Comments on: Friday the 13th roundup

By: FOAF

FOAF — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 03:33:34 +0000

Rufus, a lot of what that link says does not correspond to what I learned from my Jewish upbringing. Which does not necessarily mean it is not true. However there is one glaring inconsistency with the Jewish calendar. They da the 15th of Nisan – the first day of the Passover holiday – is on Friday. But it *cannot* occur on Friday in the existing Jewish calendar. Since the calendar was not adopted until around the 4th century AD it may be possible though that it could have occurred on a Friday around the time of the crucifixion. I have no knowledge of how things were done at that time, it likely involved direct observation of the new moon each month since that is what the calendar is based on.

By: R2L

R2L — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 03:02:49 +0000

@ West TX
so your May Day is a may-be.
or a “m’aider” although Wiki says it should be “aidez moi”.
[Looking through the lens of French grammar, it may be a short form of venez m’aider, “come [and] help me”). [3][4] Venez m’aider is the closest phonetic phrase to “mayday”, but the technically accurate stand alone reflexive imperative conjugation would be aidez-moi.]

And I am sorry to say it took me at least 30 seconds, plus RTF’s “groan”, to get your joke. 🙁

MJR,
I would think most young children of a non-digital age would have learned numbers from kitchen clocks and calendars while sitting at the kitchen table. Plus how to use a dial phone from observing its use 2 or 3 times.
When I was 7, and well versed in clockery, the teacher kept he after school for a few minutes to test my ability to tell time, etc. I never learned if that was because she thought there was some deficit in my ability, or if she did that with every student in turn.

By: FOAF

FOAF — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 01:02:23 +0000

M J R, I also had a calendar obsession at that age. Nowadays they would say we were “on the spectrum” lol

By: M J R

M J R — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 18:56:01 +0000

FOAF (12:43 am) (and others), when I was a very young boy, 5 years old or so, I was very obsessed with calendars. Some of that has stuck with me.

As to “Now do the Jewish calendar,” I think I’m going to defer to the link you provided and to RTF ‘s link (7:45 am). But thanks for the compliment [wink] — and I also get to credit you for the unusual information in your 12:46 am post. See ya . . .

By: Rufus T. Firefly

Rufus T. Firefly — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 16:25:19 +0000

*GROAN*
(also, I will steal that! 🙂 )

By: West TX Intermediate Crude

West TX Intermediate Crude — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:16:44 +0000

Interesting discussion of calendars by MJR and others.
All I have to add is that I received a calendar as a Christmas gift, but the 5th month was missing.
I was dismayed.

By: Rufus T. Firefly

Rufus T. Firefly — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 12:45:14 +0000

FOAF,

https://www.torahclass.com/topical-teachings/1329-the-passover-problem-solved/

By: Paolo Pagliaro

Paolo Pagliaro — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 09:31:36 +0000

“These were all people that were paying 13%+ in state income tax every year WITH NO COMPLAINTS UNTIL A FEW WEEKS AGO.”

13%!!! I think about the 39% I pay in taxes here in Italy, with a VAT of 23% on everything, and a plethora of other fees.
The bureaucratic, centralizing state is insatiable, even in the better form we have now with Meloni. We would need a Milei, but there’s nothing in view, and most people can’t even imagine a different course: it’s simply so, and the best you can do is to put yourself in a favorable position inside the patronage system.

By: FOAF

FOAF — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 05:46:14 +0000

Here is another aspect of the Jewish calendar: years can start (first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year) only on certain days of the week – Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Despite all the complexity there is always a fixed number of days from Passover to Rosh Hashanah so Passover can start only on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Notably missing from the Passover start list is Friday. Does anyone see any theological implications from this?

By: FOAF

FOAF — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 05:43:08 +0000

Wow M J R, very impressive calendar knowledge!

Now do the Jewish calendar bwahaha.
https://hebrewcalendar.tripod.com/

Interestingly although the Jewish calendar is insanely complicated – just for starters there are six possible year lengths instead of two – there are only 14 possible calendars, same as Gregorian.