With the approach of the year 2000, the main issue troubling citizens of the 20th century was how hard the millennium bug might bite their computers. But 1,000 years before, people's concerns were very much more serious: they believed the world might end with the millennium. As Archbishop Wulfstan of York described it: "This world is drawing ever closer to its end; the longer it lasts, the worse it will become, and the coming of the anti-Christ grows ever more evil because of the sins of the people, and then truly it will be grim and terrible widely in the world."
In those days, however, the end of the world was always imminent. Armageddon was considered certain, for example, should Good Friday ever fall on Lady Day which then, as now, was March 25th. But then this coincidence came and went in AD 970, and nothing terrible occurred. Thus it was in 981 and 992 too, so when the millennium itself passed uneventfully, it seemed as if the world might last forever.
The scare resurfaced, however, in the 16th century, this time with Easter Sunday as the variable feast. Here in Ireland it was said that the year the world would end, "beidh Domnach Casca ar la Feile Muire", or Easter Sunday will fall on the Annunciation. Across the water they were less literal in rendering the same idea: "when Our Lord lights in Our Lady's Lap, then let England look for a clap". A clap was apparently a great misfortune. Some ascribed the prophecy to disaffected Catholics who, they said, hoped the Virgin would think such a day ideal to punish the establishment for their embrace of Protestantism, and her own subsequent demotion.
The only "Lady Day Easter" in the 16th century was in 1554 which, it could be argued, did not count because the Catholic Queen Mary had the throne. The same event in 1627 passed unmarked, but Lady Day Easter 1638 saw the beginning of the rebellion in Scotland which was ultimately to lead to the execution of King Charles I - which took place a mere two months before the next coincidence in 1649.
Lady Day Easters occurred in 1722, 1733, 1744, 1883, 1894 and 1951, and the world continued, more or less, without serious misfortune. This year there is no fear of impending Armageddon since Easter is safely tucked away almost as late as it is possible for it to be. But those of you who expect to be around in 2035 and 2046 should start repenting: in those years, Easter Sunday falls again on March 25th.