25 March 12022

♀   25 March 12022 is the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. It’s also Freedom Day (Belarus), Feast of the Annunciation (Christians), Greek Independence Day (Cyprus), EU Talent Day (European Union), Independence Day (Greece), Maryland Day (Maryland, US), NZ Army Day (New Zealand), Empress Menen’s Birthday (Rastafarians), Cultural Workers Day (Russia), Anniversary of the Arengo (San Marino), Struggle for Human Rights Day (Slovakia), Mother’s Day (Slovenia), Tolkien Reading Day (Tolkien fans), and Medal of Honor Day (United States).

On other calendars today is JD 2459664, 22 Veadar 5782, 22 Phalguna 2078, 12 (O.S.) or 25 (N.S.) March 2022, 16 Paremhat 1738, 21 Sha’ban 1443, or 5 Farvardin 1401. People born on this date include Béla Bartók (11881), Gene Shalit (11926), Gloria Steinem (11934), and Elton John (11947). (And in fact this date was picked to celebrate EU Talent Day because it was Bartók’s birthday.) The saint of the day is Dismas, who along with Gestas was crucified alongside Jesus, presumably as coconspirators with him in his attack on the Jerusalem temple. Gestas, according to the story, turned on Jesus and joined with the crowd in reviling him, but Dismas did not. In a rather touching moment Jesus, facing imminent death, told Dismas that the two of them would be together in Paradise. I’d like to think they are, but—

In English-speaking countries 25 March is the traditional beginning of the new year; according to Tolkien this commemorates the destruction of Barad-dûr at the end of the Third Age. (And this in turn is why Tolkien Reading Day falls on this date.) It may seem odd to change years in mid-month, but there’s no law against it, exactly. It’s what you’d get, actually, if you ran a strict lunar calendar for the months alongside a strict solar calendar for the year—not that anybody has done this, exactly, as far as I know. But it is a logical consequence of dividing by the moon phases short-term and by the sun’s apparent movement long-term.