It’s not a bridge, it’s a viaduct. The year 2024 offers an oddity in the calendar which will delight employees with the succession of two public holidays: May 8, the day commemorating the victory of the Allies in the Second World War and the capitulation of Nazi Germany. Followed by Ascension Thursday. However, this last day, which wanders around the calendar, depends on Easter Sunday.
Easter is the Sunday following the first full moon of spring. According to the definition established by the Council of Nicaea in 325, it is “the Sunday following the fourteenth day of the Moon which reaches that age on or immediately after March 21.” That is to say a firing window of just over a month (between March 22 and April 25).
Next time is for 2043
For May 8 to fall a day before or after Ascension Thursday, two conditions must be met: that March 31 is a Sunday and that the full moon occurs between March 24 and 29 (March 25 and 30, leap years). This is only the fourth time this has happened since 1945, according to Actu.frwho had fun calculating the next occurrences: To know such a sequence, we will have to wait until 2043 (then 2054).
As for the probability of linking May 1 (Labor Day) and Ascension Thursday, it is even lower: this only happened twice in the 20th century, again according to Actu.fr. The last time was in 1940. And it won’t happen again until 2285. In other words, enjoy this XXL bridge…