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1.2.) Implicit fixed date. Those defined as occurring on a date N days before, or after, a fixed date. The result is also a fixed date, unless an intercalary day can occur between the two dates. Again, there are four cases, distinguished by period of repetition: |
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1.2.1.) Period of less than one year. The celebration at Fatima also supplies an example. The pilgrimages have a duration, starting on a given date and ending N days later, so the ending days fall under this rule. |
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1.2.2.) Period of one year. Again, this case includes the bulk of the events fitting the general pattern. Epiphany, as an example, is defined as occurring twelve days after Christmas, which is a fixed date of 6 January. |
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1.2.3.) Period of greater than one year. No practical example suggests itself, but the traditional fairy tale phrase of "a year and a day" would fit the rule. |
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1.2.4.) Irregular period. Again, no practical example is known, but the realities of modern politics make such a rule possible, and even likely. Given that the Generalissimo-Presidente-Dada declares his mistress' birthday to be a national holiday by rule 1.1.4. above (when his syphilis is not acting up), it is logical to assume that his advisers will suggest an official Sorry-I-forgot-her-birthday date, to follow N days later. |
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2.) Movable feasts. Everything else is a movable feast, by definition. These have various rules of definition: |
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2.1.) The Nth DOW of a fixed month. There are two types of this rule: |
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2.1.1.) N is fixed by value. In this case, N has a specific value. The first Monday of February is the day for celebrating Hurling the Silver Ball in St. Ives, Cornwall. In this case, N = 1. |
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2.1.2.) N is fixed by rule. The two most common variants of this rule are "last" or "last but one." In such cases, N cannot be fixed by value, since the last DOW in a month may have a value for N of either four or five. The Procession of the Penitents in Veurne (Furnes) occurs on the last Sunday in July. In Concarneau, France, one of the festivals known as "Pardons" in Brittany is called the Festival of the Blue Fishing Nets and is defined as the last Sunday but one in August. |
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A variant of this situation is the Nth full weekend. In this case, N is fixed by value, as in 2.1.1 above, but the constraint that both Saturday and Sunday must occur in the same calendar month also introduces a rule that influences the value of N. |
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2.2.) The date M days before or after the Nth DOW. An example might be the day five days after the fourth Thursday in November. At first glance, this rule would seem to collapse to the Nth-DOW rule, since the date N days before or after a given DOW always falls on a particular DOW itself. There is no way of predicting, however, that the resultant date is a particular Nth DOW for a particular month, so |
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