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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kumar who wrote (211339)	12/31/2006 10:33:51 AM
From: Elroy	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

the "Christian calendar" (for want of a better phrase) works on a fixed 365 days/year schedule, and is therefore predictable in terms of specific dates for Thanksgiving, Christmas etc. I don't think the 365 day calendar is based on religion - I think it is more based on astronomy an the fact that the earth goes around the sun pretty close to 365 times per year. One of the Caesars has something to do with finalizing which calenday most of the world now uses. The Muslim and Hindu calendars (and maybe others I am not aware of), are based on lunar cycles, and therefore there is no fixed date in any year. Some events can be calculated and predicted in advance, but not all. Yup. Quite a pain when planning events like vacation, holiday, etc. Give you 2 examples : 1. My father died on 04/04/04. His death anniversary rituals I need to undertake vary from mid-March to mid-April, because in religous terms, the date in our terms is not relevant - the month and phase of the moon is relevant in deciding when the rituals have to be undertaken. In 2007 I know its on April 1. Yeah, but that affects your family, not society. When the entire society can't plan in advance, it is pretty inefficient. 2. My cousin who is a Muslim from the Dawoodi Bohra community, does not care about the sighting of the moon for Eid. He once said to me - Kumar I can write down and give you dates for Eid for the next 50 years if you want - I dont care what the moon does. Sounds strange, I guess it implies he isn't following mainstream Islam and just deciding for himself when the celebration dates occur?

To: kumar who wrote (211339)	12/31/2006 8:39:14 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi kumar rangan; Re: "The Muslim and Hindu calendars (and maybe others I am not aware of), are based on lunar cycles, and therefore there is no fixed date in any year." I've seen it claimed that the closer a society is to the equator, or the more their climate is not as deeply seasonal, the more likely they are to use a lunar calendar rather than a solar one. For example, if you get far enough north, each year there is a day when the sun doesn't rise at all, and in a lunar calendar this momentous day would have different dates each year. On the other hand, the moon is an excellent time keeper, and one can conveniently refer to a date in the future as one moon from now with the time obvious to all. So the two traditions are both quite natural. Also, in the Christians, Easter is kept according to a lunar calendar. The calendar the Chrisitans use is not Christian, it's Roman, I suppose. -- Carl