[Buddha-l] MARYSVILLE: American Buddhism facinggenerationalshift

[JKirkpatrick]

'and a very popular type of daily calendar (one page for each
day) marks in great detail the auspicious and inauspicious
aspects of that day for each of the Chinese zodiacs.' 

	The Indians have these, too, in all local languages. &
astro variations. Indispensable for having 	a good day.

	However, lots  (maybe even most) of Chinese still
celebrate Chinese new Year at the correct 	times, also in
Vietnam.

	Joanna

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-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
[mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Dan
Lusthaus
Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 10:05 AM
To: Buddhist discussion forum
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] MARYSVILLE: American Buddhism
facinggenerationalshift

>Quakers hated the idea of days named after pagan gods and months
named 
>after Roman emperors and Latin numbers, so they refused to use
those 
>names and referred to the days of the week as First Day, Second
Day and 
>so on, and referred to the months as First Month (which
originally 
>meant March but eventually became January, to everyone's great
inconvenience).

Assigning the days of the days of the week numbers instead of
names (except the seventh day, which was named Shabbath --
"resting", lit. "sitting") is Biblical, and a practice still
followed in Israel and on Jewish calendars. 
Yom Rishon ("First Day") corresponds to Sunday, Yom Sheini
(Second Day) to Monday, etc.

The concept of the seven-day week and (one day) weekend (off from
work) is also biblical, linked to the Shabbath idea. On the
seventh day, everybody, including one's animals, is supposed to
rest, desist from work. The two-day weekend was invented in New
York City, as a compromise. To observe Jewish sabbath, Jews
closed their stores and refrained from business on Friday nights
and Saturdays (until after sundown), while Christians closed
their shops on Sunday. The Jewish stores were open on Sunday, so,
everyone only being off work on Sundays (workdays were longer
back then) had that day alone to do serious shopping and they
would go to the only stores and businesses open, the Jewish
stores. The Christian businesses cried fowl, unfair business
practices, and tried to pass a law forbidding Jewish shops from
doing business on Sundays. The Jews replied that since they are
already closed on Saturday, if they were forced to close on
Sundays, that would be two days of no business against the
Christians only one day of no business, which would be even more
unfair. When the smoke settled, the compromise was that all
stores and businesses would henceforth close on Saturday AND
Sunday. People got a two-day weekend released from work. Of
course, business is business, so soon shops opened on both days,
and now one can go shopping all weekend!

As for India, the lunar calendar treats the month as consisting
of 30 days, and breaks the month into roughly two segments of 15
days each, going from Full moon to New Moon to Full moon. So
special days tended to happen on the 15th or 1st. The discrepancy
between the lunar year and solar year -- along with the fact that
lunar months are not always exactly 30 days -- engendered the
seven day week (14 day intervals). Buddhists retained those
customs as they brought Indic sensibilities to China, etc.

The Chinese used to have very elaborate systems for naming months
and years, based on a few ideas of calendrical cycles, though no
weekend, until modern times, when they adopted the "first month,
second day" -- and the year of the "dynasty" in Taiwan (the
"Republican Period" begins in 1911/12, so this would be "Year
100." Mainland simply adopted the secularized western calendar.
The first Chinese month used to be mid-February, but these days
new years day is Jan. 1st in most of East Asia. They count year
first, then month, then day, so today is Year 100 Month 7 Day 19
in Taiwan, and Year
2011 Month 7 Day 19 in Mainland China (and Japan). Based on
various numerological ideas, there are auspicious and
inauspicious days, and a very popular type of daily calendar (one
page for each day) marks in great detail the auspicious and
inauspicious aspects of that day for each of the Chinese zodiacs.

For more on how time, calendars, etc. developed, a free download
from http://library.nu/ will tell you everything you need to know
(plus!):
David Kelley and Eugene Milone, _Exploring Ancient Skies: A
Survey of Ancient and Cultural Astronomy_, Springer, 2011 (Second
Edition)

Dan


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