{"channel":"religion","content":"A continuing mystery in my mind is: To what extent is Pentecost actually \"an observed event\"?\r\n\r\nIn Britain, it is called \"Whitsunday\".  In the US, nobody cares.\r\n\r\nBut, to my American Jewish mind, there is a contradiction here.  Or, a lack of a contradiction.\r\n\r\n----\r\n\r\nOn the one hand, it is a meaningless excuse of a festival. (<red> I know the book of Acts, but I shan't explain it here)\r\n\r\n----\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, it is \"just\" the name of the sermon of the week.  Nobody (<xantham> other than the British Banks) expects it to be anything. (<orange> well, actually, they changed the scheduling of the Late May Bank Holiday in 1971)","created_at":"2025-01-18T23:20:40.591718","id":122,"llm_annotations":{},"parent_id":null,"processed_content":"<p>A continuing mystery in my mind is: To what extent is Pentecost actually \"an observed event\"?\r</p>\n<p>In Britain, it is called \"Whitsunday\".  In the US, nobody cares.\r</p>\n<p>But, to my American Jewish mind, there is a contradiction here.  Or, a lack of a contradiction.\r</p><hr class=\"section-break\" /><p>On the one hand, it is a meaningless excuse of a festival. <span class=\"colorblock color-red\"><span class=\"sigil\">\ud83d\udca1</span><span class=\"colortext-content\">( I know the book of Acts, but I shan't explain it here)</span></span>\r</p><hr class=\"section-break\" /><p>On the other hand, it is \"just\" the name of the sermon of the week.  Nobody <span class=\"colorblock color-xantham\"><span class=\"sigil\">\ud83d\udd25</span><span class=\"colortext-content\">( other than the British Banks)</span></span> expects it to be anything. <span class=\"colorblock color-orange\"><span class=\"sigil\">\u2694\ufe0f</span><span class=\"colortext-content\">( well, actually, they changed the scheduling of the Late May Bank Holiday in 1971)</span></span></p>","quotes":[],"subject":"sidebar: Pentecost"}