The “Ancient Hebrew Calendar” was a lunisolar calendar that depended on both the moon and the sun to calculate its durations. In ancient times, the duration from one new moon to the next determined the duration of what we now refer to as a month, and they based the duration of the days and years on the cycle of the sun.
The time from one sunset to the next sunset was one day, and the time required for the earth to make one complete revolution around the sun was one year.
Another way to think of a year is that it’s the time from one vernal (Spring) equinox to the next (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45.51 seconds).
The average duration of a new moon cycle is 29.528 days, so a year of 12 lunar moon cycles (months) would be 354.367 days long; and the calendar year is a solar year, which is 365.242199 days long. Therefore, the ancient Hebrew calendar year sometimes has an intercalary (extra) new moon cycle depending on when the vernal equinox occurs in relation to the new moon closest to its date...
The ancient Hebrew calendar, also known as the Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar system that has been historically used by Jewish communities in Israel and Georgia, among other places. This calendar integrates lunar months with the solar year through a cycle of 12 common months and an extra 13th month in leap years to ensure seasonal alignment.In both Israel and Georgia, the ancient Hebrew calendar played a crucial role in religious and cultural life, marking daily activities and annual festivals in accordance with Jewish tradition.
Check out the ancient Hebrew calendar in Israel and Georgia to learn more.
Calculations of years, months and days in the Gregorian calendar are based on fixed hours equal to 1/24 of a day. The ancient Hebrew’s day (yom) was based on the local time of sunset, and a day went from sunset to sunset and didn’t have a fixed duration. If you’re doing something on a Gregorian calendar day at a time after sunset, you’d be on the next day of the Hebrew calendar. For example, Pesach (Passover) would begin at sunset the day before the date specified as the holy/set-apart day and ends at sunset on the day specified...
Many of the practices included on the contemporary Jewish calendars are the same as those used in ancient times, but there are many differences as well. Our website calendar strictly adheres to the ancient Hebrew Scriptural commands given by the Torah and the Old Testament biblical texts...
The word used for new moon in Hebrew is “rosh chodesh” , which literally means “beginning, head, or renewal” of the moon and thus the beginning or head of the month. It’s a time of spiritual renewal. It is the name for the first day of every new moon in the Hebrew calendar . A new moon is the first lunar phase , when the Moon and Sun have the same ecliptic longitude , therefore the lunar disk is not detectable to the naked eye during this phase, except during a solar eclipse ...
There is no real consensus amongst Biblical scholars on the correct calculation for the start of Creation date. If everyone is using the same Biblical sources, then why isn’t there a consensus on the Creation Timeline duration you might ask?
The duration from Adam’s creation date to the Incarnation of Yahusha (Jesus) used in the ancient Hebrew Scriptures and in the Septuagint, are both around 5500 years to what we call 1 AD...
The process for celebrating a festival or atoning for one’s sin has surely evolved since ancient times. We know the ancient temples were destroyed and that the priests are no longer required to perform burnt offerings, sin offerings or animal sacrifices to atone for our sins. This comes as no surprise, because the Scriptures tell us that the ultimate Pesach lamb came and He will seek atonement for our sins instead of the priests...
The vernal equinox determines the start of the year. Therefore, the year starts in the Spring not in the Winter like with the Gregorian calendar or in the Fall like the present-day Jewish calendar.
We use the Spring equinox to start the New Year, the same as the ancient Hebrews, as stipulated in the Torah and the Old Testament Bibles, which tells us that the Pesach (Passover) Festival occurs during the year’s first new moon cycle.
The first new moon is the last new moon before Pesach...
Chag Asif is celebrated on the 15th day of Chodesh Shvi’i (Seventh New Moon), at the full moon, after the completion of the fall harvest. It is a time where we reap the benefits of all our works, a time of fulfillment, a day to celebrate, rejoice and give thanks for the bounty of the earth. The “Ingathering” refers to the Hebrew farmers gathering the last of their crops at the turn of the year, around the time of the fall equinox.
The Festival of Asif is the first and most significant day of the Festival of Sukkot. It too uses an everyday activity that the people can relate to, gathering the last of the seasonal crops, as the most significant day of the festival...
Chag Matzot is a 7-day long festival that occurs in the Spring. It starts on the evening of the 14th day of Chodesh Rishon (First New Moon), the first month, and ends on the 21st day. It is a moment of birth and newness, a time to rise up. The first day of the Festival of Matzot is a holy set-apart day called the Pesach festival.
The first and last day of the festival are celebrated as holy days with special meals, special prayers services and abstention from all servile work. Pesach is a festival to commemorate the Hebrew people’s emancipation from slavery in Mitsrayim, the time when they rose up against Pharaoh...
The Pesach is a festival to memorialize the night of the Hebrew people’s emancipation from slavery in Mitsrayim (Egypt). It’s the night they left the land of Mitsrayim on their Exodus to the Promised Land, the night that Yahweh unleased His 10th, and final plague.
The Pesach festival re-counts the biblical narrative of when Yahweh “passed over” the homes of Hebrew families who put blood on the doorposts and lintel so that their first-born children would be spared during a plague that killed all the other first-born babies in Egypt...
The Hebrew word shavuot means “weeks” in English. Chag Shavuot is a festival of revelation, which occurs 7 weeks and 1 day (50 days) after Pesach. It falls between May 15 and June 14 on the Gregorian calendar.The 7 days of weeks (49 days) count starts on the 2nd day of the Festival of Matzot, the day after Pesach, and ends the day before the Festival of Shavuot, the 50th day...
Chag Sukkot is celebrated on the 15th day of Chodesh Shvi’i (Seventh New Moon), at the full moon. The Festival of Sukkot lasts 8 days with the first and last day being Shabbat-like holy days where all work is forbidden. During the time of the yearly festival, the congregation of Yisrael had to construct a sukkah (booth) and stay in it for 8 days. The first day of the festival is the set-apart day called the Festival of Asif (Festival of Ingathering), a day of reaping the benefits of all our works. It occurs after the harvest in the fall and is a time of fulfillment and rejoicing. The Festival of Sukkot is one of 3 pilgrimage festivals appointed by the Scriptures and is the only festival associated with an explicit commandment to rejoice...
Yom Teruah begins on the first day of Chodesh Shv’i (Seventh New Moon) and is a Shabbat like day and all work is forbidden. It is the only festival celebrated at the beginning of the month. The only one celebrated in a time of darkness. Yom Teruah is a feast of beginning and literally means a “Day of Shouting or Blasting”. This word can describe the noise made by a shophar or trumpet, but also describes the noise made by a large gathering of people shouting in unison...