Of Leap Years and Lack of Holidays
Many know that the Hindu calendar is a lunar one. The lunar year (of 12 months) is about 354 days long. This means that there is a difference of 11 days, 1 hour, 31 minutes and 12 seconds between the solar year (followed by the western Gregorian Calendar) and the lunar one. Logically, this would mean that all Hindu festivals should keep shifting by 11 days a year, causing, say, Diwali to some year be in winter, other times be in summer. Yet this does not happen and festivals fall within one month range of the solar year. How does one explain this 'anamoly'.
Well, the answer is that the Gregorians aren't the only ones who thought of a leap year! There is one major difference though. The western calendar opts for an extra day every four years, while the Hindu calendar goes for an extra month every 2.5 years. Now, 11.06333 days * 2.5 years = 27.658333 days, but an additional lunar month would account for only 27.3 days. So what is to be done about the extra 8 hrs and 36 minutes that are piling up every 2.5 years? Well, the gregorian calendar too has a similar problem. The extra day every four years is a little longer than required, resulting in the 'leap year' being dropped in years divisible by 100, but not by 400 (so 2000 wass a leap year, but 1900 was not). Every 190 years, another month is added to the lunar year. Thus (8hrs 36 minutes * 190 / 2.5) = 27.3 days. Voila, the problem is solved!
The extra months are called अधिक मास। No festival falls during this month।
Those of you cribing about the unusual lack of holidays should know that an adhik maas beginning 17th March is to blame - all festivals have got postponed for a month!

Hitesh has gone multi-religious (I prefer that to the politically charged 'secular'). On the occassion of Buddha Purnima, I bring you a few vignettes of Buddha's veneration by other religions.

Hinduism

Many (may be even most) schools of Hinduism recognize Gautama Buddha as the ninth of the Dasha-avataara (ten incarnations) of Vishnu.

Buddhists do not take this 'recognition' very kindly. Among the ones who oppose this most virulently are Nayayana Buddhists, also called Ambedkarite Buddhists, one of who's 22 religious vows includes opposing the belief that Buddha is an avataara of Vishnu.

Hindu faith in Buddha has produced interesting results. Since Buddha is considered a member of the Hindu pantheon of gods, many Hindus believe in offering puja to Buddha at the temple of Mahabodhi at Gaya. A shrada (offering) to departed souls performed at Gaya is considered a sure shot way of freeing the souls from the cycle of birth and death - which Buddha called Nirvana and Hindus call Moksha. Interestingly another of the 22 Ambedkarite Buddhist vows is to not perform shrada! The Mahabodhi temple is an interesting effort at religious pluralism, its managing board consists 4 Hindu and 4 Buddhist members each. Not that this enables running of the temple in a non-controversial manner thoughNot all Hindus accept that Buddha is an avataar of Vishnu. While some Vaishnava traditions (especially South Indian ones) consider Krishna to be the 9th avataar (with Big Brother Balarama being the 8th one), the Gaudiya tradition (founded by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and including ISKCON) considers Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to be the 9th avaatar.

Christianity

Buddha is also said to be the St. Josaphat, who is venerated as a saint by many christian traditions. The life story of the two is identical and St. Josaphat was Indian.

Islam

Some noted Mulsim scholars like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Hamid Abdul Qadir believe that the prophet Dhu'l-Kifl mentioned in the Quran is non other than Buddha. This is however not universally accepted. Most scholars believe that Dhu'l-Kifl refers to the biblical Prophet

Baha'ism

Buddha is a named prophet in Baha'ism along with Krishna, Zoroaster, Jesus, Mohammed and .

Shintoism
Shintoism has blended so well with Buddhism that the two are nearly indistinguishable in Japan. Many a Shinto diety is considered a manifestation of some Buddhist diety or other (a task simplified by the numerous Bodhisattvas up for grabs!).

By the way, today is not universally recognized at Buddha's birthday. By Chinese traditions Buddha's birthday will fall on May 24th (8th day of 4th chinese month).

Also Gautama is not the only Buddha, neither is he the first. He is said to be the 28th Buddha. Buddhist tradition two talks of another visit by the divine. Maitreya would be the 29th Buddha.