Ruth Griffiths

Today is Maundy Thursday, a solemn day observed by I Christians worldwide. It is the day that commemorates Jesus Christ’s last supper with his disciples and reminds us of the importance of humility, selflessness and service to others.

Maundy Thursday is much less widely known than Easter which has become a secularized Spring celebration.

Easter affects business and school calendar, vacation plans revolve around it, but the actual date for Easter hops around like a bunny.

Easter is the most important Christian holy day but the proper date of its celebration has been the subject of controversy for centuries. In 325, the Council of Nicaea established that Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the spring equinox.

In 1583, the Catholic Church began using March 21 under the Gregorian calendar to calculate the date of Easter, while the Eastern Churches have continued to use March 21 under the Julian calendar as the first day of spring.

The earliest and latest dates for “Western” Easter are  March 22 and April 25. However, in the Orthodox/Eastern Churches, while those dates are the same, they are calculated using the Julian calendar; therefore, on the Gregorian calendar those dates are April 4 and May 8. To further confuse the issue, occasionally the “Eastern” Easter falls on the same date as the Western Easter. That will happen this year when Easter is on April 20!

According to the Bible, Jesus held the Last Supper with his disciples on the night of the Jewish festival of Passover, died the next day (Good Friday) and rose again on the third day (the following Sunday). Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus on that Sunday.

The beginning of Passover is determined by the first full moon after the vernal equinox, which can occur on any day of the week. To ensure that Easter occurs on a Sunday, the Council of Nicaea therefore ruled in 325 that Easter would be celebrated on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. But there’s a twist: if the full moon falls on a Sunday, then Passover begins on a Sunday, so Easter is then delayed by a week to ensure that it still occurs after Passover.

To confuse matters further, the council fixed the date of the vernal equinox at March 21, the date on which it occurred in 325 (though it now occurs on March 20), and introduced a set of tables to define when the full moon occurs that do not quite align with the actual astronomical full moon (which means that, in practice, Easter can actually occur before Passover).

We celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25, why couldn’t Easter be celebrated on a fixed date? Several churches, including the Catholic church, have said  they are open to the idea of setting the date of Easter in this way, but until there is widespread agreement, the date on which we celebrate Easter will continue to jump around within a five-week window. Hoppy Easter!

Hope springs eternal at this time of year when the snow is melting and the birds are returning to brighten our morning. It’s also the time for home gardeners to begin sorting seeds and starting tender plants.

When planning your vegetable and flowr gardens for 2025 consider your options for entering the horticulture competitions at the Prince Albert summer fair. You might decide to grow some spicey peppers which have become popular vegetables for competition at the Prince Albert Exhibition. Or maybe you think you can grow the perfect peas or beans that often fill a table ready for judging at the fair. Tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, rhubarb and lettuce are always winning cash prizes. But maybe there’s something you think nobody else grows that you excel at … there’s always a class for “any other vegetable not listed.” Maybe your entry could be the winner in that category!

Your flower garden might produce the best lilly, marigold, or petunias. Share the bounty of your garden with those who come to enjoy the agricultural display during fair week.

Apples, sour cherries, raspberries, haskaps are often in great abundance and win cash prizes at the fair. Maybe you have a new fruit that will interest fairgoers. Fun fact, the Prince Albert Exhibition was begun over a century ago as a means of educating agriculturalists about new varieties and methods. Today’s agricultural fairs can serve the same purpose by introducing new varieties for us to grow in our region.

Perhaps your gardening is done mainly indoors. There are plenty of classes available for competition in potted plants. Those who come to see the displays often say something like, “Oh I have a fern that is better than that one.” So this is your opportunity to bring your potted plants for all to admire.

In recent years flower arranging has expanded to fill a large part of the agriculture and horticulture show. You might consider a category that is new this year Class 613 Tea cup garden. Create a tiny planter with at least one live plant growing in a tea cup with saucer. First prize is $10.

One of the perennial favourites of the horticulture show was a children’s vegetables sculpture. Tiny hands transformed vegetables such as a zucchini into a school bus or a dinosaur. Adults and children alike enjoyed seeing these vegetables sculptures. Alas, fewer children are interested in exhibiting at the fair, so this year there is a vegetable sculpture class for all ages: Class 575 asks you to create a sculpture using vegetables of three different types grown in Saskatchewan. First prise is $10. (There will still be the classic vegetable model class open to children 16 and under.)

Another recently introduced competition is the People’s Choice Award determined by the votes of those who come to see the displays. 

The 140th Prince Albert Exhibition is Aug. 6-10. Go to the Prince Albert Exhibition office to get your copy of the agriculture and horticulture prized book or phone 306-764-1711. There is no charge to enter.

I know many people who are downsizing. This “downsizing” has nothing to do with losing jobs, instead it is a form of decluttering your home. Some people are downsizing because they want to live more simply with fewer possessions but most often, for my generation, downsizing is because they are moving into smaller accommodations.

Cleansing your home of things you have acquired over decades can be an exhausting task. Although they are inanimate objects, we often have emotional attachments to our “stuff”. The famous Marie Kondo method suggests you hold each object and ask yourself, “Does this bring me joy?” If the answer is “no” then you should put it in the pile for donating, recycling or discarding.

Books are often one of those things that people collect over the years and hold dear. Many people spend a lot of time organizing their books, investing in shelving to display them. But when it comes time to move, they often find themselves in the heartbreaking situation of needing to find a new home for their cherished book collection.

The CFUW Prince Albert (university women’s club) spring book sale is one place where many people choose to donate their cherished books. This year’s book sale begins April 25 and continues daily except Sundays until May 3 at the usual space in South Hill Place. Volunteers staff the book sale from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Donations of books are accepted during the sale.

At the sale you are invited to choose from a wide selection of used books and make a donation. There is no fixed price for the books. Please bring your own reusable bag in which to take away the  books you choose for yourself at the sale.

Proceeds of the sale support over $5,000 in scholarships. The sale is assisted by the Optimist Club, SHARE, South Hill Place and community volunteers. To volunteer to work at the sale or to learn more about donating books, please call Gail Syverson AT (306) 961-3309.

Sometimes when I hit the pillow at night, exhausted and stressed by a full day and yet too keyed up to sleep, I fantasize about living as my great-grandmother might have, a century ago. I’d be surrounded by a loving, extended family with nothing more taxing to do than rock a fretful baby or dole out advice on relationships.

But was Grandma’s life enviable? 

Women on the farm a century ago worked from sun up to sun down and sometimes longer. Running water usually meant grab a bucket and run to the well or dugout. Wood had to be hauled in for heating and cooking and the ashes had to be hauled out. The older children often helped with these chores but it still fell to Mother to oversee the running of the house.

She likely spent all day Monday doing laundry and all Tuesday ironing. The water had to be hauled in, heated and disposed of. I remember Mother using the last grey soapy wash water to scrub the verandah. That hot water was precious!

There was no corner store to run to, so at least once a week she was baking bread and churning butter, if they were lucky enough to have a milk cow. Separating milk, feeding the chickens and gathering eggs were also usually part of the “kitchen” chores.

Because there was no 24-hour WalMart, our grandmothers made an art of “making do.” Recipe books always had a lengthy section on substitutions. Rationing during the war years added to their inventiveness.

Off-the-rack clothing was rare, so sewing and knitting were continuous projects. Father’s  shirt got a new lease on life by turning the collar. The knees of pants were patched of necessity, not fashion. And when you had lovingly knit those socks, you darned the holes in the heels, rather than throw them out.

There was no walk-in clinic with free medical care. Grandma had a remedy for most things and nursed sick family members while she kept the house running. When Grandma became too old to care for herself, there was no nursing home to go to. She was cared for at home but probably worried that others were resentful of the burden she imagined she had become.

The dark side of “the good old days” was the many infants who died of preventable infections and the vigorous young women who died in childbirth. The headstones in the cemetery tell the grim story.

I know that my grandmother loved to learn and expand her mind. I believe she would have enjoyed the Internet. We used to keep in touch by telephone and letters, but now grandparents can Skype with toddlers on the other side of the world.

Grandma had a career before she was married and she always believed in rights for women. One of my treasured possessions is her first voter registration card.

I think I’m living the “good days” now. The old days were good in their own way, but definitely much harder for women.

They say each of us stands on the shoulders of the previous generation. I think my grandmothers had very broad, strong shoulders indeed.

Saturday is Women’s Day. Each year  International Women’s Day is celebrated around the world on March 8.

Prince Albert Council of Women will celebrate Women’s Day with a Tea beginning at 2 p.m. at the Coronet Hotel. The celebration will include the induction of Dawn Kilmer into the Prince Albert Women’s Hall of Fame. Tickets are $30. To reserve your ticket call Randi (306) 961-4451 or Chrissy (306) 961-0213.

Dawn Kilmer is serving her second term as Ward 7 Councillor. She has also served the community as principal at Carlton Comprehensive High School and on the Raiders board of directors. On March 8 she will be recognized for the many ways she has served the community and continues to do so.

Around the world, thousands of events occur throughout March to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women. In many countries it is a holiday with parades.  

The United Nations 2025 theme for International Women’s Day is “For all women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.”

The City of Prince Albert supports the Women’s Hall of Fame by hanging photographs of the annual award recipients on the wall at City Hall.

Prince Albert’s Women’s Hall of Fame is a great example of how women have provided leadership in our community. However, achieving an equal future for women and girls is an on-going challenge.

On Feb. 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. An Atlas launch vehicle propelled a Mercury spacecraft into Earth orbit and enabled Glenn to circle Earth three times. The flight lasted a total of four hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds before his Friendship 7 spacecraft splashed down in the ocean.

The Soviet Union had launched the world’s first spacecraft, Sputnik, in October 1957 and had also sent the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space in April 1961. NASA responded by sending the first American, Alan Shephard, into space in May 1961, but

Shepard’s flight was only a suborbital lob, whereas Gagarin had orbited Earth.

Glenn was the fifth person to go to space, preceded by NASA astronauts Shepard and Virgil Grissom and Soviets Gagarin and Gherman Titov. (Tito spent a full day in space surpassing Grissom’s 15 minute flight.)

During the Cold War between the United States and USSR, Glenn was celebrated as a hero. After leaving NASA he became a US senator and later became the oldest person to go into space.

John Glenn was born July 18, 1921 in Ohio. He left college to join the military in the Second World War. As a marine pilot he flew  combat missions in the Pacific. Later Glenn trained pilots and then served in the Korean War. After Korea he became a test pilot. In 1957 he set a speed record for flying across the US, traveling at 726 mph.

Glenn resigned from NASA in 1964 and went into politics. Ohio elected him to the US Senate in 1974 where he served for 25 years. After leaving the Senate in 1999 he became adjunct professor at Ohio State University. In 1999 NASA renamed its Field Center in Cleveland, Ohio, John H. Glenn Research Center.

In 1998 NASA announced that Glenn would be making a second spaceflight.The purpose of his flight was to study the effects of space flight on the elderly. NASA doctors had followed

Glenn’s health since he first became an astronaut. They were able to use that data to understand how spaceflight affected him on his second flight. He flew with six other astronauts on the STS-95 mission of the spaceshuttle Discovery. At 77 years old he became the oldest person to fly in space.

Glenn died on Dec. 8, 2016. He was 95 years old.

The last astronaut survivor of the Cold War era is Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to orbit Earth. In June 1963 she circled Earth 48 times spending almost three days in space. She is the only woman to have been on a solo space mission.

Sources: NASA and Wikipedia