The Jewish Calendar

The Jewish Calendar ostensibly counts years from the creation of the world (according to the timeline provided by the Torah), although it is acknowledged that the six "days" of creation could have lasted anywhere from thousands to billions of years. Once the reckoning of days and years begins, however, Jews consider the year that began this past Rosh Hashanah (in September 2003) to be year 5764.

The Jewish year begins on Rosh Hashanah, ostensibly the month in which the world was created (technically, according to the Torah, this actually occurred in the "seventh month" of the Jewish calendar; the "first month" is in the spring, but the "New Year" is in the fall).

The Jewish year is divided into twelve lunar months (each new month begins at the new moon, approximately every 29 days). Because the lunar month is shorter than the solar year, a rabbinic leader in the fourth-century devised a luni-solar calendar that corrects for "drift" in the position of festivals (otherwise, a "spring" festival would, after several years, be celebrated in the summer; this is the case in the strictly lunar Islamic calendar). Over the course of a 19-year cycle, an intercalary "leap month" is added seven times (yes, it is confusing).

Because the calendar is still basically a lunar calendar, however, Jewish festivals still migrate according to the solar calendar. For instance: in 2003 (Jewish year 5763), the New Year was celebrated on September 27; in 2002 (Jewish year 5762), the New Year was celebrated on September 7; in 2004 (Jewish year 5764), the New Year will be celebrated on September 16.

In the Jewish calendar, the "day" starts at sundown: therefore, a festival that begins "on" September 7 actually begins at sundown on September 6 and concludes at sundown on September 7.

For an interactive calendar of Jewish festival dates and calendar conversions, click here.

The Jewish calendar is punctuated by holy days of varying degrees of ritual observance. These festivals provide a regular rhythm to the Jewish year: when Jews lived in relative social isolation (either in their own land, or restricted and disenfranchised in the premodern Diaspora), the weekly, monthly, and annual rhythms of festival observance would structure time for a whole community. Since Jews have become more integrated into "non-Jewish" societies, there are often a variety of negotiations that must occur between "secular" life (structured by different calendars) and "religious" life.

REGULAR RITUALS

Some rituals recur regularly and repeatedly throughout the Jewish year.

ANNUAL FESTIVALS

Other rituals occur only once in a Jewish year. These annual festivals can be divided up into three major categories according to their relative significance (see the accompanying pie chart): the New Year's Cycle, the most important festivals in the Jewish calendar; the Pilgrimage Festivals (so-called because they used to entail ritual pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem); and the minor festivals, including historical festivals and fast days. Not all Jews celebrate all of these festivals, nor do they all celebrate them in the same way. Various factors--including the influence of dominant culture calendrical observances--often lead some of these festivals to be celebrated more than others, or in ways other than according to traditional rabbinic observance.

New Year's Festivals

Pilgrimage Festivals

In the Torah, three festivals are designated as "pilgrimage festivals," during which time all Israelites who were able were commanded to travel to Jerusalem and participate in ritual sacrifices at the Temple there. Each pilgrimage festival was originally associated with a lull in the agricultural cycle that would allow farmers to leave their homes for a time; each festival lasts eight days. Additionally, each festival gained historical significance in the story of God and Israel surrounding the Exodus from Egypt; some of these associations are already found in the Torah, some came later in Jewish history. Most of the festival activities associated with the "pilgrimage festivals" are domestic, located among the family in the home and not in the synagogue.

Minor Festivals

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