Science Atlas

How We Know What We Know
The Calendar

Wednesday 26 February 2031

What the atlas records for this date, across the traditions it covers.

Observed On This Date

Fast / abstinence
The Wednesday forty-six days before Easter, opening the Western Lent
Western Lent. The Orthodox fast begins on Clean Monday, which is reckoned differently.
Fast / abstinence
The forty days from Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday, Sundays not counted
Day 1 of 46
Forty days, counted excluding Sundays, which is why the span is forty-six.

This Week In Science History

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Dates for the Hebrew and Islamic calendars are the tabular reckoning, which is what a printed calendar prints. Communities that begin a month on a sighted crescent may differ by a day, and differ from one another by place.