| THE JEWISH CALENDAR | ||||||
| Year | Month | English Months (nearly) |
Festivals | Seasons and Productions | ||
| Sacred 1 |
Civil 7 |
Nisan/Abib 30 days |
April | 1 New Moon 14 The Passover 15-21 Unleavened Bread |
Spring Rains (Deut 11:14) Floods (Josh 3:15) Barley ripe |
|
| 2 | 8 | Iyyar/Ziv 29 days |
May | 1 New Moon 14 Second Passover |
Harvest Barley Harvest (Ruth 1:22) Wheat Harvest Summer begins No rain from April to Sept. |
|
| 3 | 9 | Sivan 30 days |
June | 1 New Moon 6 Pentecost |
||
| 4 | 10 | Tammuz 29 days |
July | 1 New Moon 17 Fast for the taking of Jereusalem |
Hot Season Heat increases |
|
| 5 | 11 | Ab 30 days |
August | 1 New Moon 9 Fast for the destruction of Temple |
The streams dry up Heat intense Vintage (Lev 26:5) |
|
| 6 | 12 | Elul 29 days |
September | 1 New Moon | Heat intense (2 Kings 4:19) Grape Harvest |
|
| 7 | 1 | Tishri/ Ethanim 30 days |
October | 1 New Year, Day of Blowing of
Trumpet Day of Judgment and Memorial (Num 29:1) 10 Day of Atonement (Lev 16) 15 Booths 21 (Lev 23:24) 22 Solemn Assembly |
Seed Time Former or early rains
begin Plowing and sowing begin |
|
| 8 | 2 | Marchesran/Bul 29 days |
November | 1 New Moon | Rain continues Wheat and barley sown |
|
| 9 | 3 | Chislev 30 days |
December | 1 New Moon 25 Dedication (John 10:22, 29) |
Winter Winter begins Snow on mountains |
|
| 10 | 4 | Tebeth 29 days |
January | 1 New Moon 10 Fast for the siege of Jerusalem |
Coldest month Hail and snow (Josh 10:11) |
|
| 11 | 5 | Shebat 30 days |
February | 1 New Moon | Weather gradually warmer | |
| 12 | 6 | Adar 29 days |
March | 1 New Moon 13 Fast of Esther 14-15 Purim |
Thunder and hail frequent Almond tree blossoms |
|
| 13 | Leap Year | Veadar/ Adar Sheni |
March/ April |
1 New Moon 13 Fast of Esther 14-15 Purim |
Intercalary Month | |
| Note 1 The
Jewish year is strictly lunar, being 12 lunations with an average 29-1/2 days making 354
days in the year. The Jewish sacred year begins with the new moon of spring, which comes between our March 22 and April 25 in cycles of 19 years. We can understand it best if we imagine our New Year’s Day, which now comes on
January 1 without regard to the moon, varying each year with Easter, the time |
of the Passover,
or the time of the full moon which, as a new moon, had introduced the New Year two weeks
before. Note 2 Hence the Jewish calendar contains a 13th month, Veadar or Adar Sheni, introduced 7 times in every 19 years, to render the average length of the year nearly correct and to keep the seasons in the proper months. Note 3 The Jewish day begins at sunset of the previous day. |
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