"The Waters Of Mars"

Lent is 46 days long, not 40.

Xmas is 12 days, not 40.

Easter is really only a few days long. The Church's Easter Season, however, is 50 days long, ending with the Pentecost rather than the Ascension. Not 40.

Not that any of this matters in relation to the scheduling of The Waters of Mars "before Xmas"!

Rich Flair wrote:Lent is 46 days long, not 40.

No. Forty. As any fule kno, the Sundays don't count.

Okay, the days between and including the first and last day of lent number 46.

Okay. You are correct

Rich Flair wrote:Lent is 46 days long, not 40.

Xmas is 12 days, not 40.

Easter is really only a few days long. The Church's Easter Season, however, is 50 days long, ending with the Pentecost rather than the Ascension. Not 40.

Not that any of this matters in relation to the scheduling of The Waters of Mars "before Xmas"!

No, Lent is 40 days - followed by Holy Week. Easter is 40 days, but it is 50 days till Pentecost. The Ascension of Christ to Heaven is the Christian yardstick, not the arrival of the Holy Ghost.

Christmas Season is 40 days until the Presentation of Jesus at the temple, not the 12 days until Epiphany, ie the arrival of the Magi.

The relevance is the use of wordplay by RTD and others, who are trying to disguise the fact that The Waters of Mars will be broadcast on 19th December.

Yours in Honorary Canonicity,

Prebendary C=O

Well, I've never heard that about Christmas lasting until the presentation of Christ before. Lent and Easter I knew but I always thought Christmas ended with the Magi.

Advent isn't forty days long - unless you are about to reveal something new about that to me?

No Ma'am!

The Catholic and Anglican Churches are nothing if not ones for liking uniformity though.

I've always been particularly sceptical about Lent and its purpose. Yes it's preached and taught that self-sacrifice mirrors the forty days and nights that Christ spent in the wilderness, and that it is essential preparation for the celebration that comes at the time of Resurrection. But the two things were not consecutive in his life, rather they have been shoehorned for convenience.

And going back to Advent, I've never understood, or accepted, why it should be austere. IMO it's trying to squeeze far too mileage out of the concept of Christ's Crucifiction in the run up to his Birth. Which is plain daft.

It's these sorts of things that have helped lead to the Secular Society. Not to mention Lindsey Duncan's casting in The Waters of Mars.

No, the Easter Season is 50 days and lasts until Pentecost:

http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/calendar/seasons.html

http://www.catholicchurch.org.uk/ccb/catholic_church/events/lent_and_easter

http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Easter/

http://www.spirithome.com/resurrex.html#season

http://www.kencollins.com/holy-06.php

But April is definitely still 30 days, isn't it?

if only jon blum was here...

Rich, we'll have to agree to disagree.

Did we get to Mars yet?

*smacks the console with a hammer*

We have not yet arrived on Mars, as nobody can agree how long the voyage should last.

barnaby salton wrote:if only jon blum was here...

Cheers,

Rich Flair

Lucy McGough wrote:We have not yet arrived on Mars, as nobody can agree how long the voyage should last.

We have a TARDIS, surely that's all relative.

I love it when a discussion, supposedly about Doctor Who, turns into an argument about the intricacies of the Christian calendar. Really, I do. I just can't get enough.

In that case... let's talk Pentecost!

I'm so looking forward to The Waters of Mars. I keep dreaming about it.

I wonder if the Doctor will kiss his companion? RTD gratuitously shoehorned a snog into PotD for no reason at all, so it's a pretty good bet.

Only if he's become a gerontophile.

I hope he does. He should be an equal-opportunity snogger. Otherwise, we'll hear about how Ten only snogs the young ones.

Zoltar wrote:He should be an equal-opportunity snogger.

I thought he was. After all, he snogs blokes as well as lasses.

Lucy McGough wrote:

Zoltar wrote:He should be an equal-opportunity snogger.

I thought he was. After all, he snogs blokes as well as lasses.

He does now, yep. Poor Brig missed out I guess.

Hmm and I was thinking Waters of Mars was going to air around Guy Fawkes Day. How long does that last?

gabbie wrote:Hmm and I was thinking Waters of Mars was going to air around Guy Fawkes Day. How long does that last?

40 hours, 29 minutes and 13 seconds.

Little known factoid that.

Doctor Who is part of the autumn schedule on the bbc- a few new shots from the last trailer- looks scary!!