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The Jewish calendar
The 'Calendar of Gezer' (tenth century BCE), mentioning the seasons and the farmer's activities. Archaeological museum, Istanbul (Turkey).
The Gezer calendar
(Archaeological museum,
Istanbul; ©!!!)
 The Jewish year consists of twelve months of each 29 or 30 days. A regular year, therefore, has 354 days and is about 11 days shorter than the solar year. Therefore, eight extra ('intercalary') months are added in a nineteen-year cycle. The system was adopted from the Babylonian calendar.
 
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
   
X
    
X
  
X
    
X
    
X
    
X
  
X

(The years with an X are years with a second Adar, and had, therefore, 383 days.) This calendar was c.360 CE introduced by patriarch Hillel II. In earlier centuries, intercalation was probably irregular, but it is not likely that this caused great discrepancies between the official and the solar calendar. After all, there were many religious festivals that were related to natural phenomena (e.g., the offering of the firstfruits of barley on 16 Nisan), and the authorities responsible for the intercalation had to keep the festivals in mind.

The sect at Qumran had another calendar that was designed to make sure that Passover would never be on a Sabbath.

The Jews have two ways of counting their months. In the sacred calendar, Nisan is the first month (column 1); in the civil calendar, New Year is celebrated on Tishri 1 (column 2). The third column gives the names of the months and the number of days; the fourth column mentions their equivalent in the common, western calendar. Column five gives the names of the most important religious festivals. The last column mentions the natural phenomena.

In the first centuries of the common era, the Jews discerned five seasons: harvest, hot season, seed time, winter and cold season.

  
1
2
Month
Julian calendar
Festivals
Natural phenomena
1
7
 Nisan
30 days		 March/April 14. Passover (Pesahim)
16. Firstfruits of barley		 Fall of the latter spring rains
Barley ripe
2
8
 Iyyar
29 days		 April/May 14. Second Passover (Pesahim) Barley harvest
Wheat ripens
3
9
 Sivan
30 days		 May/June 6. Feast of Weeks (Shawu'ot)
Firstfruits of wheat		 Wheat harvest.
Begin of the summer (no rain until September)
4
10
 Tammuz
29 days		 June/July   Heat increases
5
11
 Ab
30 days		 July/August   The streams dry up; heat intense
6
12
 Elul
29 days		 August/September   Vintage
General grape harvest
7
1
 Tishri
30 days		 September/October 1. New Year (Rosh Hashanah); Feast of Trumpets
10. Day of Atonement (Yoma)
15-23. Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkah)
Firstfruits of wine and oil		 Early rains
Plowing and sowing begins
8
2
 Marheshvan
29 days		 October/November   Continuous rain
Wheat and barley sown
Vintage in Galilee
9
3
 Kislev
30 days		 November/December 25. Feast of Dedication (Chanukah) Begin of winter. Snow on the mountains
10
4
 Tebeth
29 days		 December/January   Coldest month; hail, snow.
11
5
 Shebat
30 days		 January/February   Weather becomes warmer
12
6
 Adar
29 days		 February/March 14. Feast of Purim (Megillah) Thunder and hail frequent
Almond trees blossom
 
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