year is given. To the number of the year (e.g., 1833) add 1; then divide
the sum thus resulting by 19 and the remainder is the golden number; if
there be no remainder the golden number is 19.




EPACTS AND NEW MOONS.

The Epact (Greek [Greek: epaktos] from [Greek: eapgo] I add) is nothing
more than the number of days by which the common solar year of 365 days
exceeds the common lunar year of 354 days. So that the epact of the
first year is 11, because the common solar year exceeds the common lunar
year by 11 days, and these added to the 11 days of the first, produce 22
as the epact. At the end of the second year the new moon falls 22 days
sooner than in the first year. The epact of the third year is three,
because if 11 be added to the 22, the result is 33, and from this 33 we
subtract 30 days which make up a lunar embolism and the remainder gives
us 3, the epact for the year, and so on.

In the Breviary there is a table (_alia Tabella epactarum_)
corresponding to the golden numbers from the year 1901 to the year 2000
inclusive. To take away all doubt in the use of this table, a new table
of epacts, an example may be quoted. In the year 1901 the epact was X,
which is placed under the golden number 2; and new moons appear on the
21st January, 19th February, and 21st March.... Again, in 1911 the epact
is not marked by a number, but by an asterisk (see Table in Breviary)
which is placed under the golden number 12, and in the calendar for the
whole year will indicate the new moon on January 1st, January 31st (for
in February there is no new moon indicated in the Table; the sign [*] is