...The Purim Meshulash that we've been talking about for the last number of weeks is upon us and this is the greatest Purim, the Purim that is triple, the Purim in a leap year as it is this year, as we mentioned there will not be a year like this with such a Purim for thirteen years. There will not be a year like this with a shana meuveres at the same for 44 years. There will not be a year like this that ends with a ches, which tzadikim always were very excited when there was a year that ended with a ches because most events that happened to klal Yisrael happened in a year that ended with a ches. The next time that there will be a year that ends with a ches and there'll be a Purim Meshulash and Erev Pesach on Shabbos will be 220 years from now ... which is the last time that it will ever happen because it'll happen 12 years before the year 6000. So this is certainly very unique as we've been mentioning for the past few weeks.
And not only the rabbis are saying this is a very special Purim:
Good Friday! Happy Purim, Eid, etc...Happy Purim and Shabbat shalom.
On Friday more than a billion Christians around the world will mark the gravest observance on their Calendar, Good Friday, ...on this particular Friday, March 21, it seems almost no believer of any sort will be left without his or her own holiday. In what is statistically, at least, a once-in-a-millennium combination, the following will all occur on the 21st:
Good Friday
Purim, a Jewish festival celebrating the biblical book of Esther
Narouz, the Persian New Year, which is observed with Islamic elaboration in Iran and all the "stan" countries, as well as by Zoroastrians and Baha'is.
Eid Milad an Nabi, the Birth of the Prophet, which is celebrated by some but not all Sunni Muslims and, though officially beginning on Thursday, is often marked on Friday.
Small Holi, Hindu, an Indian festival of bonfires, to be followed on Saturday by Holi, a kind of Mardi Gras.
Magha Puja, a celebration of the Buddha's first group of followers, marked primarily in Thailand.
"Half the world's population is going to be celebrating something," says Raymond Clothey, Professor Emeritus of Religious studies at the University of Pittsburgh. "My goodness," says Delton Krueger, owner of www.interfaithcalendar.org, who follows "14 major religions and six others." He counts 20 holidays altogether (including some religious double-dips, like Maundy Thursday and Good Friday) between the 20th (which is also quite crowded) and the 21st. He marvels: "There is no other time in 2008 when there is this kind of concentration."
And in fact for quite a bit longer than that. Ed Reingold and Nachum Dershowitz, co-authors of the books Calendrical Calculations and Calendrical Tabulations, determined how often in the period between 1600 and 2400 A.D. Good Friday, Purim, Narouz and the Eid would occur in the same week. The answer is nine times in 800 years. Then they tackled the odds that they would converge on a two-day period. And the total is ... only once: tomorrow. And that's not even counting Magha Puja and Small Holi.
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