The temple committee's calendar

Indian festivals are fixed to the moon, not to a date in the ordinary calendar. The moon's position is worked out in a printed almanac called a panchang. Somebody has to read that almanac and decide which day the temple will use. Abroad, that somebody is usually a committee of volunteers in a hired hall.

Three things are decided before the meeting starts.

The first is the priests. A priest is trained in one particular line of practice, and that line comes with its own rules about timing. Temples abroad often have priests from several different lines, because one building has to serve everybody.

The second is the almanac itself. Temples get theirs from a monastery in India, or a regional publisher, or a publisher in America who will print the temple's own calendar for free. These publishers ask which tradition you follow, because the same year genuinely has more than one correct shape.

The third is the city. An almanac is computed for a place, since the day it describes starts at a local sunrise. An almanac made for India cannot simply be used in Chicago.

Then the practical part. The prayer hall is too small, the big hall is cheapest on Saturday, and the children have school on Wednesday. Good committees handle this by writing down two things instead of one: the ritual at its proper hour, and the community gathering on the Saturday. Moving a gathering does not move a festival.

Two temples a mile apart each make these choices separately. Different almanac, different city, different weekend. Two dates come out, and neither temple has made a mistake.