Re: CHAT: Passover, Easter & Lunisolar calendars (was: CHAT: Passover _and_ CHAT: Jewish Calendar)

Raymond Brown wrote:

<snip>

> That is why I am from time to time surprised at noting neo-Pagan fondness
> for celebrating certains festivals at the equinoxes & solstices without
any
> reference to moon phases.  These dates were important to, e.g. the ancient
> Greeks in that they helped fix the cycle of seasons so they could
calculate
> when they needed a 13th month (or more strictly 'lunation') to be
> intercalated (and, of course, the solstices were important, for obvious
> resons, for peoples of northern Europe).  But the actual Greek pagan
> festivals were quite certainly calculated by using _both_ the sun _and_
the
> moon, i.e. by the lunisolar calendar, i.e. in the way still used by Jews
> for determing their religious festivals, and Christians for determing
> Easter & related festivals.
Times change laddo. Generally we celebrate on the nearest sunday to the
equinoxes, so people don't have to take time off work. Rember, paganism is a
_living_ religion, and what we do is not set in stone. Just because our
forbears used a lunisolar calendar doesn't mean we have to. After all, they
practised blood sacrifice, but these days we (obviously) don't.

Dan

> Ray.
----
Bengesko niamso.
Cursed German.
----
Dan Morrison (http://www.geocities.com/yl_ruil/index.html)