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For Christian Advent to be exactly 25 days long, that would be a coincidence. Advent is not the time from December 1st until Christmas, it starts on whatever d
by kleiba 1y ago
For Christian Advent to be exactly 25 days long, that would be a coincidence.
Advent is not the time from December 1st until Christmas, it starts on whatever days the fourth Sunday before Christmas happens to fall on that year. This way, there are exactly four Sundays in advent.
If Christmas itself should fall on a Sunday one year, it doubles as the fourth Sunday of Advent, i.e., then the first of Advent will be only three weeks earlier.
- bananaflag 1y agoAnyway, this is Western Christianity. In Eastern Christianity, the Nativity Fast starts on a fixed day: November 15.
- akho 1y agoWhich happens to fall on November 28th, yes.
- TeMPOraL 1y agoAll correct. Which is why I said religious slash commercial tradition - Advent is first and foremost just another sales event, and for convenience of sellers and buyers (and their children) the commercial advent got regularized to 25 days, so the stock of calendars that failed to sell last christmas season can be put up to sale in the coming one.
- kleiba 1y agoAgreed, I didn't mean to critique you!
- TeMPOraL 1y agoI appreciate you working out the math above! :). (I never could wrap my head around all this. I had enough problems with Easter events, where the math makes a detour through a Lunar calendar.) EDIT: And my memory of the Tradition is wrong too, it's supposed to be 24 - as confirmed by https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45710618 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45710618, and corroborated the two "Paw Patrol" themed Advent Calendars I just found still stashed in my home office.
- kleiba 1y agoThe Sunday after the first full moon after March 21st (first day of spring) - what could possibly be confusing about that?! j/k ;-)
- TeMPOraL 1y agoI still find it easier to explain it as "14 Nisan *energetic hand wave*!!" :).
- SJMG 1y agoSince we're all being exacting here… =p > (first day of spring) It's actually the March equinox. "Spring" is true only in the northern hemisphere. What's more it's the ecclesiastical equinox, not the astronomical equinox, whose date actually varies depending on the year. Never mind that all this is descriptive of dating in countries that grew up with Western Christianity. Countries where Eastern traditions dominate often date it differently. All good will to you both = )
- kleiba 1y ago+1 from me!
- geerlingguy 1y agoIf I were Christmas of code, it would start mid-June and end on Christmas Eve!
- TeMPOraL 1y agoYou're forgetting about Halloween, Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and the most recent Singles Day (11.11); the Commercial Calendar is steadily squeezing the Christmas Season into December and out of the rest of the year!
- timeon 1y agoCommercial Halloween starts during October just after or parallel with October-fest. It ends before end of October because people buy things for an event before it starts. End of Halloween is when Commercial Christmas starts. There is no time for actual advent or winter calmness in general.
- Ekaros 1y agoWouldn't winter calmness be January or February, maybe March? You know coldest time in general on Northern Hemisphere?
- timeon 1y agoI think you are right, that seems to be the case.
- tjr 1y agoI decided to indulge in a Dunkin' pumpkin donut this morning, what with it being late October and the weather actually now fall-like. Apparently they have already discontinued them!
- toast0 1y ago> the Commercial Calendar is steadily squeezing the Christmas Season into December and out of the rest of the year! We can only hope. The Christmas song containment fields are weakening as we speak.