> > (BTW, I have been told that the Church Fathers who agreed upon
> > the calculations for the date of Pascha were aware that the Julian calendar
> > was not *complely* precise -- and that it didn't matter to them.)
>
>No reason for it to matter - as long as their rules keep Pascha in the
>spring. Once it starts slipping into summer, their descendants may
>reconsider. :)
Hasn't slipped into summer yet, so we're not worried.
>It's 19x28, not 29. 19 is the Metonic cycle I mentioned earlier;
Aargh! Well, Mark, as you can see evidenced in posts both yesterday and
today...I can't type! (Good thing you don't see the e-mail before I
proof-read it. Also, on IRC I can become nearly unitelligible at times
from constantly miskeying things.)
>The
>Gregorian calculations may be more accurate on both the lunar and solar
>side, but that accuracy comes at the cost of simplicity.
A good reason not to adopt it liturgically.
> > I have never yet learned why the Orthodox liturgical year
> > begins in September.
>
>It's a continuation of the Jewish tradition that the year
>begins with the fall harvest; it's the same reason that
>the Jewish New Year is celebrated, and the year number changed,
>on Tishri 1 in the fall, even though Tishri is counted as
>the 7th month of the Jewish year.
Thank you. I already knew that the day beginning in the evening was a
continuation of Jewish timekeeping.
>The Catholics use much the same system, and the counting isn't quite
>as interconnected as you make it out to be. The important thing is
>that you know when Easter/Pascha is so you can count down to and up
>from it. That works equally well with astronimical calculations
>in lieu of the traditional ones. A proposal to unify the Eastern
>and Western churches in the observation of Easter by going to an
>astronomical basis came very close to passing both councils a few
>years ago, in fact.
In fact, not *all* the Orthodox Churches want to celebrate Pascha on the
same date as the Western churches do. There are a number of them (mine
included) who wish to keep celebrating everything on the Julian calendar
and according to the old calculations for Pascha. Some of us don't feel
any need to be united with the Western churches. (Just so you know.)
Isidora