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Heretofore we have explained in sucli a manner as will suffice for every want, and more than that, all the particulars relating to the Passover of the Jews, its conditions, the mode in which it is calculated, and the reason on which this calculation rests. Christian Lent is one of the institutions dependent on Passover, and is in more than one way connected with it. We now present such information regarding Lent as corresponds to the purpose for which the practices of Lent are intended—by the help of God and His mercy.
Christian Lent always lasts forty-eight days, beginning on a Monday and ending on a Sunday, the forty-ninth day after its beginning. The last Sunday before the end of Lent (or Fast-breaking), is that one which they call Sa'ânîn (i.e. Hosanna or Palm Sunday).
Now, one of the conditions which they have established is this, that Passover (Easter) must always fall in the time between Palm Sunday and Fast-breaking, i.e. in the last week of Lent. It cannot fall earlier than Palm Sunday, nor later than the last day of Lent.
The limits within which the Jewish Passover revolves, we have already heretofore mentioned. Regarding these the Christians do not agree with them, nor regarding the beginning of the cycles (Gîgal). The word Jijal, or cycle, is an Arabized Syriac word, in Syriac Gîgal, meaning the same as the Jewish Maḥzôr. But it is only proper that we should mention the Termini peculiar to each nation. So they call the Great Cycle, Indictio (sic); but as it is troublesome to pronounce this word so
