please empty your brain below
|
|
I was hearing a few days ago that today (Tues 17th) is also the Vietnamese New Year, which can occasionally differ from Chinese New Year because of the Beijing/Vietnam time difference. Because of the additional clash with the beginning of Lent this year, the Catholic Church in Vietnam will be celebrating Ash Wednesday on Friday.
Neil | 17.02.26 - 7:51 a.m. | #
|
Have the new moons and full moons been mixed up in this line?
“🌕Full 17th Feb → 🌑New 3rd Mar → 🌕Full 19th Mar → 🌑New 2nd Apr”
dg writes: yes, sorry
Yoshi Ivetkupa | 17.02.26 - 7:52 a.m. | #
|
|
In the Orthodox tradition, Ash Wednesday this year is a week later than in the Gregorian calendar. (They can coincide, as they did last year, or can be up to five weeks apart, as they will next year)
Timbo | 17.02.26 - 8:09 a.m. | #
|
2124 is only 98 years away, potentially there are people reading this now who will still be around then.
If you live in Europe, Ramadan in February is no big deal, December 2030 will be the ultimate easy mode - unless you live in the Arctic or Antarctic Circles where you'll get both extremes.
Still Anon | 17.02.26 - 8:56 a.m. | #
|
In the Arctic Circle where the sun doesn't set in summer, local Muslims tend to follow the sunrise-sunset times of either the nearest large city (still difficult) or Mecca time (much easier).
The Chinese calendar has quite a complicated algorithm for working out whether there should be a leap month in a given year. I've never met any Chinese who remember it without looking it up.
Suffolker | Homepage | 17.02.26 - 11:01 a.m. | #
|
all hail the moon.
and your magnificent attention to detail.
Peter T | 17.02.26 - 11:20 a.m. | #
|
Blimey that's complicated, but hooray for the only triple conjunction we'll ever see!!
Now, how to combine them? Pancakes with soy sauce might result in a period of enforced fasting!
Cornish Cockney | 17.02.26 - 12:42 p.m. | #
|
The announcement from Saudi Arabia has just been made half an hour ago that the new moon has been spotted so the special prayers of the month start tonight and first fast kicks off from sunrise tomorrow.
Of course there is a political angle as well as scientific, so regimes that are not aligned with Saudi Arabia will deliberately move the start date to the next day and within some countries it's known for separatist regions to start the day after the national declaration. It's possible - and has happened - for a non-aligned regime to spot the moon on its scientifically predicted date, Saudi Arabia to spot it the next day due to cloud cover and a contrary regional government in some aligned country declare the start the day after.
In the UK, Muslim communities will align with their countries of origin, so it can be a headache in London for some schools with Eid on 2 consecutive days.
Ignoring the above, all three events can be celebrated at once by having Chinese pancakes for dinner tonight!
anon | 17.02.26 - 3:38 p.m. | #
|
|
Cornish Cockney: plum sauce is delicious though, and would probably be a fine accompaniment to a pancake this evening!
Penny | 17.02.26 - 4:26 p.m. | #
|
|
Except – the Islamic day starts at sunset, meaning that Ramadan started yesterday evening, so perhaps for a few hours it was all three holidays.
TW | 18.02.26 - 3:57 p.m. | #
|
|
Thank you for a brilliant and unique (in my experience) piece.
William | 18.02.26 - 4:29 p.m. | #
|
|
I wonder if Neil is a subscriber to the Universalis podcast as I only found that out a few days ago too!
AndrewP | 19.02.26 - 3:15 p.m. | #
|
|
|
TridentScan v2.10.0 | Privacy Policy
|