2023: Week 15 - Easter Dates

Challenge by: Jenny Martin

Each year there's the inevitable Google as to what day Easter Sunday will be (usually multiple times, let's be honest!) But what's the most popular date? I found a great viz to give us that answer, but what if I want the underlying dataset behind it?

Input

I downloaded this beautiful viz from Thomas Larsen, and yes, it is built in Excel.

Top Level Requirements

  • Input the data
  • Reshape it so that we have a list of Easter Sunday dates
  • Filter the dataset so that we only have past dates
    • i.e. 1700 - 2023
  • Output the data

More Detailed Requirements

  • Input the data
  • Split the data into the years and the x-axis of the chart i.e. the day and month
  • For the years, make sure there is a row per year and keep the generated column name field i.e. F1, F2 etc.
  • For the day and month rows, number them
  • Pivot so we have a row per day/month
  • Pivot so we have the days in one field and the months in the other
    • Still keeping the generated column name field
  • Fill down the month names
    • That generated column name field will come come in handy for ordering
  • Join years back to day & month
  • Filter the dataset so that we only have past dates
    • i.e. 1700 - 2023
  • Create an Easter Sunday date field and remove all other fields
  • Output the data

Output

  • 1 field
    • Easter Sunday
  • 324 rows (325 including headers)
You can download all the output from here

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