Posted on 09/26/2005 6:29:50 PM PDT by laney
Oct. 4 will indeed be a holy day. For the first time in 33 years, two world religions will simultaneously mark the beginning of their most sacred seasons on the same day. Jews will celebrate Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year that also begins the 10-day period known as the “Days of Awe.” And Muslims will usher in Ramadan, the holy month that is marked by daily fasting between sunrise and sunset.
Christians, meanwhile, will be marking the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, also on Oct. 4. Across the country, religious communities are using the calendar's coincidence as a launch pad for interfaith projects around topics ranging from the political to the spiritual. Rabbi Arthur Waskow, the director of the Philadelphia-based Shalom Center, a national peace and justice organization, has dubbed the confluence of holidays “God's October Surprise.”
Why Rosh Hashana and Ramadan Meet Only Once Every 33 Years
Everybody knows that there are 365 days in the solar year. But how many know the number of days in a lunar year? The answer is 354, 11 days fewer than the solar calendar. Judaism and Islam, which both observe a lunar calendar, treat this disparity differently, explaining why it is so noteworthy that this year, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins on the same day as the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashana (Oct. 4).
Joy /s I'm sure the muslims are gonna be willing to share their HOLY holiday with the Jews or Christians..
Ditto!
Perfect! Sounds like an opportunity for Muslims to attack Israel like they did on Yom Kippur in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
"Christians, meanwhile, will be marking the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, also on Oct. 4. Across the country, religious communities are using the calendar's coincidence as a launch pad for interfaith projects around topics ranging from the political to the spiritual."
First of all, are there any non-Catholics that actually celebrate the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi? Secondly, what are some of these "interfaith projects" that are spiritual in nature? Count me out of those.
No.
Lots of us very religious types don't participate in any of the mentioned festivities, other than to celebrate the Lord's resurrection on the Sundays that bookend them.
''Christians, meanwhile, will be marking the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi''
That sentence should probably start with the word 'Catholics' rather than 'Christians'. While I personally bear no ill will against Catholics, or the practitioners of any other religion simply because they practice it (unless they feel it is their religious duty to murder me), Protestants don't celebrate holidays involving saints. At least to my knowledge none of them do, and I've been one all of my life.
Well, Catholics anyway for the Feast of St. Francis. Wow. Quite unusual.
Some Christians choose to celebrate Rosh Hashana, or the Feast of Trumpets. God calls this day a "feast of the Lord" and it has great significance for all of mankind.
If anything, it will be like a 'sign' to fight and not have to share.
Torah-observant Jews will celebrate the Feast of Trumpets.
b'shem Y'shua
Can someone tell me why this is so noteworthy? Frankly who gives a rats rear end that the holidays happen to start on the same day this year?
I was raised Catholic and don't ever remember celebrating it much less hearing about it.
In the early 1990s one October 4 CNN ran a segment on a Franciscan priest in San Francisco blessing some animals, as if it might be of interest to a wider audience.
Most lunar calendars have intercalary months (an additional month added every second or third year) in order to keep the lunar calendar in line with the seasons. For people living in an agricultural society, this would be for a practical reason, so that harvest festivals happen at harvest-time and so on. Muhammad decided to forbid intercalary months, so the Muslim year gains a year on the solar calendar about once every 33 years.
For later reading
Here is the relevant section of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.
As to whether today's festering corpse of a Church of England still gives a rat's ass for the BCP, I couldn't say.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.