The Date of Easter
Prior to A.D. 325, Easter was variously celebrated on different days of the week, including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In that year, the Council of Nicaea was convened by emperor Constantine. It issued the Easter Rule which states that Easter shall be celebrated on the first Sunday that occurs after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. However, a caveat must be introduced here. The "full moon" in the rule is the ecclesiastical full moon, which is defined as the fourteenth day of a tabular lunation, where day 1 corresponds to the ecclesiastical New Moon. It does not always occur on the same date as the astronomical full moon. The ecclesiastical "vernal equinox" is always on March 21. Therefore, Easter must be celebrated on a Sunday between the dates of March 22 and April 25.

The Lenten Season
Lent is the forty-six day period just prior to Easter Sunday. It begins on Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday") is a celebration, sometimes called "Carnival," practiced around the world, on the Tuesday prior to Ash Wednesday. It was designed as a way to "get it all out" before the sacrifices of Lent began. New Orleans is the focal point of Mardi Gras celebrations in the U.S. Read about the religious meanings of the Lenten Season.

The Cross
The Cross is the symbol of the Crucifixion, as opposed to the Resurrection. However, at the Council of Nicaea, in A.D. 325, Constantine decreed that the Cross was the official symbol of Christianity. The Cross is not only a symbol of Easter, but it is more widely used, especially by the Catholic Church, as a year-round symbol of their faith.

The Easter Bunny
The Easter Bunny is not a modern invention. The symbol originated with the pagan festival of Eastre. The goddess, Eastre, was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit.
The Germans brought the symbol of the Easter rabbit to America. It was widely ignored by other Christians until shortly after the Civil War. In fact, Easter itself was not widely celebrated in America until after that time.

The Easter Egg
As with the Easter Bunny and the holiday itself, the Easter Egg predates the Christian holiday of Easter. The exchange of eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Easter was first celebrated by Christians.
From the earliest times, the egg was a symbol of rebirth in most cultures. Eggs were often wrapped in gold leaf or, if you were a peasant, colored brightly by boiling them with the leaves or petals of certain flowers.
Today, children hunt colored eggs and place them in Easter baskets along with the modern version of real Easter eggs -- those made of plastic or chocolate candy. 

The Story of Passover 
About 3000 years ago the Israelites were enslaved by the Egyptians under the rule of the Pharaoh Ramses II.  According to the Book of Exodus - Moses, a simple Jewish shepherd, was instructed by God to go to the pharaoh and demand the freedom of his people Moses' plea of let my people go was ignored.  Moses warned the Pharaoh that God would send severe punishments to the people of Egypt if the Israelites were not freed.  Again the Pharaoh ignored Moses' request of freedom.  In response God unleashed a series of 10 terrible plagues on the people of Egypt
1.  Blood
2.  Frogs
3.  Lice (vermin)
4.  Wild Beasts(flies)
5.  Blight (Cattle Disease)
6.  Boils
7.  Hail
8.  Locusts
9.  Darkness
10.  Slaying of the First Born 
The holiday's name - Pesach, meaning "passing over" or "protection" in Hebrew, is derived from the instructions given to Moses by God .  In order to encourage the Pharaoh to free the Israelites, God intended to kill the first-born of both man and beast.  To protect themselves, the Israelites were told to mark their dwellings with lamb's blood so that G-d could identify and "pass over" their homes The Pharaoh was unconvinced and refused to free the Jewish slaves Until the last plague When the Pharaoh finally agreed to freedom, the Israelites left their homes so quickly that there wasn't even time to bake their breads.  So they packed the raw dough to take with them on their journey.  As they fled through the desert they would quickly bake the dough in the hot sun into hard crackers called matzohs.  Today to commemorate this event, Jews eat matzoh in place of bread during Passover.  Though the Jews were now free, their liberation was incomplete.  The Pharaoh's army chased them through the desert towards the Red Sea.  When the Jews reached the sea they were trapped, since the sea blocked their escape It was then that a miracle occurred.  The waves of the Red Sea parted and the Israelites were able to cross to the other side.  As soon as they all reached the other side the sea closed trapping the Pharaoh's army as the waves closed upon them Then as the Israelites watched the waters of the Red Sea sweep away the Pharaoh's army they realized they were finally free Passover celebrates this history. 

 There, 3 ways to do the same thing.  The point is, there are various ways to accomplish the same thing on a computer.  Whatever is easiest or whatever method you recall, that’s the one to use.  It doesn’t matter; you get to the same place, no matter which method you use.  If you do it in 2 steps and I do it in 3 (the long way), I don’t care one bit as long as I can remember my method and it gets me where I want to go. 

In the past, KCnet tried to have a standard answer for any question that was asked.  We typed up all the questions were had been asked, and the answers to those questions.  We gave everyone a copy of those questions and answers.  The pages had tabs that we could turn quickly to in order to answer a question of a certain topic.  Then, to make it even more convenient, we put all of this on line for technicians.  No one used the printed or on-line information, after they knew how to do the various tasks.  When you call KCnet for information, it is usually more of a conversation/discussion to determine what is happening and what to do to solve it.

Mike and I bought a new machine to make DVDs from our old VCR tapes.  I call technical support and the woman on duty read me the answer to my question.  She had no more knowledge than what she read – or at least she would not discuss with me what was happening or what her instructions really meant.  She said, “this is what I had as an answer to that question.”  No discussion.  No help.

 Each week, CNet (www.cnet.com) accepts questions and then posts them in their membership letter.  Recently, the following question was posed: 
In Windows XP, every time a program crashes, a message appears asking me if I want to send a report to Microsoft. I don't. Is there any way for me to keep that friendly message from appearing? 
--submitted by Brad D. of Columbia, TN 

Answer: 
Yes there is: 
1. Right-click My Computer on the desktop if using the classic Windows start menu (otherwise, right-click My Computer on the start menu). 
2. Click Properties. 
3. In System Properties, go to the Advanced tab. 
4. Click Error Reporting. 
5. Click Disable error reporting. 
6. It's optional whether you want to be informed of critical Windows errors. 
7. Click Ok > "Ok out of system properties," and this should disable the error reporting. 
Hope this helps.  Submitted by: Lyn G. of Victoria, Australia 

Just to prove my point about ways to do this type of thing in Windows, there were 3 different ways explained in the newsletter to do the same thing.  This one, above, was the best, but they all worked!

So, if you call a help desk and can’t understand what they just explained, call back.  Maybe you’ll learn about another way to do the same thing that is easier for you.  And remember, there’s nothing wrong with saying, “I don’t understand.  Tell me again how to do that.”  The people on the help desk have heard it all.  Don’t be afraid to tell them you still don’t get it.  That’s better than hanging up and being frustrated.

Since it’s April – income tax time - it’s a good time to mention:
KCnet is a 501 C (3) non-profit corporation, created in June of 1995 by a group of people who wanted to provide a way for the general public in the Clinton County area to communicate through e-mail and the web with Keystone Central School District.  As the concept grew, the founders developed goals.  Two strong objectives were selected:  To raise the level of education and to improve the economy of the area, through the use of the Internet. 

Some of you are realizing that charitable contributions cost much less than their face value.  A tax-deductible contribution reduces the amount of tax you pay.  The amount of the contribution can be deducted from your gross income, so taxes are not paid on the contribution.  It’s too late to make the charitable donation for last year’s taxes, but not too late for 2004’s taxes.  Check with your accountant to see if a charitable donation to KCnet would be a good idea for this year.
Until next week…

Ray McGill, owner of Nittany Travel, is the President of KCnet; William Raco is Vice-President; Judy Yoho is Secretary and Donald C.  Miller of North Bend is Treasurer.  Other members of the board are Fred Bierly, Donna Gebhardt Lannan, Earl Keen, R.  Keith Kelly, Paul Korn, Amy Lapriola, Paddy O’Hara-Mays, Bob Rolley, and Rich Wykoff.