "Chasing Cars" pushed its way onto the download and pop charts after it was heard in the second season finale of the television show Grey's Anatomy on May 15, 2006. Due to the song's surprise popularity, it was released as an overlapping single in early June and the video was re-recorded to include clips from the show. The song was also featured in another television show, One Tree Hill, during its season finale. On the December 30, 2006, it was voted by Virgin Radio listeners to be the #1 song of all time. Another one of the band's songs, "Open Your Eyes", was heard on the season finale of another medical program, ER, on the May 18, 2006, the The 4400, the second episode of Grey's Anatomy's third season on September 28, 2006, and the pilot episode of NBC's series The Black Donnellys.
On July 30, 2006, Snow Patrol appeared on the finale of the long-running BBC music show Top of the Pops, performing "Chasing Cars". The band was the last act to ever appear on the show.
Snow Patrol recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios for Live from Abbey Road on October 4, 2006. The performance was included on an episode shared with Madeleine Peyroux and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and shown in the UK on Channel 4 and the USA on the Sundance Channel.
The band was forced to postpone a majority of the American Eyes Open tour after polyps were discovered on Lightbody's vocal cords, and failed to heal after initial postponement of three dates on the tour. Dates were rescheduled for August and September. The year would continue to be difficult on the band for the U.S. legs of their tours, as they were also forced to cancel two west coast festival appearances in mid-August due to the threat of terrorist attacks on U.S.-bound flights from the UK. Two band members made it to the U.S. while two were stuck in London. Sequentially, they all made it to the lone U.S. tour stop in Boston days later but failed to recover any of their luggage, forcing them to shop for clothes on Newbury St. that afternoon. Their gear arrived hours before show time, just in time for sound check.
The band also had to cancel appearances in Germany and France after bassist Paul Wilson injured his left arm and shoulder.
On November 26, 2006, Eyes Open had become the UK's best-selling album of the year, overtaking previous leader Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not by Arctic Monkeys. Despite very strong sales for Take That's comeback album Beautiful World, Eyes Open marginally earned the title of the UK's best-selling album of 2006, with 1.6 million sales. The album reached platinum certification in the US as well, and as of February 2007, it has sold nearly 1,000,000 copies. It has maintained a spot in the upper quarter of the Billboard 200 list for over fifteen weeks, on the heels of the popularity of "Chasing Cars". The band also holds the distinction of having one of iTunes' top downloaded albums and songs of 2006.
Ahead of the band's February tour, Eyes Open topped the Australian charts some eight months after its release on January 22, 2006. This February tour, the band asked long term friend and Boss Volenti drummer, Graham Hopkins to play drums as Jonny Quinn had broken his arm. The band will tour Australia again in September 2007.
Snow Patrol appeared as the musical guest on the March 17, 2007 episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. They performed "You're All I Have" and "Chasing Cars".
The band toured Japan in April, followed by European festival dates, Mexico, and the US in the summer. They will end their tour in Australia in September 2007, with shows in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Newcastle and Canberra. Gary Lightbody has stated that recording for the follow-up to Eyes Open will begin in autumn 2007, with Jacknife Lee returning a third time for production.
The band contributed the song "Signal Fire" to the Spider-Man 3 soundtrack, as well as the film. The song was the lead single from the soundtrack and was featured in the credits to the film.
On the July 7, 2007, the band performed at the UK leg of Live Earth at Wembley Stadium, London. They performed "Open Your Eyes", "Shut Your Eyes", and "Chasing Cars". Shortly after the band's performance, Simpson was arrested at RAF Northolt for missing a court date in Glasgow after having been charged for possession of a Class A drug (cocaine). He was held at Uxbridge Police Station, and transferred to Strathclyde before being released in time to perform with the band at T in the Park in Balado. Simpson missed Snow Patrol's performance at the Oxegen Festival in Ireland as a result.

The follow-up

Current members

Mark McClellandbass guitar, keyboards Discography

Final Straw US Tour (2004) with Eisley; early 2005 with Athlete)
U2 Vertigo Tour (Openers on select dates in Europe, mid-2005)
SXSW Promo Tour w/ Republic of Loose (early 2006)
Eyes Open US Tour w/ Augustana and Duke Special (or Aberdeen City on select dates) (mid-2006)
Chasing Cars Tour w/ OK GO and Silversun Pickups (early 2007)
Summer Tour w/ Hot Hot Heat on U.S. and Canada dates (mid-2007)
Australasian Tour, w/ Iain Archer (Australia and New Zealand), Silversun Pickups (Australia only), and Opshop (New Zealand only) September 2007.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Erik Ullenhag
Erik Ullenhag (born July 20, 1972 in Uppsala) is a Swedish jurist and politician with the Liberal People's Party. Ullenhag was chairman for the Liberal Youth of Sweden between 1997 and 1999 and a Member of the Riksdag between 2002 and 2006. On October 10, 2006 Ullenhag was appointed party secretary for the Liberal People's Party.
Erik Ullenhag is the son of Jörgen Ullenhag.

Saturday, March 22, 2008


Harry Morgan (born Harry Bratsburg on April 10, 1915 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American television actor of Norwegian extraction. He graduated from Muskegon High School in Muskegon, Michigan, where he achieved distinction as a statewide debating champion.[1].
He is perhaps best known as Colonel Sherman T. Potter on M*A*S*H, "Pete" on Pete and Gladys and December Bride, and Detective Bill Gannon on Dragnet.

Harry Morgan Career
Features:
Short Subjects:

To the Shores of Tripoli (1942)
The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe (1942)
Orchestra Wives (1942)
The Omaha Trail (1942)
Crash Dive (1943)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
Happy Land (1943)
The Eve of St. Mark (1944)
Roger Touhy, Gangster (1944)
Wing and a Prayer (1944)
Gentle Annie (1944)
A Bell for Adano (1945)
State Fair (1945)
From This Day Forward (1946)
Johnny Comes Flying Home (1946)
Dragonwyck (1946)
Somewhere in the Night (1946)
It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog (1946)
Crime Doctor's Man Hunt (1946)
The Gangster (1947)
All My Sons (1948)
The Big Clock (1948)
Race Street (1948)
The Saxon Charm (1948)
Moonrise (1948)
Yellow Sky (1948)
Hello Out There (1949) (unfinished)
Down to the Sea in Ships (1949)
The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949)
Madame Bovary (1949)
Strange Bargain (1949)
Red Light (1949)
Holiday Affair (1949)
Outside the Wall (1950)
The Showdown (1950)
Dark City (1950)
Belle Le Grand (1951)
When I Grow Up (1951)
Appointment with Danger (1951)
The Highwayman (1951)
The Well (1951)
The Blue Veil (1951)
Boots Malone (1952)
Scandal Sheet (1952)
Bend of the River (1952)
My Six Convicts (1952)
High Noon (1952)
What Price Glory? (1952)
Big Jim McLain (1952) (narrator)
Apache War Smoke (1952)
Toughest Man in Arizona (1952)
Stop, You're Killing Me (1952)
Thunder Bay (1953)
Arena (1953)
Champ for a Day (1953)
Torch Song (1953)
The Glenn Miller Story (1953)
Prisoner of War (1954)
The Forty-Niners (1954)
About Mrs. Leslie (1954)
The Far Country (1955)
Strategic Air Command (1955)
Not as a Stranger (1955)
Pete Kelly's Blues (1955)
The Bottom of the Bottle (1956)
Backlash (1956)
Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story of Flying Saucers (1956) (documentary)
Star in the Dust (1956)
The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956)
Under Fire (1957)
It Started with a Kiss (1959)
The Mountain Road (1960)
Inherit the Wind (1960)
Cimarron (1960)
How the West Was Won (1962)
John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (1965)
Frankie and Johnny (1966)
What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966)
The Flim-Flam Man (1967)
Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)
Viva Max! (1969)
Patton (1970)
The Barefoot Executive (1971)
Support Your Local Gunfighter! (1971)
Scandalous John (1971)
Snowball Express (1972)
Charley and the Angel (1973)
The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975)
The Shootist (1976)
The Cat from Outer Space (1978)
The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1979)
The Flight of Dragons (1982)
Dragnet (1987)
Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick (1996) (documentary)
Family Plan (1998)
A Scrap of Paper (1943)
Operation Teahouse (1956)
Star Spangled Salesman (1968)
Crosswalk (1999)

Friday, March 21, 2008


William Raymond Manchester (April 1, 1922June 1, 2004) was an American historian and biographer, notable as the bestselling author of 18 books that have been translated into 20 languages.

William Manchester Bibliography

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Collective defense
Collective defense is an arrangement, usually formalized by a treaty and an organization, among participant states that commit support in defense of a member state if it is attacked by another state outside the organization.
NATO is the best known collective defense organization. Its now famous Article V calls on (but not fully commits) member states to assist another member under attack. This article was invoked after the September 11 attacks on the United States, after which other NATO members provided assistance to the US War on Terror in Afghanistan.
Collective defense has its roots in multiparty alliances, and entails benefits as well as risks. On the one hand, by combining and pooling resources, it can reduce any single state's cost of providing fully for its security. Smaller members of NATO, for example, have leeway to invest a greater proportion of their budget on non-military priorities, such as education or health, since they can count on other members to come to their defense, if needed.
On the other hand, collective defense also involves risky commitments. Member states can become embroiled in costly wars in which neither the direct victim nor the aggressor benefit. In the First World War, countries in the collective defense arrangement known as the Triple Entente (France, Britain, Russia) got pulled into war quickly when Germany declared war on Russia.
Although they overlap, collective defense is different from collective security, in which members work to deter aggression in the first place. The United Nations is an example of a collective security arrangement, albeit with significant limitations. In general, collective defense involves a more explicit commitment among a group of like-minded members.
Another examples of collective defense is West African organisation ECOMOG and Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Membership
The Bank launched a separate internet-only operation known as smile in 1999, which, according to surveys, has the highest satisfaction ratings among UK banks and has received many awards in recent years for customer service and online banking [1]. It has around half-a-million customers. Smile has its call centre based at a unique pyramid building in Stockport.

Co-operative BankCo-operative Bank Co-operative Bank Independent Financial Advisers (CBFA)
While the bank, like any other, is run on profitable lines, it does occasionally turn away new business which it feels may compromise its ethical policies. In the 2005/06 financial year, whilst making profits of £96.5 million, it turned away business of nearly £10 million (Guardian article).
In June 2005, the bank closed the account of a Christian evangelical group (Christian Voice) because of its allegedly homophobic standpoint. They said the group was "incompatible with the position of The Co-operative Bank, which publicly supports diversity and dignity". Christian Voice said the bank was discriminating against it on religious grounds (press release). Gay Times subsequently selected The Co-operative Bank for its Ethical Corporate Stance Award.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008


Hutterites are a communal branch of Anabaptists who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the 16th century.

History
Hutterite communities, called "colonies", are all rural; many depend largely on farming or ranching, depending on their locale, for their income. More and more colonies are getting into manufacturing as its gets harder to make a living on farming alone. The colony is virtually or literally self-sufficient, constructing its own buildings, doing its own maintenance and repair on equipment, making its own clothes, etc.

Society
Hutterite colonies are male-managed with women participating in stereotypically feminine roles such as cooking, medical decisions and selection and purchase of fabric for clothing. The colony's manager is the Minister, with his wife holding the title of Schneider (from German "tailor"), thus she is in charge of clothing making or purchasing.

Governance
Hutterites practice a near-total community of goods: all property is owned by the colony, and provisions for individual members and their families come from the common resources. This practice is based largely on Hutterite interpretation of passages in chapters 2, 4, and 5 of Acts, which speak of the believers "having all things in common". Thus the colony owns and operates its buildings and equipment like a corporation. Housing units are built and assigned to individual families but belong to the colony and there is very little personal property. Meals are taken by the entire colony in a common long room.
Hutterites say that in their entire five-century history there have been two murders and one suicide. Young Hutterite men often leave their colony upon reaching adulthood to try life in the outside world. The vast majority (according to one Minister, 80 percent) return disillusioned by the harsh, cold speed of the modern world and are welcomed back to the colony.

Community ownership
Each colony consists of about 10 to 20 families, with a population of around 60 to 150. When the colony's population grows near the upper figure and its leadership determines that branching off is economically and spiritually necessary, they locate, purchase land for, and build a "daughter" colony. When the new colony is complete and ready for habitation, half of the old colony's members are chosen (usually by lot) to depart for the new colony, which they often do the very next day. When an intercolony marriage occurs, the bride goes to live in the groom's colony, where they may be treated to a "shivaree" (see charivari), though it's good-natured and not intended as a note of disapproval.

Daughter colonies
Often, colonies own large tracts of land and, since they function as a collective unit, can afford top-of-the-line farm implements. Some also run state-of-the-art hog, chicken or turkey barns. An increasing number of Hutterite colonies are again venturing into the manufacturing sector. Before the Hutterites emigrated to North America, they relied on manufacturing to sustain their communities. It was only in Russia that the Hutterites learned to farm from the Mennonites. Largely due to the increasing automation of farming (GPS controlled seeding, spraying, etc), Hutterites are again looking to manufacturing to provide work for their people. Many of the colonies, who have gone into manufacturing, have realized that they need to provide their members with a higher level of education.

Agriculture and manufacturing
Although Hutterites attempt to remove themselves from the outside world (televisions are forbidden, though tapes, CDs and radios are not), and many of the Lehrerleut and Dariusleut (Alberta) colonies still only have one central phone, the majority of the Schmiedeleut already have phones in each household and place of business. Phones are used for both business and for social purposes. Cell phones are also very common among the Schmied groups. Text messaging has made cell phones particularly useful for Hutterian young people wishing to keep in touch with their peers. Some Hutterite homes have computers and radios; a minority of communities (mostly, liberal Schmiedleut colonies) have some sort of filtered Internet access.

Use of technology
Rather than send their children to an outside school, Hutterites build a schoolhouse onsite at the colony to fulfill a minimum educational agreement with the State, which is typically run by an outside hired educator who teaches the basics including English (this person is called the "English Teacher", not because English is used in the classroom but because the teacher is an outsider (English speaker)). Traditionally, Hutterite children have left school at 15 years of age to fulfill their adult roles in the colony. This practice is still strictly maintained by the Lehrerleut and most of the Dariusleut colonies. However, an increasing number of Hutterites, especially among the Schmiedeleut in Manitoba, have graduated from high school. In addition, some of these young people have then gone on to attend university; many become teachers for their colonies. Brandon University in Brandon, Manitoba, offers a Hutterite Education Program (BUHEP) to Hutterites that are willing to teach on Hutterite colonies. This program is only available to the Hutterite colonies on the liberal side of the Schmiedleut split.

Schooling
Music is officially permitted only in vocal form, however, some colonies allow instruments

Music
Alberta Hutterites won the right to avoid having their photograph taken for their drivers' licenses. In May 2007, the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that the photograph requirement violates their religious rights and that driving was essential to their way of life. The Wilson Springs colony based their belief on the second commandment ("Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image").

Photography
In contrast to the plain look of the Amish and Old Order Mennonites, Hutterite clothing can be vividly coloured, especially on children.

Hutterites Clothing
Just as the Amish and Old Order Mennonites often use Pennsylvania German, the Hutterites have preserved and use among themselves a distinct dialect of German known as Hutterite German or Hutterisch. Originally based on a Tyrolean dialect from the south-central German-speaking Europe from which they sprang in the 16th century, Hutterisch has taken on a Carinthian base due to their migratory history. In the years 1760 -1763, the Hutterites were joined by a large group of Lutherans who spoke a Carinthian dialect. Eventually, this lead to the replacement of the Hutterite's Tyrolean dialect with the Carinthian dialect. Partly as a result of this, the Amish and Hutterite German dialects are not generally mutually intelligible. In their religious exercises Hutterites use a classic Lutheran German.

Dialect
The mid-2004 location and number of the world's 472 Hutterite colonies:

Canada (347)

  • Dariusleut (142): Alberta (109); Saskatchewan (31); British Columbia (2)
    Schmiedeleut (106): Manitoba (105); Alberta (1)
    Lehrerleut (99): Alberta (69); Saskatchewan (30)
    United States (124)

    • Schmiedeleut (69): South Dakota (53); Minnesota (9); North Dakota (7)
      Lehrerleut (34): Montana (34)
      Dariusleut (21): Montana (15); Washington (5); Oregon (1)
      Japan (1)

      • Dariusleut (1)
        Nigeria (1)

        • Schmiedeleut (1) See also

Monday, March 17, 2008

Official residenceJohn Young (astronaut)
John Watts Young (born September 24, 1930) is a former NASA astronaut who walked on the Moon on April 21, 1972 during the Apollo 16 mission.
Young enjoyed one of the longest and busiest careers of any astronaut in the American space program. He was the first person to fly into space six times, twice journeyed to the Moon, and as of 2007, is the only person to have piloted four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini spacecraft, Apollo Command/Service Module, Apollo Lunar Module, and Space Shuttle

Early life and Navy career

NASA career
Joining NASA in 1962, Young was the first of Astronaut Group 2 to fly in space. (He replaced Thomas Stafford as pilot of Gemini 3 when Alan Shepard, the original commander, was grounded.) Making the first manned flight of the Gemini spacecraft with Virgil Grissom, Young scored another space "first" by smuggling a corned beef sandwich onto the spacecraft - a feat for which he was reprimanded.
Young then trained as backup pilot for Gemini 6, but after the sandwich episode, for a time it seemed that NASA did not know what to do with Young. Other Group 2 astronauts with flight experience were quickly moved to Apollo, while other astronauts such as Scott Carpenter and Gordon Cooper had been sidelined for lesser infractions. The deaths of Charles Bassett and Elliott See the prime crew of Gemini 9 created a hole in the astronaut corps so that Young was confirmed as Commander of Gemini 10. The mission performed the first dual docking to two Agena Target Vehicles, and his pilot, Michael Collins, performed two spacewalks.

Project Gemini
Young was assigned to the backup crew on Apollo 7 and later made the second manned flight to the Moon on Apollo 10 with Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan. While Stafford and Cernan flew the lunar module in lunar orbit for the first time, Young flew the command module solo - the first person to do so in lunar orbit. Young was backup commander of Apollo 13, the troubled mission in which the moon landing was aborted because of an explosion on the service module. Young had a central role in rescuing the Apollo 13 crew by leading the team that devised the makeshift carbon dioxide filters that kept the astronauts' air supply breathable.
By rotation, Young became commander of Apollo 16. Young became an enthusiastic student of geology while preparing for the moon mission. Apollo 16's lunar landing was almost aborted at the last moment when a malfunction was detected on the command module. On the surface, Young trod the Descartes Highlands with Charles Duke (making Young the ninth man to walk upon the surface of the moon), while Ken Mattingly flew the command module in lunar orbit. Young set a speed record with the lunar rover but was troubled by the effects of potassium in the orange juice they drank during the moonwalks. He carried with him the badge and flag of the Sigma Chi Fraternity; these are on display at Sigma Chi's headquarters in Evanston, Illinois.
His final assignment in Apollo was as the backup commander on Apollo 17. This almost resulted in his second moon landing when Gene Cernan injured his knee playing softball a few months before the flight. The injury, had it been any more severe, would have resulted in Cernan being medically dropped from the flight and John Young commanding the last two moon landings of Apollo (as a note, fellow Group 2 astronaut Pete Conrad would have done the same if he would have commanded the cancelled Apollo 20 mission, but as he already flew as commander of Apollo 12, he would have been transferred to either Skylab or the Space Shuttle and Apollo 14 CMP Stuart Roosa would have flown on Apollo 20 as commander).

Project Apollo
After the Apollo program ended, Young stayed on as an astronaut and flew two missions of the Space Shuttle, including commanding the Shuttle's maiden flight, STS-1, and the flight STS-9 which used Spacelab for the first time. Young had been in line to make a record seventh flight to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope, but the Challenger Disaster thwarted NASA's schedule.
Young was openly critical of the administration following the disaster, and in April 1987 was taken out of the Astronaut Office and made special assistant of engineering, operations and safety to the center director Aaron Cohen. It was denied that his criticism of NASA triggered the move.

Space Shuttle
Young worked for NASA for 42 years and announced his retirement on December 7, 2004. He retired on December 31, 2004 at the age of 74.
While Young may have been overshadowed by other pioneering astronauts, his career experience is massive. As a member of the second astronaut intake, he contributed to all of the pioneering NASA projects. As the only commander of a Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle mission, John Young holds a unique place in the history of manned space exploration.
John still attends the Monday Morning Meeting in the Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center.

Sunday, March 16, 2008


Christianity
Christian cross
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Easter, the Sunday of the Resurrection, Pascha, or Resurrection Day, is an important religious feast in the Christian liturgical year. It celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, which Christians believe occurred on the third day after his crucifixion some time in the period AD 27 to 33.
Easter also refers to the season of the church year, called Eastertide or the Easter Season. Traditionally the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until Ascension Day but now officially lasts for the fifty days until Pentecost. The first week of the Easter Season is known as Easter Week or the Octave of Easter.
Easter is termed a movable Christian holy day because it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. Easter falls at some point between late March and late April each year (early April to early May in Eastern Christianity), following the cycle of the moon.
Today many families celebrate Easter in a completely secular way, as a non-religious holiday.
Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover not only for much of its symbolism but also for its position in the calendar. The Last Supper shared by Jesus and his disciples before his crucifixion is generally thought of as a Passover meal, based on the chronology in the Gospels. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "In fact, the Jewish feast was taken over into the Christian Easter celebration."

Etymology
The English name, "Easter", and the German, "Ostern", derive from the name of a putative Anglo-Saxon Goddess of the Dawn (thus, of spring, as the dawn of the year) — called Ēaster, Ēastre, and Ēostre in various dialects of Old English and Ostara in German.
Jakob Grimm took up the question of Eostre in his Deutsche Mythologie of 1835, noting that Ostara-manoth was etymologically related to Eostur-monath and writing of various landmarks and customs which he believed to be related to a putative goddess he named Ostara in Germany. Critics suggest that Grimm took Bede's mention of a goddess Eostre at face value and constructed the parallel goddess Ostara around existing Germanic customs, noting the absence of any direct evidence for a goddess of this name. Amongst other traditions, Grimm attempted to connect the 'Osterhase' (Easter Bunny) and Easter Eggs to the putative goddess Ostara/Eostre. He also cites various place names in Germany as being possible evidence of Ostara, but critics observe that the words for 'east' and 'dawn' are similar in their roots, which could mean that these place names simply referred to either of those two things rather than a goddess.
However, the giving of eggs at spring festivals was not restricted to Germanic peoples and could be found among the Persians, Romans, Jews and the Armenians. They were a widespread symbol of rebirth and resurrection and thus might have been adopted from any number of sources.

English and German
In most Slavic languages, the name for Easter either means "Great Day" or "Great Night". For example, Wielkanoc and Velikonoce mean "Great Night" or "Great Nights" in Polish and Czech, respectively. Великден (Velikden', Velykden' ) and Вялікдзень (Vyalikdzyen' ) mean "The Great Day" in Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, respectively. In Croatian, however, the day's name reflects a particular theological connection: it is called Uskrs, meaning "Resurrection". In Croatian it is also called Vazam (Vzem or Vuzem in Old Croatian), which is a noun that originated from the Old Church Slavonic verb vzeti (now uzeti in Croatian, meaning "to take"). It also explains the fact that in Serbian Easter is called Vaskrs because the letter "v" didn't change into the vowel "u" (as in uskrs instead of vskrs), but remained as a consonant to which the vowel "a" was later added. It is also known that long ago it was called Velja noć (veliti, veljati: "to talk", noć: "night") in Croatian. The verb krstiti in Croatian means "to baptize", so the words krštenje (baptizing) and Uskrs are supposed to derive from Christ's name, from which the word krst was later formed, now meaning "cross" (nowadays having a synonym, križ). It is believed that Cyril and Methodius, the Greek "holy brothers" who baptized the Slavic people and translated Christian books from Latin into Old Church Slavonic, invented the word Uskrs from the word krsnuti or "enliven". In Russian, the name of the feast follows the Greek form of Pascha.

Slavic languages
The observance of any non-Jewish special holiday throughout the Christian year is believed by some to be an innovation postdating the Early Church. The ecclesiastical historian Socrates Scholasticus (b. 380) attributes the observance of Easter by the church to the perpetuation of local custom, "just as many other customs have been established," stating that neither Jesus nor his Apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival. However, when read in context, this is not a rejection or denigration of the celebration—which, given its currency in Scholasticus' time would be surprising—but is merely part of a defense of the diverse methods for computing its date. Indeed, although he describes the details of the Easter celebration as deriving from local custom, he insists the feast itself is universally observed.

Easter in the early Church
See also: Quartodecimanism, Easter controversy, and Passover (Christian holiday)
Very early in the life of the Church, it was accepted that the Lord's Supper was a practice of the disciples and an undisputed tradition. A dispute arose concerned the date on which Pascha (Easter) should be celebrated.
In the end, the celebration of Pascha (Easter) on Sunday was not formally settled until the First Council of Nicaea in 325 (see below), although by that time the Roman position had spread to most churches.

Easter controversy
Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts, in that they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars (both of which follow the cycle of the sun and the seasons). Instead, the date for Easter is determined on a lunisolar calendar, as is the Jewish Calendar.
In Western Christianity, Easter always falls on a Sunday from March 22 to April 25 inclusive.
The Council of Nicaea, however, did not declare the Alexandrian or Roman calculations as normative. Instead, the council gave the Bishop of Alexandria the privilege of announcing annually the date of Christian Passover to the Roman curia. Although the synod undertook the regulation of the dating of Christian Passover, it contented itself with communicating its decision to the different dioceses, instead of establishing a canon. Its exact words were not preserved, but from scattered notices the council ruled:
It took awhile for the Alexandrian rules to be adopted throughout Christian Europe. The Church of Rome continued to use an 84-year lunisolar calendar cycle from the late third century until 457. The Church of Rome continued to use its own methods until the 6th century, when it may have adopted the Alexandrian method as converted into the Julian calendar by Dionysius Exiguus (certain proof of this does not exist until the ninth century). Early Christians in Britain and Ireland also used a late Roman 84-year third century cycle until the Synod of Whitby in 664, when they adopted the Alexandrian method. Churches in western continental Europe used a late Roman method until the late 8th century during the reign of Charlemagne, when they finally adopted the Alexandrian method. However, with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar by the Catholic Church in 1582 and the continuing use of the Julian calendar by Eastern Orthodox churches, the date on which Easter is celebrated again deviated.
The rule has since the Middle Ages been phrased as Easter is observed on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox. However, this does not reflect the actual ecclesiastical rules precisely. The reason for this is that the full moon involved (called the Paschal full moon) is not an astronomical full moon, but an ecclesiastical moon. The difference is that the astronomical vernal equinox is a natural astronomical phenomenon, while the ecclesiastical vernal equinox is a fixed March 21. Easter is determined from tables which determine Easter based on the ecclesiastical rules described above, which approximate the astronomical full moon.
In applying the ecclesiastical rules, the various Christian Churches use 21 March as their starting point from which they find the next full moon, etc. However because Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches use the Julian Calendar as their starting point, while Western Christianity uses the Gregorian Calendar, the end point, the date for Easter, may diverge. (see table)

Main article: Computus Date of Easter
See also: Reform of the date of Easter
At a summit in Aleppo, Syria, in 1997, the World Council of Churches proposed a reform in the calculation of Easter which would have replaced an equation-based method of calculating Easter with direct astronomical observation; this would have side-stepped the calendar issue and eliminated the difference in date between the Eastern and Western churches. The reform was proposed for implementation starting in 2001, but it was not ultimately adopted by any member body.
A few clergymen of various denominations have advanced the notion of disregarding the moon altogether in determining the date of Easter; proposals include always observing the feast on the second Sunday in April, or always having seven Sundays between the Epiphany and Ash Wednesday, producing the same result except that in leap years Easter could fall on April 7. These suggestions have yet to attract significant support, and their adoption in the future is considered unlikely.
In the United Kingdom, the Easter Act of 1928 set out legislation to allow the date of Easter to be fixed as the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April. However, the legislation has not been implemented, although it remains on the Statute book and could be implemented subject to approval by the various Christian churches. See Hansard

Reform of the date of Easter

Advent
Christmastide
Epiphany
Lent
Easter Triduum
Easter season
Feast of the Ascension
Pentecost
Ordinary Time
Feast of Cross
Nativity Fast
Nativity
Theophany
Great Lent
Pascha
Pentecost
Transfiguration
Dormition
Protection Position in the church year
In Western Christianity, Easter marks the end of the forty days of Lent, a period of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter which begins on Ash Wednesday.
The week before Easter is very special in the Christian tradition. The Sunday before Easter is Palm Sunday and the last three days before Easter are Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday (sometimes referred to as Silent Saturday). Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday respectively commemorate Jesus' entry in Jerusalem, the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are sometimes referred to as the Easter Triduum (Latin for "Three Days"). In some countries, Easter lasts two days, with the second called "Easter Monday." The week beginning with Easter Sunday is called Easter Week or the Octave of Easter, and each day is prefaced with "Easter," e.g. Easter Monday, Easter Tuesday, etc. Easter Saturday is therefore the Saturday after Easter Sunday. The day before Easter is properly called Holy Saturday. Many churches start celebrating Easter late in the evening of Holy Saturday at a service called the Easter Vigil.
Eastertide, the season of Easter, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts until the day of Pentecost, seven weeks later.

Western Christianity
In Eastern Christianity, preparations begin with Great Lent. Following the fifth Sunday of Great Lent is Palm Week, which ends with Lazarus Saturday. Lazarus Saturday officially brings Great Lent to a close, although the fast continues for the following week. After Lazarus Saturday comes Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and finally Easter itself, or Pascha (Πάσχα), and the fast is broken immediately after the Divine Liturgy. Easter is immediately followed by Bright Week, during which there is no fasting, even on Wednesday and Friday.
The Paschal Service consists of Paschal Matins, Hours, and Liturgy, which traditionally begins at midnight of Pascha morning. Placing the Paschal Divine Liturgy at midnight guarantees that no Divine Liturgy will come earlier in the morning, ensuring its place as the pre-eminent "Feast of Feasts" in the liturgical year.

Eastern Christianity

Religious observation of Easter
The Easter festival is kept in many different ways among Western Christians. The traditional, liturgical observation of Easter, as practised among Roman Catholics and some Lutherans and Anglicans begins on the night of Holy Saturday with the Easter Vigil. This, the most important liturgy of the year, begins in total darkness with the blessing of the Easter fire, the lighting of the large Paschal candle (symbolic of the Risen Christ) and the chanting of the Exsultet or Easter Proclamation attributed to Saint Ambrose of Milan. After this service of light, a number of readings from the Old Testament are read; these tell the stories of creation, the sacrifice of Isaac, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the foretold coming of the Messiah. This part of the service climaxes with the singing of the Gloria and the Alleluia and the proclamation of the Gospel of the resurrection. A sermon may be preached after the gospel. Then the focus moves from the lectern to the font. Anciently, Easter was considered the most perfect time to receive baptism, and this practice is alive in Roman Catholicism, as it is the time when new members are initiated into the Church, and it is being revived in some other circles. Whether there are baptisms at this point or not, it is traditional for the congregation to renew the vows of their baptismal faith. This act is often sealed by the sprinkling of the congregation with holy water from the font. The Catholic sacrament of Confirmation is also celebrated at the Vigil. The Easter Vigil concludes with the celebration of the Eucharist (or 'Holy Communion'). Certain variations in the Easter Vigil exist: Some churches read the Old Testament lessons before the procession of the Paschal candle, and then read the gospel immediately after the Exsultet. Some churches prefer to keep this vigil very early on the Sunday morning instead of the Saturday night, particularly Protestant churches, to reflect the gospel account of the women coming to the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week. These services are known as the Sunrise service and often occur in outdoor setting such as the church's yard or a nearby park. The first recorded "Sunrise Service" took place in 1732 among the Single Brethren in the MoravianCongregation at Herrnhut, Saxony, in what is now Germany. Following an all-night vigil they went before dawn to the town graveyard, God's Acre, on the hill above the town, to celebrate the Resurrection among the graves of the departed. This service was repeated the following year by the whole congregation and subsequently spread with the Moravian Missionaries around the world. The most famous "Moravian Sunrise Service" is in the Moravian Settlement Old Salem in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The beautiful setting of the Graveyard, God's Acre, the music of the Brass Choir numbering 500 pieces, and the simplicity of the service attract thousands of visitors each year and has earned for Winston-Salem the soubriquet "the Easter City."
Additional celebrations are usually offered on Easter Sunday itself. Typically these services follow the usual order of Sunday services in a congregation, but also typically incorporate more highly festive elements. The music of the service, in particular, often displays a highly festive tone; the incorporation of brass instruments (trumpets, etc.) to supplement a congregation's usual instrumentation is common. Often a congregation's worship space is decorated with special banners and flowers (such as Easter lilies).
In predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines, the morning of Easter (known in the national language as "Pasko ng Muling Pagkabuhay" or the Pasch of the Resurrection) is marked with joyous celebration, the first being the dawn "Salubong," wherein large statues of Jesus and Mary are brought together to meet, imagining the first reunion of Jesus and his mother Mary after Jesus' Resurrection. This is followed by the joyous Easter Mass.
In Polish culture, The Rezurekcja (Resurrection Procession) is the joyous Easter morning Mass at daybreak when church bells ring out and explosions resound to commemorate Christ rising from the dead. Before the Mass begins at dawn, a festive procession with the Blessed Sacrament carried beneath a canopy encircles the church. As church bells ring out, handbells are vigorously shaken by altar boys, the air is filled with incense and the faithful raise their voices heavenward in a triumphant rendering of age-old Easter hymns. After the Blessed Sacrament is carried around the church and Adoration is complete, the Easter Mass begins.

Western Christianity
Easter is the fundamental and most important festival of the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox. Every other religious festival on their calendars, including Christmas, is secondary in importance to the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is reflected rich Easter-connected customs in the cultures of countries that are traditionally Orthodox Christian majority. Eastern Catholics have similar emphasis in their calendars, and many of their liturgical customs are very similar.
This is not to say that Christmas and other elements of the Christian liturgical calendar are ignored. Instead, these events are all seen as necessary but preliminary to the full climax of the Resurrection, in which all that has come before reaches fulfilment and fruition. Pascha (Easter) is the primary act that fulfils the purpose of Christ's ministry on earth—to defeat death by dying and to purify and exalt humanity by voluntarily assuming and overcoming human frailty. This is succinctly summarized by the Paschal troparion, sung repeatedly during Pascha until the Apodosis of Pascha, which is the day before Ascension:
Christ is risen from the dead,
Trampling down death by death,
And upon those in the tombs
Bestowing life!
Celebration of the holiday begins with the "anti-celebration" of Great Lent. In addition to fasting, almsgiving, and prayer, Orthodox cut down on all entertainment and non-essential activity, gradually eliminating them until Great and Holy Friday. Traditionally, on the evening of Great and Holy Saturday, the Midnight Office is celebrated shortly after 11:00 pm. At its completion all light in the church building is extinguished. A new flame is struck in the altar, or the priest lights his candle from a perpetual lamp kept burning there, and he then lights candles held by deacons or other assistants, who then go to light candles held by the congregation. Then the priest and congregation process around the church building, holding lit candles, re-entering ideally at the stroke of midnight, whereupon Matins begins immediately followed by the Paschal Hours and then the Divine Liturgy. Immediately after the Liturgy it is customary for the congregation to share a meal, essentially an agape dinner (albeit at 2:00 a.m. or later!).
The day after, Easter Sunday proper, there is no liturgy, since the liturgy for that day has already been celebrated. Instead, in the afternoon, it is often traditional to hold "Agape vespers." In this service, it has become customary during the last few centuries for the priest and members of the congregation to read a portion of the Gospel of John (20:19–25 or 19–31) in as many languages as they can manage.
For the remainder of the week (known as "Bright Week"), all fasting is prohibited, and the customary greeting is "Christ is risen!," to be responded with "Truly He is risen!"
See also: Pascha greeting

Eastern Christianity
As with many other Christian dates, the celebration of Easter extends beyond the church. Since its origins, it has been a time of celebration and feasting. Today it is commercially important, seeing wide sales of greeting cards and confectionery such as chocolate Easter eggs, marshmallow bunnies, Peeps, and jelly beans.
Despite the religious preeminence of Easter, in many traditionally Catholic or Protestant countries Christmas is now a more prominent event in the calendar year, being unrivaled as a festive season, commercial opportunity, and time of family gathering — even for those of no or only nominal faith. Easter's relatively modest secular observances place it a distant second or third among the less religiously inclined where Christmas is so prominent.

Non-religious Easter traditions
Throughout North America, Australia and parts of the UK, the Easter holiday has been partially secularized, so that some families participate only in the attendant revelry, central to which is decorating Easter eggs on Saturday evening and hunting for them Sunday morning, by which time they have been mysteriously hidden all over the house and garden. According to the children's stories, the eggs were hidden overnight and other treats delivered by the Easter Bunny in an Easter basket which children find waiting for them when they wake up. The Easter Bunny's motives for doing this are seldom clarified. Many families in America will attend Sunday Mass or services in the morning and then participate in a feast or party in the afternoon. In the UK, the tradition has boiled down to simply exchanging chocolate eggs on the Sunday, and possibly having an Easter meal, although in the north west of England, the tradition of rolling decorated eggs down steep hills is still adhered to. It is also traditional to have hot cross buns.

Australia, Canada, the United States, and parts of UK
Belgium shares the same traditions as North America but sometimes it's said that the Bells of Rome bring the Easter Eggs together with the Easter Bunny. The story goes that the bells of every church leave for Rome on Saturday which is called "Stille Zaterdag" which means "Silent Saturday" in Dutch. So because the bells are in Rome, the bells don't ring anywhere.

Belgium
In Norway, in addition to cross-country skiing in the mountains and painting eggs for decorating, a contemporary tradition is to solve murder mysteries at Easter. All the major television channels show crime and detective stories (such as Agatha Christie's Poirot), magazines print stories where the readers can try to figure out who did it, and many new books are published. Even the milk cartons change to have murder stories on their sides. Another tradition is Yahtzee games.
In Finland, Sweden and Denmark, traditions include egg painting and small children dressed as witches collecting candy door-to-door, in exchange for decorated pussy willows. This is a result of the mixing of an old Orthodox tradition (blessing houses with willow branches) and the Scandinavian Easter witch tradition. Brightly coloured feathers and little decorations are also attached to birch branches in a vase. For lunch/dinner on Holy Saturday, families traditionally feast on a smörgåsbord of herring, salmon, potatoes, eggs and other kinds of food. In Finland, the Lutheran majority enjoys mämmi as another traditional Easter treat, while the Orthodox minority's traditions include eating pasha instead.

Scandinavia
In the eastern part of the Netherlands (Twente and Achterhoek), Easter Fires (in Dutch: "Paasvuur") are lit on Easter Day at sunset. Easter Fires also take place on the same day in large portions of Northern Germany ("Osterfeuer").

Central Europe

Easter controversies
Easter traditions deemed "pagan" by some Reformation leaders, along with Christmas celebrations, were among the first casualties of some areas of the Protestant Reformation. Other Reformation Churches, such as the Lutheran and Anglican, retained a very full observance of the Church Year. In Lutheran Churches, not only were the days of Holy Week observed, but also Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost were observed with three day festivals, including the day itself and the two following. Among the other Reformation traditions, things were a bit different. These holidays were eventually restored (though Christmas only became a legal holiday in Scotland in 1967, after the Church of Scotland finally relaxed its objections). Some Christians (usually, but not always fundamentalists), however, continue to reject the celebration of Easter (and, often, of Christmas), because they believe them to be irrevocably tainted with paganism and idolatry. Their rejection of these traditions is based partly on their interpretation of 2 Corinthians 6:14-16.
This is also the view of Jehovah's Witnesses, who instead observe a yearly commemorative service of the Last Supper and subsequent death of Christ on the evening of 14 Nisan, as they calculate it derived from the lunar Hebrew Calendar. It is commonly referred to, in short, by many Witnesses as simply "The Memorial." Jehovah's Witnesses believe that such verses as Luke 22:19-20 constitute a commandment to remember the death of Christ, and they do so on a yearly basis just as Passover is celebrated yearly by the Jews.
Some groups feel that Easter (or, as they prefer to call it, "Resurrection Sunday" or "Resurrection Day") is properly regarded with great joy: not marking the day itself, but remembering and rejoicing in the event it commemorates—the miracle of Christ's resurrection. In this spirit, these Christians teach that each day and all Sabbaths should be kept holy, in Christ's teachings.
Other groups, such as the Sabbatarian Church of God celebrate a Christian Passover that lacks most of the practices or symbols associated with Western Easter and retains more of the presumed features of the Passover observed by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper.

Christian denominations and organizations that do not observe Easter
Some suggest an etymological relationship between Eostre and the Babylonian goddess Ishtar (variant spelling: Eshtar) and the possibility that aspects of an ancient festival accompanied the name, claiming that the worship of Bel and Astarte was anciently introduced into Britain, and that the hot cross buns of Good Friday and dyed eggs of Easter Sunday figured in the Chaldean rites just as they allegedly do now.

Easter alleged a Babylonian festival
Main article: Easter/Good Friday controversy
In modern-day United States and other Western countries, there have been instances whereas public mention of Easter and Good Friday have been replaced with euphemistic terminology (such as renaming "Easter break", the week off given by many schools around Eastertime, as "Spring break") so as to not offend non-Christians, or to enforce a separation of church and state.

Modern avoidance controversy

Traditions

Calculator for the date of Festivals (Anglican)
A simple method for determining the date of Easter for all years 326 to 4099 A.D.
Paschal Calculator (Eastern Orthodox)
Orthodox Calculator