Christian Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover, and because the Buddha's birthday is reckoned, like Passover (Nisan 15, a full-moon day, with celebrations through Nisan 22), according to a lunar calendar (the Jewish calendar is both solar and lunar, but Passover is reckoned according to the calendar's lunar aspect), it's never far behind Passover and Easter. In 2011, I wrote a post titled "from Pesach to Vesak" to celebrate this weird fact. The Buddha's birthday is always on April 8 of the lunar calendar. For those of us who use the solar calendar, that means the Buddha's birthday falls on Sunday, May 8, this year—only three weeks after Easter Sunday. The government has thus made Monday, May 9, a public holiday so that people won't feel cheated out of their expected day off.
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