The History of Calendars — Part II — The Jewish Calendar
The History of Calendars — Part II — The Jewish Calendar
A simple way of dividing the days and months of the years reveals characteristics of a very peculiar mentality.
Newsroom (06/09/2022 1:45 PM, Gaudium Press) In the Jewish conception of life, quite different from the Roman mentality, the dates, the formation of months and years had explanations with predominantly religious traits. One example of this is that for the Jews the year always began on Wednesday, because according to the account of Creation in Genesis, it was on the fourth day that God created the moon, the sun, the stars, and the whole course of time.[1] From another aspect, they also came to consider the beginning of the year on the autumnal equinox or in the month of the great liberation of the Jews from the land of Egypt with Moses: “This month shall be for you the first of the months of the year” (Ex 12:1).
An interesting detail is that the day, which for us begins at midnight, for the Jews had already begun the day before, the previous afternoon. Thus, Wednesday begins on Tuesday afternoon, Thursday on Wednesday afternoon, and so on, again following an interpretation of Genesis: “There was an evening and a morning”; and not the other way around, as we Westerners usually refer to it.
The days of the week were also divided according to the seven days of the creation of the world. Such days, in Hebrew, were simply the ordinal numerals from the second to the sixth, just as in the Portuguese language. But the Sabbath followed another rule: called Shabbat (שבת), which means rest, it recalled the day when God rested from his creative work. And there was Sunday, whose etymology — יום ראשון (“yom rishón”), means “the first day.”
The forgiveness of sins formed a fundamental part of the composition of the Hebrew calendar, so every seven years one was “Sabbatical”; in this, the Jews, among other observances, had to be at the disposal of foreigners and the poor. Every seven Sabbatical years, one was Jubilee, also of rest, and in it the slaves of Israel found their freedom again, because every Israelite is God’s inalienable “property”, and for this reason they cannot be slaves to anyone in perpetuity. It was forbidden to rush debtors to pay their debts, and so both one year and the next began with the “great day of remission.”[2]
This is how the months were divided:
Nisán, or Abib, month of the ears or of the new fruits. It began with the new moon that precedes the spring equinox; it corresponds, therefore, to the second half of March and the first half of April. On the 14th in the evening, it was the solemnity of Easter and the sacrifice of the paschal lamb. The 15th through the 21st was the feast of Passover, also called the feast of unleavened bread. The 16th or, if it was a Saturday, the 17th, was the solemn offering of the first sheaves. From this date we began to count seven weeks until the feast of Pentecost.
Ijar (April-May), primitively Ziw, which means month of splendor or of flowers.
Sioán o Sibán (May-June). On the 6th or 7th, it was the feast of Pentecost or of the weeks; there were also the harvest feasts or day of first fruits (wheat harvest).
Tliamnz o Adoms (June-July).
Ab (July-August). On the 9th, the destruction of Jerusalem was remembered (dueling and fasting).
Elul (August-September).
Tischri (September-October), the first month of the calendar year, called Etanirn, the sabbatical month. The 10th was the great day of atonement (penance, fasting); and from the 16th to the 22nd, feast of tabernacles.
Marqueshvan, Marsnan (o also Búl), means month of rains (October-November).
Kislev or Casleu (November-December); on the 25th, since the time of Judas Maccabaeus, the feast of the Encenias or of the Dedication of the Temple was celebrated.
Tebet (December-January)
Schebat or Sabbat (January-February)
Adar (February-March) the 14th and 15th festival of Purim or of the lot.
Every two or three years there was a second Adar, or Veadar, where, on the 14th and 15th, the Great Purim was celebrated.
…and we shall Continue in the next article
By João Pedro Serafim
[1] Cf. ALVAREZ VALDÉS, Ariel. What can we know about the Bible? Trad. Afonso Paschoette. Aparecida: Santuário, 1999, v.4, p. 71.
[2] Cf. HOLZAMMER, Juan; SHUSTER, Ignacio. Biblical History: Old Testament. Trad. Jorge de Riezu. Barcelona: Litúrgica española, 1934, p. 275, 346–347.
