Saturday, April 4, 2015

Interfaith Days: Holy Saturday, Hanuman Jayanti, Lazarus Saturday, Theravadin New Year

Today is Holy Saturday, the second day of the Eastern Triduum when many Christians honor the fact that Jesus lay dead in the grave but soon will rise from the dead on Easter morning.

For Orthodox Christians, today is Lazarus Saturday, commemorating the raising of Lazarus from the dead. The day combines with tomorrow's celebration of Palm Sunday here at the end of Great Lent. http://lent.goarch.org/saturday_of_lazarus/learn/

Today is also Hanuman Jayanti, the birthday of the popular Hindu god Lord Hanuman. Like Easter and its accompanying days, Hanuman Jayanti is determined according to lunar days, and this year the festival occurs on April 4. Hanuman is associated with Lord Ram, and with service, devotion, and strength.

And today is the New Year festival for Theravada Buddhists in Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Laos. It is the three days from the first full moon in April.

It's not a religious holiday, but April 4 is also the day Dr. Martin Luther King was killed in Memphis in 1968.

(From the 2015 Interfaith Calendar of the Diversity Awareness Partnership of St. Louis---see dapstl.org for more information---and various online sources.)

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