And Thursday was one of the 8 pagan holidays, the Spring Equinoxhttp://idiotgrrl.livejournal.com/
> Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:39:00 -0500> To: [email protected]> From: [EMAIL > PROTECTED]> Subject: Fwd: Interesting Day> > Good Friday! Happy Purim, Eid, > etc...> > > Wednesday, Mar. 19, 2008 By DAVID VAN BIEMA WITH SIMON > ROBINSON/NEW DELHI> > > On Friday more than a billion Christians around the > world will mark > the gravest observance on their Calendar, Good Friday, the > day Jesus > died on the cross. (To be followed in two days by Easter Sunday, > to > mark his Resurrection).> > But unlike some holy days, say, Christmas, > which some non-Christians > in the U.S. observe informally by going to a > movie and ordering > Chinese food, on this particular Friday, March 21, it > seems almost no > believer of any sort will be left without his or her own > holiday. In > what is statistically, at least, a once-in-a-millennium > combination, > the following will all occur on the 21st:> > Good Friday> > Purim, a Jewish festival celebrating the biblical book of Esther> Narouz, the > Persia n New Year, which is observed with Islamic > elaboration in Iran and all the "stan" countries, as well as by > Zoroastrians and Baha'is.> Eid Milad an Nabi, the Birth of the Prophet, which is celebrated by > some but not all Sunni Muslims and, though officially beginning on > Thursday, is often marked on Friday.> Small Holi, Hindu, an Indian festival of bonfires, to be followed on > Saturday by Holi, a kind of Mardi Gras.> Magha Puja, a celebration of the Buddha's first group of followers, > marked primarily in Thailand.> > "Half the world's population is going to be celebrating something," > says Raymond Clothey, Professor Emeritus of Religious studies at the > University of Pittsburgh. "My goodness," says Delton Krueger, owner > of www.interfaithcalendar.org, who follows "14 major religions and > six others." He counts 20 holidays altogether (including some > religious double-dips, like Maundy Thursday and Good Friday) between > the 20th (which is also quite crowded) and t he 21st. He marvels: > "There is no other time in 2008 when there is this kind of concentration."> > And in fact for quite a bit longer than that. Ed Reingold and Nachum > Dershowitz, co-authors of the books Calendrical Calculations and > Calendrical Tabulations, determined how often in the period between > 1600 and 2400 A.D. Good Friday, Purim, Narouz and the Eid would occur > in the same week. The answer is nine times in 800 years. Then they > tackled the odds that they would converge on a two-day period. And > the total is ... only once: tomorrow. And that's not even counting > Magha Puja and Small Holi.> > Unless you are mathematically inclined, however, you may not see the > logic in all this. If it's the 21st of March, you may ask, shouldn't > all the religions of the world celebrate the same holiday on that > date each year?> > No. There are a sprinkling of major holidays (Western Christmas is > one) that fall each year on the same day of the Gregorian calendar, a > f airly standard non-religious system and the one Americans are most > familiar with.> > But almost none of tomorrow's holidays actually follows that > calendar. All Muslim holy days, for instance, are calculated on a > lunar system. Keyed to the phases of the moon, Islam's 12 months are > each 29 and a half days long, for a total of 354 days a year, or 11 > days fewer than on ours. That means the holidays rotate backward > around the Gregorian calendar, occurring 11 days earlier each year. > That is why you can have an "easy Ramadan" in the spring, when going > without water all day is relatively easy, or a hard one in the > summer. And why the Prophet's birthday will be on March 9 next year.> > Then there is the Jewish calendar, which determines the placement of > Purim. It is "lunisolar," which means that holidays wander with the > moon until they reach the end of what might be thought of as a > month-long tether, which has the effect of maintaining them in the > same seaso n every year.> > Good Friday, meanwhile, like many of the other most important > Christian holidays, is a set number of days before Easter. The only > problem is that the date of Easter is probably the most complicated > celebratory calculation this side of Hinduism, which has a number of > competing religious calendars. The standard rule is "the Sunday after > the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox." But > in fact, the actual divination of the date is so involved that it has > its own offical name: "computus." And so challenging that Carl > Friedrich Gauss, one of history's greatest mathematicians, devoted > the time to create an algorithm for it. It goes on for many > lines. And, of course, it doesn't work for Eastern Orthodox Easter > (about one month later than the Western Christian one this year, on April 27).> > So, should we celebrate all these celebrations? Yes, says William > Paden, the author of Religious Worlds: The Comparative Study of > R eligion and a professor at the University of Vermont ? at least to > the extent that we revere the drive to carve out sacred time in the > middle of the day-by-day profane. "Each of these religions is > creating its own world, with its own time and space and memory > system," he says. They recognize what's of real value, and they > encode it, and it forms an architecture of memory." Yes, says Bruce > Lawrence, the head of Islamic Studies at Duke University, who was > invited to speak at a nearby synagogue when the beginnings of Rosh > Hashanah and Ramadan happened to coincide last year.> > But be cautious, since human nature is as fickle as coincidence. > "When one group is grieving and one is jubilant there are some > unfortunate tensions," says Anand Kumar, with the Centre for the > Study of Social Systems at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, > a city with considerable experience with multiple faiths. Such > conjunctions have led to conflicts and even riots, not ju st when > moods clash, but because "the public sphere is being contested." > Kumar is convinced, however, that "a new generation is emerging that > is more pluralistic and they don't feel threatened just because > someone is from another religion."> > > > > _______________________________________________> http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
