29 III 2002 - 14:02 - quotidianus12

Now that Al is officially confused, I should offer a quick explanation.

Easter, if you're Catholic, falls on this Sunday. Easter, if you're Orthodox, falls on Sunday, April 7. Why? Al asks. Well, that's a good question, and has to do with calendar reform.

Remember that most of the Western world now uses the Gregorian calendar. This is the calendar which was revised by Pope Gregory [insert proper Roman numeral here] in the late 1500s. This is because the Julian calendar, in exsistence since the time of the Roman Empire, was gradually drifting away from the real year. The seasons were all off, and that's never good when you're planting, which is why we have dear old Greg to thank for the leap-year rule of every four years except for years ending in '00 unless it's divisible by 400. (Lightning bolt, take me now.)

So what's the problem? you ask. Well, look up there. Yeah. Pope. Non-Catholics weren't too hasty about instituting this calendar reform. Thus France and most Italian states were relatively early; Great Britain and the soon-to-be-United-States didn't get around to it until the 1750s; China didn't even use the calendar until the republic was established, in 1911, and it took until 1917 in Russia (and perhaps Bulgaria as well, I'm not sure. I'll look this up and change blatantly wrong things.) So.

Eastern Orthodox monasteries still use the Julian calendar. Church festivals are still calculated using the Julian calendar and - aha! - that's why the dates are off, Al. Glad you asked.

(So. Things you do not say to religious people:

to Jews, "Your chants are nice and all, but they're so modal! Get out of the Dark Ages!"

to Eastern Orthodox worshippers, "Get your dates right!")

I went to have lunch with an old family friend today, recently widowed. This is what I love about her: she invites me in and asks me,

"Are your parents still giving you hell about being gay? Because, you know, that's just a shame."

That, of course, being the giving-hell.

Other people always saw her as this harsh demoness task master, but for some reason, I never could. She's just an awesome person.

Oh, and her house is in the sunny part of the city, too, while I live in the foggy part. I took MUNI home today (she lives right by the Castro stop) and the difference between the sun when I entered the subway and the overcast mist when I walked out... *sigh* Although there is now a big cloud of sand-dust in the sky because of the biggest sandstorm to have hit Beijing in the past decade, which means that I'm not sure what I'm breathing. People say it's not a health risk, but I get a little leery when I look out her window, from which you can usually see the Oakland hills across the bay, and all you can see is this whitish haze and, dimly, the outlines of one or two peaks. It's more than slightly disturbing, if you ask me.

I'm off to read a bit more of Ovid's Metamophoses - Al, I think this will be my independent language study senior year. Thanks for suggesting it...