Ramadan began April 2, Ram Navami was on April 10, Passover begins at sundown today (Friday) and Easter is Sunday.

This confluence of religious observances by followers of Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity make this April the holiest month of the year for more than five billion people, or well more than half the world’s population.

These celebrations either follow or are influenced by the lunar calendar rather than the Gregorian version we use, and because the lunar year is 11 days shorter than the solar year on which Pope Gregory XIII established his calendar in 1582, the dates of these observances will change from one year to the next, and some more than others.

While these memorializations are the cornerstones of the world’s great religions, it is not entirely a coincidence that most of them occur around the arrival of spring.

Most cultures make special note of spring’s promise of new beginnings, just as these religions mark the occasions of their people’s deliverance, salvation and spiritual awakening.

For Judaism and Christianity, these events occur just before or just after spring. The name Easter, in fact, is derived from Eostre, a pagan goddess of spring who promised renewal, rebirth and fertility.

Obviously, spring would have occurred on its own without assistance from paganism, yet the missionaries attempting to convert the heathen Anglo-Saxons found their audience more receptive if these new Christian holy days were made to coincide with these ancient pagan festivals.

But regardless of the differing philosophies, traditions and rituals of these religions, they do have one common message: renewed hope for the future.

Considering the events of the past two years with the pandemic, the seeming abandonment of the Golden Rule principle that most religions subscribe to and the world’s current crises, these expressions of hope seem particularly resonant, amplified as they are, or should be, by a chorus of five billion people.