In an uncommon calendar twist, 5 holidays and celebrations from completely different cultures and religions are being noticed concurrently or inside days of each other: Holi, Nowruz, Easter, Purim and Ramadan.
So why are they falling so shut collectively this yr?
Nowruz marks the spring equinox, when day and night time are of equal size, and so often falls on or round March 20, whereas Western Christian church buildings have fun Easter — and the Sunday earlier than it, referred to as Palm Sunday — based mostly on the primary full moon after the equinox.
Hinduism and Judaism, in the meantime, have lunar-solar calendars, which means that whereas the date might change on the Gregorian calendar, they nonetheless happen across the similar time every year. Ramadan, then again, is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, which is about 11 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar and so lands on completely different seasons through the years.