spring holidays

my favorite conversation of today (so far) involved this weekend's holidays. it turns out unc has off for easter weekend, as an official university holiday--so friday is not one of the days where the library is closed but i'm there working anyway. this is awesome timing, b/c of course purim starts thursday night and this means i can spend friday making hamentashen! [and as jodi just pointed out, thursday night i MUST go to happy hour, since it IS a mitzvah to drink. no excuses this week, kids! it's a religious thing!]

to back up a little: i only just figured out today why easter is a full month earlier than passover--b/c it follows the regular lunar calendar, whereas the jewish calendar is modified so that the harvest holidays stay in the correct seasons, and of course that extra month adar II was added in this year, pushing everything back a month. i always thought easter did that too, since it makes sense to have easter and passover at the same time, but i guess not.

which i think is sort of a shame--b/c now easter is the same weekend as purim (or as i affectionately call it, "drunk jewish halloween") and purim really doesn't have the same gravity as easter does. passover and easter--obviously!--fit together thematically, but this year, all the christian kids will be all reverent while the jewish kids are getting drunk and eating dessert. (i almost want to say: "ha ha, suckers!" except that passover is my favorite holiday--besides the whole no corn syrup hassle, and the occasional lack of birthday cake--and i'm sad that it's still a month away. and yes, i probably will be having a seder again this year. i have four jewish or part-jewish friends to attend now!)

and that brings me back to hamentashen--jodi and i will be baking a bunch on friday, probably of the cherry, apricot, and chocolate chip varieties. let me know soon if you want some and i will try and accomodate your request. jews and part-jews get first dibs! :) door-to-door delivery of these mashloach manot is also a possibility, since they're supposed to be given out on purim day.

now, back to reading my christian book for popular materials. sigh. it will be a purim miracle if my head doesn't explode while reading it.