The Catholic Calendar

Help Page

Updated 2000 JAN 14

Welcome to the Help page. Below, you will find explanations of the various special pages that are accessible from the menu bar at the top of the screens, as well as the navigation bars which appear on the Daily and Weekly calendars. There are also summaries of known bugs and the various linkable pages which are kept recent.

General Information

We have changed the links for the day's Mass readings from the Bible Gateway to the Bible Browser. This is because the Bible Browser supports the Deuterocanonical liturgy (the Apocrypha), the additional books of the Bible used by the Catholic Churches, but generally not recognized in the Jewish and Protestant traditions. The Bible Gateway should still be considered an excellent resource. They have served us well over the past year, and we thank them.

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Linkable Pages

With this upgrade, there will be 9 HTML files on the server, which may be used for links. This is up from the 5 available previously.
There is now a page containing the current week's information. This is new with this release of the Catholic Calendar pages.
Additionally, we realized that we were making life very difficult for anyone wishing to link to our monthly and yearly pages, as these files had the current year (and month) in their file names. For your convenience, we have added alternate entry points with unchanging names.

• index.html - Current day's information.
• altindex.html - If there is different information for a special jurisdiction (U.S. or Western U.S.), it will be here. Otherwise, it will look exactly like index.html.
• weekly.html - Current week's information. The current week used is the seven days starting with the current day.
• monyear.html - (where mon is the standard English 3-letter month abbreviation for the current month, and year is the current 4-digit year) Current month's calendar (using tables).
• monthly.html - Alternate entry point to the current month's table-based calendar.
• monyeart.html - (where mon is the standard English 3-letter month abbreviation for the current month, and year is the current 4-digit year) Current month's calendar (text version).
• monthlyt.html - Alternate entry point to the current month's text-based calendar.
• daysyear.html - (where year is the current 4-digit year) Current year's calendar.
• yearly.html - Alternate entry point to the current year's calendar.

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Known Bugs

The CGI is limited to dates between January 1, 1963 and December 31, 4099. The first date is due to the fact that the calendar changed significantly with Vatican II, and we have not coded the pre-Vatican II calendar as yet. The latter date is due to limitations in the ability of the algorithm we are using to calculate the date of Easter.

There are two unusual aspects to using the Bible Browser with the Catholic Calendar. First, the Catholic Calendar uses the title Song of Songs where the Bible Browser uses the title Canticles. Second, chapter C of Esther is included under the heading Additional Esther at the Bible Browser. The chapter and verse numeration also does not align correctly. Be assured, however, that the text displayed is correct, even if the numbers seem odd.

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The Menu Bar

Today's Page

This will take you to Today's Page (index.html). This page is updated automatically each day to contain the current day's information, including celebrations and readings.

Select a Date

This will take you directly to the Date Selection Page (select.html). This page allows you to specify the year, month, and day you wish to see, as well as the style of calendar (yearly, monthly, weekly, or daily), and the region (general, U.S., or Western U.S.). Please note that the region only applies to the daily calendar style.

Find a Date

This will take you directly to the Celebration Search Page (search.html). This page allows you to specify the year and celebration you wish to see. When only one day matches the specified criteria, you will go directly to that day. When there are multiple days which match the specified criteria, you will be presented with a list the dates which are links to their corresponding pages. If the celebration does not exist for the given year (it is possible, with some celebrations), you will be notified that it is not there.

Contact Us

This will take you directly to the Contact Page (contact.html). This page tells you how to contact us, and gives you both e-mail links, and an e-mail form for contacting us.

Help

This will take you directly to this page (help.html). This page gives you instructions for all the pages for the Catholic Calendar.

News

This will take you directly to the News Page (announce.html). This page is updated with the latest information about the Catholic Calendar.

The Details

This will take you directly to the Definitions Page (rules.html). This page contains more detailed information about the information on the Catholic Calendar pages, including explanations of liturgical years and cycles, vestment colors, and similar terms.

E-Mail Lists

This will take you directly to the E-Mail Lists Page (mail.html). This page contains instructions for subscribing and unsubscribing to the various Catholic Calendar E-Mail lists. There is also a form on this page, for automating the process.

Rosary

This will take you directly to the Rosary Page (rosary.html). This page provides general instructions and information for praying the Rosary. This is also an entry point into the prayer pages for the Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries, and the Glorious Mysteries,

Links

This will take you directly to the Links Page (links.html). This page contains links to various web sites, including Catholic and Calendar references. We also include links to some of the places which provide links to the Catholic Calendar. If you've linked to the Catholic Calendar, please let us know.

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The Navigation Bar

for the Daily and Weekly pages

The buttons on the Navigation Bar are for quickly changing from the displayed date to another date. These buttons do not change the style of calendar at which you are looking. In other words, if you are looking at a daily calendar, all of the links on the Navigation Bar will take you to daily pages.

Year, Year

This will take you to the same month and day in the previous (  ) or next (  ) year. On February 29^th, you will be taken to February 28^th instead.

Month, Month

This will take you to the same day in the previous (  ) or next (  ) month. If the current day is greater than the number of days in the new month, you will be taken to the last day of the new month.

Week, Week

This will take you back (  ) or forward (  ) seven days, going to the same day of the week on the new calendar as the old.

Day, Day

This will take you back (  ) or forward (  ) a single day.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Below is a list of questions we have been asked regularly, and their responses. If your question is not here, check the contact us.

Why is the text of the Bible readings different at Mass than at your page?

The approved Bible for Mass in the U.S. is the New American Bible (for Catholics), under copyright to the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. As it is still under copyright, use of the text (except for certain limited uses) is restricted and only by the permission of the copyright holder. The New American Bible is currently on-line at the NCCB/USCC web site (http://www.nccbuscc.org). This version is currently only available as static pages. The Catholic Calendar Page uses a web query system to return only the specified passages, which cannot currently be done with the New American Bible.

The closest version of the Bible to the New American Bible available using a web-based query is the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, under copyright of the Division of Education and Ministry of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Note that this version is not in the public domain (which implies full free use of the text). The copyright holders have allowed for non-commercial use of students, teachers and scholars in study and education contexts. It is the Revised Standard Version stored at the Brown University web site that is used by the Catholic Calendar pages.

Do you sell wall calendars? What is the price?

The Catholic Calendar pages are a web-based service only. We neither produce nor provide wall calendars.

The owners of the Catholic Calendar page offer a personal recommendation for the calendar published by the Jubilee Studio, THE GREAT JUBILEE 2000. Visit our resource page for more information.

Why is/isn't it a leap year?

Visit our Leap Year page for the full details and a little form for determining if a given year is a leap year.

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Updated 2000 JAN 14

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Designed and Created by Bob & Linda Easterbrooks (personal@easterbrooks.com)
Copyright © 1995-2000, Robert & Linda Easterbrooks. All rights reserved.