[Buddha-l] MARYSVILLE: American Buddhism facinggenerationalshift

[Dan Lusthaus]

I'm off to a conference in Capetown, S.A., and will be traveling without 
computer (as usual), so I'll be offline until next month -- don't be alarmed 
if I don't respond.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "JKirkpatrick" <jkirk at spro.net>
To: "'Buddhist discussion forum'" <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 3:13 PM
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] MARYSVILLE: American Buddhism 
facinggenerationalshift


> '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
>
> -----------
>
>
> -----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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