All About the Jewish Calendar

It was Hillel II who created a standarised Jewish calendar and leap year. It meant that holidays could be celebrated on the same date every year for Jews.

Rather like the most conventional calendar used, the Jewish one has months that are 29 or 30 days long and 12 or 13 months per year.The reason behind this is to be in sync with the 12.4 lunar months to complete the 365 and ¼ days. In older times, people would have to rely on seeing a new moon to know when a month began.The Sanhendrin will declare the first of the month, also called rosh chodesh once the people observed the new moon.More over, the number of months for the year is based on their agricultural cycle. It will take 19 years for a full cycle to repeat itself.There are an extra 7 months during this time.


The Hebrew Calendar

Hebrew or Jewish calendar is the official calendar of Israel.Each month starts and ends once the new moon is seen. Months in the Hebrew calendar are called: Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Av, Elul, Tishrei, Cheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat and Adar. Because the system includes a leap year, every year can have the same dates for public holidays.

Festivals

Jewish festivals, which were brought up to the present, are strictly observed in various ways.They are already part of the customs of the people and they have been mirrors of the national life of the Jews.

Holidays in the Jewish Calendar

As in most rituals, observance of the holidays is very important.These holidays give them the time to value significant historic events and the time to celebrate and reflect.These holidays promote the sense of being one with fellow believers.The most important holy days for the Jews is Shabbat.The other festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot and the two High Holy Days, which are Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the main festivals. Working on these days is strictly being prohibited

The Jewish day starts at sunset which means that holidays actually start the evening before the main festival day. Occasionally an extra day is added to the holiday to reflect this, but not everyone accepts this practise.But usually if a holiday should fall on a May 4, the family will get together on the night of May 3 and the holiday continues until the next day.


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