[Avodah] Birkat Hachama (v26,n71,#07)

[Motti Yarchinai]

Zev Sero wrote on 23 Apr 2009:

>>>
It seems to me very likely that ... the dates for both [Xmas & March 
equinox] were fixed [at Dec 25, not 21, and at Mar 26, not 21] in the 
3rd century BCE or so, when those were the correct dates for the 
respective tekufot.
<<<

For the March equinox, that would have been in the fourth century BCE 
(long before both Shmuel and J Caesar); for Saturnalia, 3rd Century 
BCE, a lttle later, but the above still applies.

Shmuel, or Hillel II (or someone else in between such as Abbaye), 
take your pick, were stuck with a pre-existing (solar) calendar, but 
not necessarily with a particular date in that calendar.

(By "stuck", BTW, I don't mean to imply that it was a poor choice 
made reluctantly; the Julian calendar was eminently suitable for 
Shmuel's purpose because it provided a reasonable cycle length for 
BH, quite aside from the fact that it was long established, widely 
used, and therefore well known, so a suitable solar calendar to fix 
our BH and sh'elah dates in.)

Whoever it was could have chosen, for the 'nominal' March equinox, 
any Julian date (J)  that: (a) fell on a Wed in year 1H (Hebrew) and 
(b) was near the equinox in their own time. Since in year 1H, March 
21, J, was a Friday, they could just as easily have chosen Wed March 
19. (Though I can make out a case why a forward adjustment would have 
seemed preferable to them than a backward adjustment.)

However, you seem to be implying that there was something special 
about March 26 (and Dec 25) J. (Like some pre-existing pagan 
equinoctial festival that the rabbis wanted to "overwrite" with a 
Jewish observance, just as the Christians replaced Saturnalia with 
Xmas.) I know I implied something similar in section 1 of my article, 
but I didn't mean that with respect to a specific calendar date, just 
with respect to their vs. our way of celebrating the Sun's birthday.

So was there, historically, a pre-existing festival on those dates? 
Your theory is credible for Saturnalia. It began in 217 BCE (which 
century fits your theory). Against this is the fact that it was not 
replaced by Xmas until the 4th Century, at which time Dec 21, G = Dec 
20 (not 25), J, but if, despite this, Saturnalia was still being 
celebrated on Dec 25 in that century, your theory holds.

I have looked for something fixed to March 26, J, but can only find 
festivals that are linked to the actual (observed) equinox. Nothing 
Roman, and Persians / Zoroastrians didn't use the Julian calendar. 
Ditto Babylonians - we got most of our month names from their luni-
solar calendar. Can't find anything that fits.

Methinks my theory (in section 7 of my article) still survives 
Ockham's razor.

Motti Yarchinai