Re: CHAT: Passover

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Cowan [SMTP:cowan@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG]
> Sent: None
> To:   CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
> Subject:      Re: CHAT: Passover
>
> Raymond Brown scripsit:
>
> > ...and if the latter, then where?  Otherwise the festival will not be
> the
> > same day everywhere in world.
> >
> > Muslim festivals are regulated purely by the moon phases and, if I've
> > understood my Muslim students properly, it's the moon phases as at
> Mecca.
> > Presumably anyone using the actual moon (as opposed to the "calendar
> > moon"), would use the full-moon at Jerusalem for calculating the date.
>
> The phases of the Moon depend solely on the relative positions of the
> Moon and the Sun, and are quite independent of one's position on
> the Earth.
>
Well, Earth is big and rotates.  This way the first sighting of a cressent
moon after vernal equinox could be one month away in two different places of
earth (say western vs. eastern hemispheres).

-- Carlos Th

> --
> John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
>        I am a member of a civilization. --David Brin