Liturgical Year - Biblical Calendars

Biblical Calendars

Scholars are not in agreement about whether the calendars used by the Jews before the Babylonian captivity were solar (based on the return of the same relative position between the sun and the earth) or lunisolar (based on months that corresponded to the cycle of the moon, with periodic additional months to bring the calendar back into agreement with the solar cycle) like the present-day Hebrew calendar. ` The first month of the year was called אביב (Aviv), meaning the month of green ears of grain. It thus occurred in the spring.

At about the time of the Babylonian captivity, the Jews adopted as the name for the month the term ניסן (Nisan), based on the Babylonian name Nisanu. Thomas J Talley says that the adoption of the Babylonian term occurred even before the captivity.

In the earlier calendar, most of the months were simply called by a number (such as "the fifth month"). The Babylonian-derived names of the months currently used by Jews are:

1. Nisan (March–April)
2. Iyar (April–May)
3. Sivan (May–June)
4. Tammuz (June–July)
5. Av (July–August)
6. Elul (August–September)
7. Tishrei (September–October)
8. Cheshvan (October–November)
9. Kislev (November–December)
10. Tevet (December–January)
11. Shevat (January–February)
12. Adar (February–March)

In Biblical times, the following Jewish religious feasts were celebrated :

• Pesach (Passover) – 14 Nisan/Abib (sacrifice of a lamb), 15 Nisan/Abib (Passover seder)
• Shavuot (Pentecost) – Fiftieth day counted from Passover, normally 6 Sivan
• "Day of Blowing Shofar/Trumpet" (now known as Rosh Hashanah) – 1 Tishrei
• Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) – 10 Tishrei
• Sukkot (Tabernacles) – 15 Tishrei
• Hanukkah (Dedication or Lights) – 25 Kislev (instituted in 164 BC)
• Purim (Lots) – 14 Adar (instituted c. 400 BC)