Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian
From: mls@dasys1.UUCP (Michael Siemon)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: sunday vs. saturday -- the reckoning of days
Message-ID: <Nov.10.02.27.26.1989.11387@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 10 Nov 89 07:27:29 GMT
Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu
Organization: The Big Electric Cat
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Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu


May I point out, in expansion of Steve Dyer's note that the
Catholic obligation to attend mass is satisfied by vigil
services on Saturday evening as well as by Sunday mass, that
the matter derives ultimately from Jewish reckoning of days.
That is, the Jewish (and Muslim, for that matter) day BEGINS
at sundown (or for Muslims at dusk after sundown.)  Check
on orthodox Jewish observance of the sabbath, if there is a
population of that faith near you.

Both for the Christmas "midnight" mass and for the Great Vigil
of Easter, the Church has preserved Jewish tradition in the
very structure of our most solemn observances, and there are
traces of this kind of reckoning elsewhere.

If I can be polemical for just a moment, this indebtedness of
the basic Church calendar to its Jewish origins is sufficient
rebuttal to charges that our feasts are "pagan."
-- 
Michael L. Siemon				I cannot grow;
...!cucard!dasys1!mls			   	I have no shadow
						To run away from,
			    			I only play.