strange holiday timing

[cellio]

Most years, Pesach and Easter fall within a few days of each other. This makes sense, because the Christian event is understood to have fallen during Pesach. But because Christianity does not follow the Jewish calendar for setting the holiday, and both computations are lunar, when the holidays aren't a few days apart they're about a month apart, with Easter being first. Fine; everyone knows that, pretty much.

The holiday of Purim falls approximately a month before Pesach.

Easter is constrained to fall on a Sunday, but Pesach can fall on "any" day. Well, there are some calendar oddities that actually rule out a couple days (Wednesday and Friday, IIRC), but mostly Pesach is unconstrained.

This year Pesach happens to fall on a Sunday and Easter is early.

What does this all add up to? That the celebration of Purim, a day on which feasting and drinking are commanded, falls on good Friday, a fast day.

I have heard that there are Christian denominations that observe some Jewish practices, like the seventh-day aventists who celebrate the sabbath on Saturday. I wonder if any of them celebrate minor holidays like Purim. If so, I wonder how they will resolve the contradiction this year. For that matter, I wonder how interfaith families address this. (A similar problem arises in the winter, when a Jewish fast day can fall on Christmas.)

Comments

Re: calendar info

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

I don't think carrying would be the issue -- well, not the main one, anyway. (Most Orthodox congregations I know of keep extra bundles of aravos at shul so everyone is sure to have.) I couldn't tell you the exact label for it, but I think the problem with Hoshana Rabba is that you invariably end up tearing leaves off the branches in the process of whacking them on the floor.

Re: calendar info

[cellio]

I suspect it's threshing, or perhaps tearing or flaying. I strongly suspect that the act of beating the willow is covered by one of the 39 avot melachot.

I raised carrying because this is the reason given for not blowing the shofar on Shabbat. Even though a congregation needs only one shofar (not one per worshipper, as with aravot), the rabbis forbid shofar on Shabbat lest someone carry it to shul. (We just leave one at shul and blow it on Shabbat when relevant.) So I thought that if there was a carrying issue with a single shofar, then surely (by rabbinic logic) there would be a problem with multiple aravot. But it's a secondary issue anyway because the act of using the aravot is itself melacha, unlike the act of blowing the shofar (which is fine, hence the need to look at secondary issues like carrying).