Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Oun Kwon <kwonbbl AT gmail.com>]

On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 5:17 PM, James Read<J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk> wrote:
> Jim,
>
> by that reasoning the UK has several new years. It has one on January
> 1st from pagan origins. It has one in September when kids go back to
> school. It has one in April when the financial year starts. And
> others. Does that mean I should divide at least by three each time a
> Brit tells me his age?
>
> James Christian
>

Hi James,

Let me give you a hypothetical but very likely situation:

Problem one:  real birth date vs. the date registered officially.
(girls often get neglected to be on time). My mother has two sources
to come up with multiple birth days.

And then, there are two ways to count age. One is the full age. One
gets one year older on the birth day. - Western style. The other is
our oriental way. You become one year when you are born. On next Jan.
1, you get one year older. So if one's DOB is Dec. 31, the baby is
reckoned 2 year old on the next day Jan 1!

And then, there two ways people reckon New Year. Western style solar
calendar and Oriental style lunar New Year (they can be a month apart,
I believe, or more).

So here you have it whichever way you like!

Oun Kwon.

P.S. I'm not a type to keep a birth day or a birth day party from the
way I grew up. I hardly remember their birth dates for my family
member (well, unless it's easy like April fool's day for my sister;
Christmas eve for my father). As for my mother I honestly cannot tell
what is hers. The DOB on her national ID card is not much meaningful,
since that's not the one our family goes by for a 'celebration'.