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The Moon and the Calendar
The Calendar >
The last several weeks have been quite the time for religious
celebration.
All the world's major monotheistic faiths --- Christianity, Judaism, and
Islam --- have had a religious holiday. All those holidays recognized
significant times in the histories of a people. And all the holidays are
very dependent on our Moon for their timing.
For example, we have just passed the Muslim New Year. Muslims have a somewhat
complicated calendar but the bottom line is that it is completely dependent
on the Moon.
Recall that New Moon is when the Moon's orbit takes it between us and
the sun, rendering it essentially invisible. The Islamic month begins
with the first sighting of the young moon, the tiniest sliver of the moon
seen immediately after New Moon. A couple weeks ago, after sightings of
that youngest crescent moon, Muslims marked the first day, 1 Muharram,
of their new year, 1423 A.H.
The abbreviation A.H. stands for anno hegirae, loosely translated, "from
the year of the hijra." "Hijra" means flight, as in "Muhammad
took flight from the not-so-friendly city of Mecca to the friendlier Medina."
And it is that event with which Muslims start their calendar. This emigration
took place in A.D. 622 by the western reckoning.
One doesn't need a beautiful mind in math to see that 622 (the year he
left) plus 1423 (the Muslim years since) is a lot more than our present
2002. That is because a lunar year is not quite equal to a solar year.
A lunar year (twelve new moons) works out to be about 354 days. Our solar
year is just over 365 days. So, because the Muslim lunar year is shorter,
one can squeeze more of them into a long period of time. Got that?
Another moon-dependent religious holiday just passed is one observed by
the Jews. It is Passover, celebrated only last week. Although the Jewish
calendar is based heavily on the Moon it is not purely lunar. It also
takes into account the equinox --- the time when the sun crosses the celestial
equator. And it also involves literally centuries of in-house argument
and mind-numbing complexity. But for the sake of brevity, suffice it to
say that the Hebrew month of Nisan, a very special month, usually begins
at the New Moon closest to Spring Equinox.
Two weeks from that New Moon, on 14 Nisan, there is a Full Moon. It is
then that Jews decided to celebrate the Passover, commemorating the time
when, while the Jews were in bondage in Egypt, the angel of death "passed
over" the Israelite houses that were marked in the blood of an unblemished
lamb.
This event led straightway to their roundabout exodus to the Promised
Land.
The Christians celebrate Easter on the Sunday following Passover precisely
because it is directly related to the Passover. The whole trial and execution
and resurrection of Jesus, the Sacrificial Lamb of Christianity, took
place during Passover time in Jerusalem over nineteen centuries ago. So
the date of Easter, too, is based on the Moon.
Next year the Muslim New Year, the Jewish Passover, and the Christian
celebration of Easter will all take place on entirely different dates.
And so it seems we humans, even in these progressive, modern times, continue
to use the greater and lesser lights of the heavens to mark the times
and the seasons as our ancestors have done for tens of thousands of years.
Until next time, clear skies!
Any questions, comments, or suggestions? Send them here.
Posted by Administrator at 2002.03.30 03:03 PM | Comments (0)
