Friday, March 21, 2003 :::
I believe the western Christian church uses March 21 as the first day of spring for the purposes of calculating Easter; the Jewish calendar makes less allowance for fine corrections to the length of the year, and has drifted to April 3 or so as the earliest date for the passover moon.
I was discussing this once with a Jewish friend; we were in a large but crowded cafeteria, and he made a (light-hearted, right?) critical comment about western Christians sometimes celebrating Easter a month before Passover. I responded with the explanation I just gave here, and as one of those random quiets happened to interrupt the din of the dining area, I said loudly (trying to speak above that missing din), "It's the Jews' fault."
::: posted by dWj at 12:38 PM
