Paul Eggert wrote: Thanks. I edited your message down to the following: is it OK if I include this in a future revision of the `europe' file? # From Chris Carrier <72157.3334@CompuServe.COM> (1996-12-02): # On 1929-10-01 the Soviet Union instituted an ``Eternal Calendar'' # with 30-day months plus 5 holidays, with a 5-day week. # On 1931-12-01 it changed to a 6-day week; in 1934 it reverted to the # Gregorian calendar while retaining the 6-day week; on 1940-06-27 it # reverted to the 7-day week. With the 6-day week the usual days # off were the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th and 30th of the month. # (Source: Evitiar Zerubavel, _The Seven Day Circle_) This is OK; I didn't know how much material to include, because the topic of discussion of the list is the clock, not the calendar, but Gregorian and the 5 and 6 day week experimental calendars were mentioned so I thought I should refine the data. I think the reason that the Russian Orthodox adhere to the Julian calendar, even today, is because Easter is getting steadily later under it. Easter is, after all, a spring festival, and late March in most of Russia is still snowy and very cold. By placing Easter in the date range April 4 - May 8 instead of March 22 - April 25 it's more springlike. Chris Carrier
[Now we're really getting far afield...] <<On 02 Dec 96 23:35:24 EST, Chris Carrier <72157.3334@CompuServe.COM> said:
I think the reason that the Russian Orthodox adhere to the Julian calendar, even today, is because Easter is getting steadily later under it. Easter is, after all, a spring festival, and late March in most of Russia is still snowy and very cold. By placing Easter in the date range April 4 - May 8 instead of March 22 - April 25 it's more springlike.
Note that this is true for the Russian Orthodox church in Russia; in other areas the policy differs (despite what you see on calendars). I can speak in particular for Finland, in which the minority Orthodox community ``went with the flow'' and adopted the calendar of the majority Lutherans in order to minimize friction resulting from having the major religious holidays falling on different civil dates. (At least, that's how it was explained to me when I was there.) In Finland, those religious holidays are generally also civil holidays. I'm actually curious as to what formula for Easter is used by the Orthodox churches which follow the Julian calendar; the Western formula (``first Sunday after the first full moon of the Vernal Equinox'') could never come up with the Orthodox dates. -GAWollman -- Garrett A. Wollman | O Siem / We are all family / O Siem / We're all the same wollman@lcs.mit.edu | O Siem / The fires of freedom Opinions not those of| Dance in the burning flame MIT, LCS, ANA, or NSA| - Susan Aglukark and Chad Irschick
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