March 29 being Holy Thursday, Christians of the Roman Catholic Church enter into three holy days called the Triduum. It begins in the evening with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and ends with evening prayer on Easter Sunday.

The Roman Governor Pontius Pilate did not want Jesus Christ to be crucified. He ‘passed the buck’ by sending him to King Herod. But the Jews had no death penalty, so Herod sent him back to Pontius Pilate. Trying another tactic, Pilate tried to appease the crowd by having Jesus lashed 39 times, but to no avail.

Pontius Pilate asked the crowds whom should he free, Jesus or Barabbas. The Pharisees whipped up the crowd to choose Barabbas and to shout “crucify him” so that Jesus Christ would be put to death. Pilate called for water and symbolically washed his hands. Part of his job description by his Roman bosses was to keep the peace and he wanted no trouble with authority.

On June 10, 1999 my column in the Jamaica Observer was headlined ‘Patterson playing Pontius Pilate’. Nine convicted murderers had been hanged in Trinidad. P J Patterson, as prime minister, sent a letter of congratulations to the Government of Trinidad and that Jamaica was soon to follow. But Jamaica never resumed hanging, although the law was never repealed.

As anti-death penalty activists criticised his letter, Patterson gained even more favour among the electorate. Incidentally, March 30 marks 25 years since the 1993 General Election when Patterson led his party to victory. He was sworn in as prime minister exactly one year previously, 26 years ago in 1992.

There was a Bill in Parliament to end the death penalty in 1979 as a conscience vote rather than along party lines. Michael Manley voted against the death penalty, but his brother Douglas voted in favour. Edward Seaga was not present. Was he unavoidably absent or was he playing Pontius Pilate?

Last December, Jamaica’s United Nations representatives abstained from voting for a resolution to censure US President Donald Trump for recognising Jerusalem over Tel Aviv as the capital of Israel. Trump threatened a withdrawal of aid to any country that voted in favour of the resolution. Jamaica’s UN representatives played “Pontius Pilate”.

It was at the Feast of the Unleavened Bread that Jesus Christ said, “Take this and eat, all of you, this is my body, take this and drink all of you, this is my blood,” as found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Being a Jew, Jesus Christ celebrated this feast along with his disciples on the 14th day of Nissan on the Jewish calendar. But the Church later adapted to Roman culture for communication purposes. The Romans had many pagan gods and goddesses, one of whom was the goddess of spring, Eostre, from which the word ‘Easter’ is derived. She was worshipped at the first full moon after the first day of spring.

So the Church used the symbolism of spring for the feast of the resurrection. Spring brings about new life as it is the time of blossoms that bear fruits. Baptism also means ‘new life’ (You must be born again: John 3:5) So adult baptisms are done at Easter.

At that time, the Church, like everyone else in the Roman Empire, operated on the Julian calendar as decreed by Julius Caesar in the year 46BC. By that time it was known that the Earth spun on its axis roughly every 365 and a quarter days. To get back the four quarters, an extra day was added to February every four years, which are known as leap years.

But the Julian Calendar had too many leap years, and 1,500 years later ‘spring’ on the calendar was no longer the time when the trees start to blossom and bear fruits. The Church needed the symbolism of spring for Easter, so the Gregorian calendar of Pope Gregory XIII came into being in 1582 when 10 days were dropped from the calendar.

For example, if every radio programme is an hour long, and if each programme runs five minutes over time, by the end of the day every programme would be 120 minutes or two hours late. If that continues ad infinitum then the schedule would be lagging behind for months, or even years. The only way to get back on track would be to drop some programmes. Similarly, the season of spring was running behind schedule with the Julian calendar by the 1500s.

The leap days that were dropped were those last years of centuries that were not divisible by 400. For example, the year 1900 was not a leap year, but the year 2000 was. Every other leap year needs only be divisible by four.

In 1972 the general election was announced for February 29 by then Prime Minister Hugh Shearer. Michael Manley, who was then leader of the Opposition, said that February 29 was the birthday of his mother, Edna, who was born in 1900.

Many years later, the late Hector Wynter (a former editor of The Gleaner) wrote that Edna Manley could not have been born on February 29, as 1900 was not a leap year. He was right. Politicians will always be politicians — even from the time of Pontius Pilate.

But it took more than 300 years for every country to change to the Gregorian calendar. And the later the change occurred; more days had to be omitted. For example, in North America, the month of September 1752 skipped 11 days.

Easter Sunday in the West always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 21, the first day of spring. At the vigil in the Roman Catholic Church, the people enter the church in darkness and at a certain point the lights are turned on signifying the resurrection.

On the night of political independence, in 1962, the lights in the National Stadium went off at five minutes before midnight. They were turned on at midnight to symbolise a new independent nation. Did the idea come from the Easter Vigil? I cannot say definitively. Have a Holy Easter!

Michael Burke is a research consultant, historian and current affairs analyst. Send comments to the Observer or ekrubm765@yahoo.com.