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Happy Jewish New Year!
- Thread starter addiebee
- Start Date
Shana Tova!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5771.
For those who don't know, Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) is observed on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Jewish calendar. The belief is that Rosh Hashanah represents the date of the creation of the world (or universe).
The Jewish calendar is based on three astronomical phenomena: the rotation of the earth (a day); the revolution of the moon about the earth (a month), and the revolution of the earth around the sun (a year).
The Gregorian (now called "civil") calendar used by most of the world abandoned any correlation between moon cycles and the month, forcing months to work out into solar years.
The Jewish calendar coordinates all three of these things. Months are either 29 or 30 days (corresponding to the 29.5 lunar cycle). Years are either 12 or 13 months (kind of like "leap year" when February gets an extra day), which corresponds to the 12.4 month solar cycle. This extra month has to be added, otherwise things like dates of celebration constantly move either backward in the seasons (with the 12-month lunar calendar) or forward in the seasons (with a 13-month lunar calendar). So the extra month when necessary helps reconcile the lunar months with the solar cycle.
This is why to people looking at a Gregorian calendar it looks like the dates of celebration of holidays move - but on the Jewish calendar, the holidays are always on the same date of each month.
The months are:
1 - Nissan (March - April)
2 - Iyar (April - May)
3 - Sivan (May - June)
4 - Tammuz (June - July)
5 - Av (July - August)
6 - Elul (August - September)
7 - Tishrei (September - October)
8 - Cheshvan (October - November)
9 - Kislev (November - December)
10 - Tevet (December - January)
11 - Shevat (January - February)
12 - Adar I (in leap years only) (February - March)
13 - Adar (called Adar Beit when there's a leap year, otherwise Adar is the 12th month and still falls February - March)
For those who don't know, Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) is observed on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Jewish calendar. The belief is that Rosh Hashanah represents the date of the creation of the world (or universe).
The Jewish calendar is based on three astronomical phenomena: the rotation of the earth (a day); the revolution of the moon about the earth (a month), and the revolution of the earth around the sun (a year).
The Gregorian (now called "civil") calendar used by most of the world abandoned any correlation between moon cycles and the month, forcing months to work out into solar years.
The Jewish calendar coordinates all three of these things. Months are either 29 or 30 days (corresponding to the 29.5 lunar cycle). Years are either 12 or 13 months (kind of like "leap year" when February gets an extra day), which corresponds to the 12.4 month solar cycle. This extra month has to be added, otherwise things like dates of celebration constantly move either backward in the seasons (with the 12-month lunar calendar) or forward in the seasons (with a 13-month lunar calendar). So the extra month when necessary helps reconcile the lunar months with the solar cycle.
This is why to people looking at a Gregorian calendar it looks like the dates of celebration of holidays move - but on the Jewish calendar, the holidays are always on the same date of each month.
The months are:
1 - Nissan (March - April)
2 - Iyar (April - May)
3 - Sivan (May - June)
4 - Tammuz (June - July)
5 - Av (July - August)
6 - Elul (August - September)
7 - Tishrei (September - October)
8 - Cheshvan (October - November)
9 - Kislev (November - December)
10 - Tevet (December - January)
11 - Shevat (January - February)
12 - Adar I (in leap years only) (February - March)
13 - Adar (called Adar Beit when there's a leap year, otherwise Adar is the 12th month and still falls February - March)
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