The Jewish Old Testament is not the same as the calendar currently used around the world. A basic understanding of the Old Testament calendar provides insight into how God's Holy Days are linked to the calendar. In the Gregorian year 2008 it is 5767-5768 in the Jewish calendar calculated by adding up the ages of people in the Bible back to the time of creation. 5767 began in the fall of 2007. In the Jewish calendar a day is determined by the rotation of the Earth about its axis; a month by the revolution of the moon about the Earth and a year by the revolution of the Earth about the sun. These three act independently of each other. On average, the moon revolves around the Earth in about 29½ days, that is, about 12.4 lunar months each year.

This link takes you to the main article on time.

Months were used since before the flood.

The Bible actually states that the lights that God gave were to determine seasons (or more literally according to Strong's) appointments or fixed time.

This would include the time period we call months. The Jewish calendar seeks to maintain a direct correlation with the actual heavenly calendar system set in force by the heavenly lights. Months are either 29 or 30 days and generally alternate, corresponding to the 29 ^½ day lunar cycle. Years are counted in months; either 12 or 13 months, corresponding to the 12.4 month solar cycle.

The calendar that is in use by most of the world today is called the Gregorian Calendar. It does not seek to follow the moon but to maintain a precise year. In the Gregorian calendar used by most of the world, the length of months is set to 28, 30 or 31 days without regard to the actual beginning or ending of a month being defined by the moon. Hence, in the Jewish calendar a month begins with a new moon, while this is not necessarily so in the Gregorian calendar.

The month on the Hebrew calendar begins when the first sliver of moon becomes visible after the dark of the moon. This is how it would have been done at the time of Moses and the Exodus. At the time of Christ, when people observed the new moon, they would notify the Sanhedrin and when the Sanhedrin received the word of two independent, reliable eyewitnesses they would declare the first of the month and send out messengers to tell people.

The first month of the Jewish calendar is the month of Nisan, in the spring, when Passover occurs but, the Jewish New Year is in Tishri, the seventh month, and that is when the year number is incremented. Note that, at all other times the Bible refers to months by number, not by name. The present names are Babylonian, brought back from the Babylonian captivity during the time of Ezra.

The Jewish calendar has the following months:

Note that the number of days between Nisan and Tishri is always the same. There is no manipulation of the days here, simply alternating the length of the months because of the lunar month. This means that the time from the first major festival (Passover in Nisan) to the last major festival (Tabernacles in Tishri) is always the same. This is maintained annually and any adjustments for years are implemented by the use of leap years and two latter months that vary in length.

The Biblical Passover always falls on the full moon following the first new moon after the northern hemisphere vernal (spring) equinox.

According to Wikipedia: An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the Sun being vertically above a point on the Equator .

This table shows a list of Jewish feast days corresponding to New Testament Holy Days

Although some people believe that Sukkot is eight days, actually Sukkot/Booths is really seven days ending on the 21^st and the eighth day is Sh’mini Atzeret (literally, the assembly of the eighth day) and is a separate feast but follows consecutively.

God was smart he put the feasts in the spring and autumn so that whether you are in the northern or southern hemisphere you can celebrate at the same time. If they were in summer in one hemisphere then the other would be in winter.

The Start of the Year

The Jews actually have two New Years. Rosh Hashanah, the official Jewish New Year's Day, is celebrated on the 1^st day of Tishri (the seventh month) but Nisan is counted as the first month of the religious year. The Bible never calls the first day of the present Jewish year Rosh Hashanah, it is always Yom Hazikaron, the day of remembrance.

One thing that the Bible does mention is that the exodus from Egypt was in the month of Aviv, literally the month of spring, but many believe that Abib/Aviv was the ancient name of that month corresponding to Nisan. Remember however that God referred to all other months only by number therefore it is questionable whether He would refer to this one by name.

According to the scriptures, this was to be the first month of the year

The Jews have recorded this fact accurately yet they do not do it.

How the Present Jewish Calendar Came to Be

It takes the moon 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and a fraction, to go from one new moon to the next so most Jewish months alternate between 29 and 30 days. The exceptions are Cheshvan and Kislev which may be 29 or 30 days long to help adjust for those 44 minutes and other discrepancies.

Biblical months are determined by the new moon. The year is determined by the seasons and the revolution of the Earth around the Sun. In each revolution there are approximately 12.4 lunar months (new moons). A 12-month lunar calendar is short by .4 months (about 11 days) every year and a 13-month lunar calendar is over by .6 months (about 19 days) every year. If either (the 12 or the 13) is chosen exclusively it would cause months to fall in different seasons as time goes by, drifting forward by 11 days or back by 19. The Jews use 12 months as the basic year and a leap year with 13 months to periodically make the adjustment. The Sanhedrin controlled this by seeking to maintain the integrity of Passover. If the observed seasonal conditions (the crops, especially barley) were not consistent with spring then the Sanhedrin extended the calendar year by one month to make sure that Passover (referred to in the Torah as Chag he-Aviv, the Festival of spring) would occur in the spring. The additional month is inserted before Adar and called Adar I, Adar Rishon or Adar Alef. The regular month of Adar is then called Adar II, Adar Sheini or Adar Beit.

Almost 1,000 years before the time of Christ (actually by the 9^th century BCE) after centuries of observations, Babylonian astronomers concluded that in a cycle of 19 years of 12 lunar months each, if you added 7 more months, you returned almost exactly to the same season. Today this system is known as the Metonic cycle, because the Greek astronomer Meton introduced it in Athens in the year 432 BCE, at least 400 years after it was discovered by the Babylonians.

The current method of calculating the Jewish calendar was established in 358/359 by Hillel II. His mathematical formula is in harmony with the astronomical considerations of the Bible for months, years and seasons because he had devised a periodic means of adding the 7 months. This calendar standardized the length of months and the addition of months over the course of a 19-year cycle. Adar I is added in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years of the cycle. The cycle that began Jewish year 5,758 began on October 2, 1997.

Additional rules for the calculation of the leap year were created for convenience. Atonement (Yom Kippur) should not fall adjacent to the Sabbath, because this would cause difficulties in coordinating the fast with the Sabbath, and the Feast of Tabernacles (Hoshanah Rabbah or Feast of Booths) should not begin on Saturday in order to facilitate the holiday's observances. A day is either added to the month of Cheshvan or subtracted from the month of Kislev of the previous year to prevent these things from happening. There is no Biblical reference for these embellishments and they would have come with the establishment of a formal calendar. I have seen no record of when the practices began but the actual calendar came about through the patriarch Hillel, as mentioned earlier, in order to preserve the unity of Israel. This would be over 300 years after the time of Christ.

By and large the Jews maintain a month as God created a month (determined by the moon). It is impossible therefore to avoid counting in determining the dates of the Feasts but this basic counting appears to be ignored nowadays because the lengths of the months are fixed in the modern calendar. When you begin the months by observation a month can end up being 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 or even 32 days long because of human error in sighting. There is also no way to predict how long the next month will be. This need for counting is lost in a calendar with fixed months.

God Knew His Calendar

Let us take a quick look at God's instructions about how to keep time and see if He knew what He was talking about.

The point here is that from all evidence the new moon was the beginning of the month (new month), month and moon being interchangeable in practice. Consequently a new year would begin with a new moon (new month). When the bible says Exodus 12:2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. [KJV]; God actually said This moon...the beginning of moons.... That is not to say that the Hebrew word kodesh which literally means month and is the word used in Exodus 12, is  the same as the Hebrew word yarach which means moon. Nevertheless, since Moses wrote Genesis too, it is evident that Kodesh has always meant New Moon. God gave no months of defined length, just moons, because He created a moon with phases. Mankind introduced months and began them however they chose.

God said that the lights were to govern the times, and the time period that we call months is regulated by the moon. It became obvious that the seasons and years were governed by the sun. We know that a solar year is close to 365.25 days and a lunar month is approximately 29.5 days. By adding 1 day every four years of 365 days we adjust for the 0.25 year and by alternating between 29 and 30 days per month we balance out the discrepancy in months. But how do we harmonise the months with the years since each year must begin on a new month, i.e. a New Moon? In the table below I let the solar year end with 365 days (or 366 days in a leap year) of alternating 29 and 30 days in a month. Then I begin a new year at the next New Moon assuming it will be 29 days away from the beginning of the last New Moon if the last month had 30 days, or 30 days away if the last month had 29 days. The ancient Babylonians knew that 19 years was important for this and it probably was passed on from the flood. Let us put this into practice and see what happens. The table below is NOT a Hillel calendar and NOT an example of the Metonic Cycle, just a personal rendition of the information to demonstrate the principle of the Metonic Cycle. The table is intended to show an approximation of how the Metonic Cycle works. The Metonic Cycle repeats in year 20 every 235 lunations (cycle of the moon going through all its phases). My system is off somewhat due to a lack of accuracy. A true solar year is not 365¼ days but roughly 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds while a true synodic month averages 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 3 seconds not 29.5 days. In the Metonic Cycle the arithmetic is (12×12) + (7×13) = 235 months in the 19 years with no extra days, because there are 12 regular years of 12 months, and 7 leap years of 13 months. Hillel used a more complicated and perhaps more accurate system than mine. It disregarded making a year 365 or 366 days but ensured that it was 12 months long except for in leap years. He periodically added an extra month to a year giving it 13 months and called that a leap year.

Basics for a solar year:

• solar year will be based on 365¼ days
• each series of years will begin with 3 years of 365 days
• the series will end with 1 year of 366 days to compensate for the four ¼ days lost

Basics for a lunar month:

• lunar month will be based on 29½ days
• each series of months will be 2 months
• each series will begin with a month of 29 days
• each series will end with a month of 30 days to compensate for the ½ days

Basics for God's year:

• each year will begin with the first lunar month of the solar year
• the year will have no predefined end

In the table below the Solar year ends at 365 days or 366 in a leap year. There is no effort to make God's year any specific length of time just to make sure that it begins with the first new moon following the end of the Solar year. That keeps the year beginning in the spring. In an accurate calendar the end of the final month of the 19^th year would coincide with the end of a lunar month so that the next year, year number 20, would start with 0 days to the next new moon

You can see that in my table the final month of the 19^th year is 7 days long.

My table can be improved upon by examining the effects of my lack of precision.

• A synodic month = 29.530588 days, but I used 29.5 i.e. 0.030588 ( 29.530588 - 29.5 ) less than the requirement.
  
• A solar year is 365.24217 days on average, but I used 365.25 i.e. 0.00783 ( 365.25 - 365.24217 ) more than the requirement
  
• 19 solar years = 365.24217×19 = 6939.60123 days
• 19 solar years = 6939.60123 ÷ 29.530588 = 234.997055595 i.e. 235 synodic months
• in 19 solar years of whole synodic months there are 235 × 29.530588 = 6939.68818 days
• 19 years of alternating months in my table is:
  15 x 365 = 5475 days {for the 15 years with 365 days}
  + 4 x 366 = 1464 days {for the 4 leap years of 366 days}
  TOTAL = 5475 + 1464 = exactly 6939 days
• 6939 {my days in the 19 years} ÷ 29.5 {days in my month} = 235.220338983 which exceeds the true 234.997055595 by (235.220338983 - 234.997055595) = 0.223283388 months
  
• 0.223283388 {the excess months in my table}x 29.5 {the estimate that I used for one month}= 6.586859946 days approximately 7 days over estimate
  
• That means the the last 7 days in my table causes it to exceed the true value and should not be there since they only exist because of an error in precision.

By removing the last seven days my table will repeat in year 20 as it should for the Metonic Cycle but year 19 will be 358 days not 365. That brings us to the 235 lunations required and causes the lunar cycles and solar cycles of the table to be perfectly in sync for the beginning of the next 19-year cycle. There is a fundamental flaw in the metonic cycle. 12 lunar months is 11 days short of a solar year. This means that over time the months drift backwards through the year in relation to the seasons. By constantly adjusting each year to start with a new moon and by using leap years every 4 years, much of this shifting is eliminated.

I did not do anything fancy to determine the 235 lunations, I just counted the end of months in each year. A month ends on 29 or 30 days.

Rounding off numbers created errors in precision. I have made my adjustment at the end of the 19 years but Hilllel spread out his rounding error by adjusting seven times over the 19 years. There is therefore no problem with implementing God's year within a solar year provided you know when the month begins. Just before Israel left Egypt God told them This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you (Exodus 12:2 [KJV]). It was the month of Abib/Aviv.

In the season of Unleavened Bread.

All of the other Feasts are fixed in relation to this month. God never said when to end the year but He did give instructions to start the new one with a new moon (new month). We know that the year is more than 12 months long but less than 13. The calendar above harmonises exactly every 19 years! It was created by following God's instructions. It takes into account the shifting because of the lunar month and solar year to show when the new moons would actually appear. It starts over every 19 years. Notice that the leap years (the years with 366 days) occur in a natural cycle of 4 years. This is why the Julian calendar added a day every 4 years to make a leap year. The Gregorian calendar, which is the one in use today, has continued this practice.

God knew what He was doing when He told us how to establish the New Year. By His method we do not have to know precisely when the previous year ended but once we know that it has ended we simply find the first New Moon of the new year. It is also easy to re-establish. All we need to do is find the spring equinox and I will show an example of that later.

How the modern Jewish Calendar works

The 19 year time cycle is called the Metonic Cycle. It is repeated every 19 years which is 235 lunations, or synodic months. Synodic means pertaining to a synod, i.e., a meeting which in this case is a meeting of the Sun and the Moon (which is about 30 days). That is one kind of Lunar month and another is the sidereal month (which is about 28 days). The sidereal month is the time it takes the moon to circle the Earth and return to its original position if the Earth did not spin. If the Earth did not spin then the moon would be again in the exact spot over the Earth in a sidereal month. The problem is that the Earth does spin. To calculate the sidereal month we only need the Earth and the Moon technically, but in practice we need the background stars to map the original position of the moon. The synodic month requires the Earth, the Moon and the Sun. It is the cycle which brings the Earth the Moon and the Sun back to a previous alignment and is observed by the Moon going through all of its phases. During each Metonic Cycle the Moon’s phases recur on the same days of the solar year (e.g. a new moon on the 28^th of February will again be on the 28^th of February 19 years later). The Jewish calendar uses repeats of a Metonic Cycle where they add an extra lunar month once every two or three years, for a total of seven times every nineteen years.

Hebrew dates are recorded in molads (about 29 days, 12 hours). Molad is a Hebrew word meaning birth and so generically applies to the time at which the New Moon is born. The actual length of a synodic month varies from about 29 days 6 hours and 30 minutes (29.27 days) to about 29 days and 20 hours (29.83 days), a range in time of about 13 hours and 30 minutes. For the sake of simplicity the Hebrew calendar uses a long-term average month-length but it is derived from an ancient standard. It is the mean (or average) synodic month of ancient times (also called the molad interval) which is 29 days, 12 hours, and 793 parts.One part = 1/18 minute; 3 parts = 10 seconds; which makes a molad to be 29.530594 days. This value is as close to the correct value of 29.530589 days as it is possible to be when rounded off to whole parts. The discrepancy makes the molad interval about 0.6 seconds too long. Anno mundi is Latin for in the year of the world, the Latin name for the year dating from the year of creation in Jewish chronology, based on rabbinic calculations. Creation is assumed to have been in Tishri, and the second molad Tishri (the beginning of the second month of Tishri) was on the day on which Adam was created, Friday at 8:00 a.m., in Year 2 Anno Mundi. Jewish days begin around 6:00 p.m. According to their tradition there was a molad (equivalent to a New Moon) at exactly 14 hours (i.e. 8:00 a.m.) on the Friday of Creation, the time that Adam was created. Adding the standard interval 29 days, 12 hours, 793 chalakim to the original molad marks the start of the next molad and repeating the process establishes subsequent molads. A molad is defined in the form xd xh xp where d= days, h= hours and p=part/chalakim, one minute is about 18 parts. The molad of Tishri 5759 occurred at 2d 12h 1005p (using 6:00 p.m. as the zero hour), and corresponded to the Gregorian date September 21, 1998.

According to Wikipedia:

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The Molad Epoch

The traditional epoch of the cycle was 5 hours 11 minutes and 20 seconds after the mean sunset (considered to be 6 hours before mean midnight) at the epoch of the Hebrew calendar (first eve of Tishrei of Hebrew year 1). The traditional source for this moment is as follows:[3]

• Adam, the first man, was considered to have seen the first lunar crescent at the start of the 9th hour of the daytime on the 6th day of Creation (20 hours from the sunset that started that date), when God commanded him never to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. The days of Creation are traditionally considered to have been the final days of Hebrew year 1, so this observation sanctified the month of Tishrei of year 2.
  
• Traditionally, assuming that the lunar conjunction was 6 hours earlier, the moment of the molad of the month of Tishrei of Hebrew year 2 was at the start of the 3rd hour of the daytime on Friday (14 hours from the sunset that started that date).
  
• The molad of Tishrei of Hebrew year 1 was considered to have occurred 12 lunar months earlier, where each lunar month equals the traditional molad interval.
  
• A single molad interval is 1 day 12 hours 793 parts in excess of a whole number of weeks, so the excess from 12 molad intervals is 4 days 8 hours 876 parts.
• Therefore the molad epoch was on (6 days 14 hours) – (4 days 8 hours 876 parts) = 2nd day 5 hours 204 parts.

The molad epoch is known by the name BeHaRad, which is an acronym based on the Hebrew letters beit = 2 for the 2nd day, hey = 5 for the 5th hour, and resh daled = 200 + 4 = 204 parts.

the editors of WikipediaMoladWikipedia The Free Encyclopediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molad07:43, 19 January 2023‎

I found a more detailed explanation of how the Jewish calendar works at https://www.franknelte.net/article.php?article_id=57 called Data File for Determining the Jewish Calendar by Frank W. Nelte. It brings out a key point that I try to make. The Jewish calendar is based on molads not on applying the principles set out by God for observation. When they do correspond it is by coincidence. God says that the year begins in Spring but the Jewish year actually begins in fall at the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh-Hashanah) because that is when they increment the year number. The Jews work out their year in molads according to the metonic cycle developed by Hillel.

Some Words of Caution

Modern-day Judaism does not allow Pesach (Passover) to be on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday (see wikipedia article Days of week on Hebrew calendar, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_week_on_Hebrew_calendar). This is because of adjustments to the year to prevent Yom Kippur (Atonement) and Hoshana Rabbah (the last day of of Sukkot) from falling on Sabbaths. It would cause problems with their requirements for celebrating this and other festivals which are determined by using the Hillel II calendar that was implemented in the fourth century. I find the situation very difficult to work around since it requires an understanding of what the Jewish authorities call gates for the calendar and how they have been applied. There are some practical reasons given for the gates: (1) the arrangement is used in order to average out the difference between the mean and true lunar conjunctions; (2) If corpses are allowed to remain unburied for three days then they would putrefy. Refrigeration makes (2) no longer applicable but some arrangement would have to deal with (1). As long as the present one is not being abused then I cannot pass judgement except to say that there is a better way. The ancient way of determining months introduced human error since it was done by observation, so it was not perfect then but God still accepted it. There is always an error and we should do what we can to reduce it. So let us look some more at these gates.

Yom Kippur (Atonement), which falls on 10 Tishrei is not allowed to fall on a Friday or Sunday, So that two Sabbaths do not come back to back. Hoshana Rabbah (the seventh and last day of Sukkot), which falls on 21 Tishrei is not allowed to fall on a Saturday so that the rituals of that day which involve work can be carried out. It also has the benefit that the day after the 7^th and final day of Sukkot, Sh’mini Atzeret (literally, the assembly of the eighth day), which is also a Sabbath and a separate feast, does not run consecutively with a Sabbath. To accomplish this the days in Cheshvan and/or Kislev are adjusted so that Rosh Hashanah (the Feast of Trumpets), which falls on 1 Tishrei, does not fall on a Wednesday or Friday.  This leaves only four days on which Rosh Hashanah is allowed to fall: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, which are also referred to as the four gates.

There are drawbacks to this approach. For example in gate 1, which occurs about 32% of the time, Yom Kippur (literally Day of Atonement) occurs on Saturday. To those like me the ethos of Fasting conflicts with the Sabbath Rest. Having this occur 32% of the time instead of 1/7th (14%) is not desirable. For the most part I find the other drawbacks insignificant. The question is how does God see it and does it put us out of step with Him? As a practical matter I see no alternative available than to use the Jewish calendar if you cannot calculate it yourself. You have no way of knowing when the year should actually begin, if it was continuously calculated according to the requirements of the Torah without adjustment or otherwise. So far I have not been able to find a Hillel type calendar that is not adjusted to present the four gates. In addition arguing about accuracy is meaningless without an accurate place to start. Do we start with the first Jewish molad or something else? The molad of Tishri 5759 occurred at 2d 12h 1005p (using 6:00 p.m. as the zero hour), corresponding to September 21, 1998, do we start with that? Do we start with the new moons in Israel or with those at our home? Until I can resolve things like that I am forced to rely on doing the best that I can with the available Jewish calendar.

Beginning the Calendar from Scratch

Considering all that was said, is it possible to begin the calendar from scratch to see if other calendars comply with God's instructions? Can we just ignore Hillel and the Jews? That was my problem. How would I know when to begin the year in Spring? God did not give any obvious instructions on calculating spring from an easily identifiable event and so we have to make an assumption. My assumption is that it begins with the Spring Equinox. The Spring Equinox is when the days of the new year begin to be longer than the nights. That proposition is defended in another article linking Passover and Shavuot. According to what I have read the Jewish method typically corresponds to selecting the day of the new religious year as the day after the New Moon closest to the Spring Equinox. Since Jewish months are normally 29 or 30 days that puts it within fifteen days before or after the Spring Equinox. The Spring Equinox is when the length of daylight and the night is exactly equal and the Jewish month connected with this is the month of Aviv. Bear in mind however that the Jewish calendar is calculated from Molads and not the Vernal Equinox. It is also adjusted for such things as the four gates.

The origin of Aviv, literally ear of grain, is the Hebrew word av, literally translated as father. This is why it is seen as the first month, or father of months, of ripening grain. It is related to the Hebrew word ābhībh, also literally, ear of grain. The plagues in Egypt were: water turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hail , locusts, darkness, and killing of the firstborn. We use the plague of hail to confirm that when Israel left Egypt it was Spring time. Shortly before they left there was the plague of hail at which time it was said:

Aviv in modern Hebrew means spring consequently the Israeli city of Tel Aviv means Spring Hill or Spring Mound . The consensus of definitions that I have found confirm that the word Aviv means Spring. The difficulty comes with identifying what month was considered the month of Spring to the Jew and what marks the beginning of that month. One thing for sure is the New Moon. Outside of that the ancients linked it to the ripening of barley. I quoted Exodus 9:31 above where it says . . . for the barley was in the ear . Ear is translated from Mickelson's Enhanced Strong's Dictionaries of the Greek and Hebrew Testaments as:

H24 'abiyb'

1. green, i.e. a young ear of grain.

2. (hence) the name of the month Abib or Nisan.

[from an unused root (meaning to be tender)

]KJV: Abib, ear, green ears of corn (not maize).

The barley was grown but green. It was too young to pick when the hail came. I am satisfied that the precise determinant and anchor of that ripening season is the Spring Equinox. The Bible says nothing of the equinox. What it does talk about is barley and generally abiyb defined above as young ears of grain. I mentioned Exodus 13:4 and Deuteronomy 16:1 above and to these I add the following:

Astronomy 101

But was that the only way? Noah knew when to begin the year without a plant in sight and so did Israel wandering in the wilderness. Ripening of barley is very imprecise and subject to climate changes like drought. I propose that the ancients knew that time apart from the barley and would still know it in times of drought or famine. Drought and famine occurred in the days of David (2 Samuel 21:1), Elijah (1 Kings 18:2), Elisha (2 Kings 4:38), Haggai (Haggai 1:11), and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 5:3). Other natural forces also devastated crops and caused famines: locusts, wind, hail, and mildew (Joel 1:4; Amos 4:9; Haggai 2:17). In these times there would be no barley harvest. One distinctive and consistent way of determining a year is by the solstice and another is by the equinox and these are both results of the tilt of the Earth while it orbits the Sun. Earth orbits the sun and its axis is tilted at about 23.5 degrees (23.5°). The tilt is not relative to the Sun. The tilt is not the type where the bottom is always closest to the sun or the top is always closest as though one end was tied to the sun with a string. Instead the axis maintains the same angle relative to its original position i.e. it is always tilted the same way with respect to the background stars. Due to this axial tilt, the sun shines on different latitudes at different angles throughout the year, because for half of the year the bottom is closest to the Sun and for the other half the top is closest. This causes the seasons. The earth spins like a top as it proceeds to complete its orbit around the sun once each year. All the while it remains tilted at an angle of 23½° north to south or top to bottom. At the Winter Solstice the bottom is closest to the sun, by the Vernal Equinox (Spring Equinox) it is tilted sideways to the Sun so neither the top nor bottom is closest to the Sun. By the Summer Solstice the top or north is closest to the Sun. Finally, by the Fall/Autumn Equinox it becomes tilted sideways to the Sun again and this is repeated year by year. That tilt is why the seasons depend on which pole you are closest to. We have summer (longer, hotter days) when that pole is closest to the sun, winter (shorter, colder days) when that pole is farthest from the sun and moderate days when it is tilted sideways and therefore neither end is closest to the sun.

The sun rises and sets only once a year at the poles. If that is how we measure a day then, midnight and mid-day each come only once a year at the North and South Poles. Everywhere else has short days and long days during the year and the solstice is associated with the longest and shortest days. On the equator the tilt has little effect because it is mid-way between the poles. The Earth does not go around the Sun in a circle but in an ellipse something close to an egg shape. It is only off from a circle very slightly but it is enough to matter. Imagine that the sun is the yolk of an egg then the Earth's orbit would be traced out on the shell. At the pointed end it would be farthest from the sun while it would be closest at the blunt end. Basing observations on the Northern Hemisphere produces some counter intuitive results. The Earth is closest to the Sun in winter, about two weeks after the December solstice. This is also known as the Winter Solstice because it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere. As you might expect the Earth is farthest away from the Sun  in the summer of the  Northern Hemisphere. It occurs at two weeks after the June solstice, a.k.a the Summer solstice, because it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Of course they would all make more sense if the reference was the Southern hemisphere where the seasons are the converse. The solstice is when we are farthest from the Sun on the path of the Earth. It makes sense to measure it from the equator because the equator is least affected by the tilt and passes through the average distance from the sun throughout the year. Also the solstice is about short days and long days but the poles do not have days, just one day per year, while the equator has them most evenly balanced.

The equinox is midway between the extremes of the the solstice in the cycle of distance between the Earth and the Sun. God determines His year by the Spring Equinox, and it occurs on average about March 21 in the Northern hemisphere (Sept 23 in the Southern hemisphere). He has determined that Spring starts in the Northern Hemisphere and even the technical term vernal equinox reflects that. The equinox refers to two moments in the year (one in Spring and one in Autumn) when the Sun is exactly above the Equator and day and night are exactly equal in length. For most people we would just have to accept the times for the equinox published by some scientific institution like NASA. That solves one part of the problem. The other problem is that we have three options for calculating the New year when using the New Moon and the equinox. When the New Moon comes exactly on the equinox all three methods coincide. When they do not we can decide (i) that the correct New Moon is the one closest to the equinox as the Jews seem to do, (ii) we can always chose the New Moon that is closest but earlier than the equinox, or (iii) we can always select the one that is later but closest to the equinox. It seems like we need to trust the Jews that they have maintained a consistent practice approved by God.

So we need the phases of the New Moon for God's months and these are similar to eclipses, but New Moons are not eclipses. The new moon phase is not the same as an eclipse. There are two types of eclipse: Solar eclipse and Lunar eclipse. The information on eclipses in the table below was taken from the web page Lunar and Solar Eclipses https://stardate.org/nightsky/eclipses , on the stardate.org website and I believe is from the perspective of the United States. For 2023 this was:

A solar eclipse occurs at NEW MOON (a black moon) when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, fully or partially obscuring the Sun from view. We can obviously only see a solar eclipse during the day because we have to be looking towards the sun. It can take several hours for the Moon to pass in front of the Sun, but the moment of total eclipse (called totality) lasts only a maximum of seven minutes and 32 seconds. The period of totality varies because the apparent size the Moon relative to the Sun changes depending on their distances from Earth, which in turn depends on Earth's orbit. There are two to five solar eclipses each year but from these only one might be a total solar eclipse since total solar eclipses are about 18 months apart. Whether you can view that eclipse depends on where you are in the world because the total eclipse lasts only minutes, but it takes hours for the moon to completely pass before the sun.

A lunar eclipse occurs at FULL MOON when the Moon passes through Earth's shadow cast by the Sun, so the Moon becomes darkened by the shadow of the Earth. It is a night time occurrence because we must be on the shadow side of the Earth to see the shadow falling on the moon overhead. A total lunar eclipse lasts a few hours, with totality itself usually averaging anywhere from about 30 minutes to over an hour. This is due to the large relative size of Earth to the Moon (the Moon's diameter is only about 2,150 miles compared to 7,917.5 miles for the Earth) so the shadow over the Moon is very large.

The Moon orbits the Earth but it does not spin relative to the Earth. The moon rotates on its axis (6.68°) but the moon's rate of rotation (the spin) nearly matches its orbital period (its travel around the Earth), so it compensates for the effect of the spin, and that causes the same side to always face the Earth. If the moon did not spin we would see the other side of the moon but the moon slowly spins so as to show the same side to the earth as it turns. From our perspective it is as though that side was tied to the centre of the Earth with a string that passes through the Earth. The Moon does a revolution from one side of the Earth to the other, i.e. east to west, and at an angle ranging from of 5° above to 5° below the Ecliptic. Imagine a straight line from the Earth to the Sun at every point in the Earth's orbit, that is the Ecliptic. Because of its orbit, as the Moon circles the earth it steadily goes from its position above or below the ecliptic and back to its starting point during its rotation. It is therefore closer to the North Pole half of the month and closer to the South Pole for the other half. The Earth and the Moon form a system that is moving around the Sun. As the Earth spins on its orbit we see the Moon rise and set as the Moon passes in and out of view each day from the area where we are standing. If we observe the system from the direction of one of the poles, the Moon orbits Earth in the same direction as the Earth rotates. The Moon actually moves from west to east but the rotation of the Earth is so much faster that we would hardly ever notice it. Because of this difference in speed the Moon takes less than one month to orbit Earth (27.3 days for each revolution) but 29.5 days to change from New Moon to New Moon.

We have a New Moon when the Moon's orbit around Earth takes it between Earth and the Sun. From Earth, the Moon's surface looks dark because the illuminated side is facing away from Earth not because the earth is casting a shadow. An eclipse (the phenomenon caused by a shadow) occurs when the moon is not just between the Sun and the Earth but on a straight line through the Sun and the Earth, i.e. on the ecliptic. At other times when the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun or the Earth is between the Moon and the Sun, the Moon could be either above or below the ecliptic to a varying extent. Most diagrams do not show this to scale but because of the distance apart (93 million miles /150 million kilometers from Earth to Sun, 238,900 miles /384,400 km from Earth to Moon) compared to the diameter of the Moon or the Earth, that is enough to keep the Moon and the Earth out of each other's shadow most of the time. This happens in spite of the fact that the angle of the orbit is only 5°, and so we do not get a Lunar or a Solar Eclipse until they are all on the ecliptic. Solar eclipses can only happen at New Moon, but most New Moons are not eclipses. Lunar eclipses can only happen at Full Moon but most Full Moons are not eclipses because of the same reasoning. The Sun is completely blocked in an eclipse. Even though the Moon is much smaller than the Sun it is just the right distance away from Earth for the Moon to fully block out the Sun's light to the Earth in a solar eclipse or be fully blocked out in a lunar eclipse. I would suggest examining an article like Why no eclipse every full and new moon? https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/why-isnt-there-an-eclipse-every-full-moon/ on the earthsky.org website for further details if desired.

A New Moon is when the Moon reaches its closest point to the Sun as the Moon travels on its orbit around the Earth. A solar eclipse occurs when this is in a straight line with the moon directly on the shortest path between the Sun and the Earth. Solar eclipses can only happen at New Moon, but most New Moons are not eclipses. If we solve our problem with the equinox we still have to make the monthly decision of who determines a New Moon. Is it done by scientifically calculating the exact moment when the moon is closest to the sun, is it subjective and based on where we are and weather or not it is based on Jerusalem where God placed His name? From the Jewish tradition it appears that from God's perspective the new moon (the first new day of the new month) occurs on the first evening that we can see a sliver of moon. God's days begin in the evening. This may be a few minutes different for different parts of the world but it is on the same day. The Moon takes roughly one month to orbit Earth (27.3 days to to be precise). As the moon goes around the earth sometimes it is between us and the sun and at other times is behind us and the sun. You would think that the phases of the moon would therefore change in the same 27.3 days but it actually takes 29.5 days to change from New Moon to New Moon. This happens because while the Moon travels the distance of the circumference of the Earth each 27.3 days, it does not get back over its original spot on the earth because the Earth has spun away. Both Earth and the Moon are moving around the Sun and that alters the point at which the moon is at its closest to the sun (i.e. the point at which the distance from earth through the moon to sun is shortest) and that affects what we see of the dark side. The phases of the moon depend on the angle from which we see the dark side of the Moon. Everyone sees the same phases of the Moon. As I mentioned earlier, it may just be off by a few minutes. People north and south of the equator see the Moon's current phase from different angles but it does not affect the visible state of the moon. East and West rotate so they end up seeing the same thing at some point during the day. The problem lies in deciding who is considered the authority for deciding when the new moon day starts. If the new moon actually starts in the day but you only notice when it gets dark, which day does the new moon belong to? God says that it is the next day because biblical days start in the evening. On the other hand if someone's night is your day then if they see it first who is right? Your evening has not started yet so is it attributed to your day that is coming or your present day? We may have to trust the Jews here for the precise second but it actually makes no practical difference. The issue is the sighting of the first sliver.

The essential difference between solstice and equinox is that at the equinox the earth is tilted exactly sideways to the sun, and so the angle of the earth has no effect on the temperature and light of the day. At the solstice you have either the longest or shortest days, because either the top or bottom of the Earth is tilted towards the Sun, and the angle is producing its greatest effect on the heat of the day. This brings us to why God begins His year in the Spring. Our days darken steadily after Autumn or Fall and our darkest days are in December in the Western Hemisphere. Some time after December 21^st, the days start getting longer but each day has more darkness than light in those three months leading up to Spring. The vernal equinox marks the turning point when daylight begins to win out over darkness and this is what defines Spring. Spring means longer days than nights. That signals the beginning of God's year and is the beginning of Spring. The difference between the beginning of Spring and the beginning of God's year is that God's year begins with a new month i.e. a new moon. A new moon that occurs during the time when there are longer days than nights. From the time I was a young child the standard astronomy tool used in my home was Farmers' Almanac. It was only available in print then but you can find it nowadays at the Farmers Almanac website and I did check out what they have on the vernal equinox at https://www.farmersalmanac.com/spring-equinox-first-day-spring. Another easy-to-read place that I looked at was https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-vernal-or-spring-equinox/. Farmers Almanac tries to compensate for where you are in the world and that introduces the problem of whether days begin at midnight or evening. I expect that their days begin at midnight because that is the international standard.

An example using 2023

• The first day of spring, the arrival of the Vernal Equinox, is Monday, March 20, 2023, at 5:24 PM ET
• The New Moon before is February 20, 2023 2:06 AM ET 
  
• The New Moon after is March 21, 2023 1:23 PM ET
• God's begins His New year by the New Moon of March 21, 2023 1:23 PM ET
• God's month begins with the first sliver of the new moon visible and that should be March 22, 2023.

The Jews have identified the first month of the year as Nisan. Rosh chodesh/kodesh means head of the month or the first of the month. Rosh Chodesh Nisan for Hebrew Year 5783 begins at sundown on Wednesday, 22 March 2023 and ends at nightfall on Thursday, 23 March 2023. You cannot see any of the lighted half of the moon during the beginning of the New Moon phase. During the New Moon phase you only see full shadow. The moon is lined up with the sun and the Earth. By definition they are on the same side of the Earth so they both rise and set together. You typically won't see the young crescent on the day of New Moon, because then it is crossing the sky with the sun during the day. It's more likely to be seen about a day after. You should see a very thin crescent moon setting shortly after the sun. It is the crescent moon, not the blacked out moon, that heralds the new month as defined by God.

What I have done is waited an extra day to ensure that the first sliver of the moon could be seen. That does not mean that ancient Israelites would have seen it and agreed on it. After this the rest of the days should be straightforward to calculate using what has been decided before. The problem comes with whether you have to see the New Moon for yourself or if you can rely on astronomy and/or the calculations of Hillel. These do not go back to Christ so we have no authority from heaven. To me it seems reasonable to follow the Jews for areas that we cannot clearly establish, based on the fact that God gave the oracles to them and He appears to have preserved these oracles through them. Bear in mind that we have been warned by God about traditional Rabbinic Judaism that we are to follow what they have recorded that Moses says but not to follow what they do (Matthew 23:3). For the sake of the unity of the Church it makes sense to use technology rather than relying on each person's eyesight. In the table below the New Moons were taken from the web page https://www.fullmoonology.com/2023-new-moons/ entitled 2023 New Moons: Calendar of 12 new moons |Last Updated January 11, 2023 on the Fullmoonology website. For those of us who have been around before 1972, prior to 1972, Coordinated Universal Time or Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) time was called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Now I take the Jewish Feasts as presented in the web page https://jewishunpacked.com/the-jewish-holidays-in-2023/ entitled Guide to Jewish Holidays The Jewish holidays in 2023 on the jewishunpacked.com website.

Pesach (Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread)
Begins sunset Wednesday, April 5, 2023
Ends evening Thursday, April 13, 2023

Shavuot (Feast of Weeks, corresponding to Pentecost)
Begins sunset Thursday, May 25, 2023
Ends evening Saturday, May 27, 2023

Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year and the Feast of Trumpets)
Begins sunset Friday, September 15, 2023
Ends evening Sunday, September 17, 2023

Yom Kippur (Feast of Atonement)
Begins sunset Sunday, September 24, 2023
Ends evening Monday, September 25, 2023

Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)
Begins sunset Friday, September 29, 2023
Ends evening Friday, October 6, 2023

Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah (The Eighth Day)
Begins sunset Friday, October 6, 2023
Ends evening of Sunday, October 8, 2023

Of course the Feast begins at sunset on the stated Julian date. I think that going with the Jews is reasonable but when in doubt I have given the process for verification. Keep in mind the issues that were mentioned in the section captioned Some Words of Caution and all should be well. At this point I could not see a better approach than to acknowledge the Jews, since apart from the Jews I had no way of establishing which New Moon begins God's New Year, is it the one before the equinox, after the equinox or closest to the equinox? Since then I have come to better understanding.

You will notice that the Jews' Passover is on the 15^th. According to the Jews the Torah refers to Passover on the 14^th, but it also refers to the Festival of Matzot on the 15^th. They provide support from Leviticus 23:

The real answer is what separates Jews from Christians. Christ was crucified on the 14^th which is the day that He considered to be Passover. To get a better appreciation of the answer you can begin by studying the section on Passover in the pattern for our salvation on this website, paying special attention to Passover and the Night to be much observed and The first Passover of Israel .

An example using 2024

For 2023 the results of my calculations coincided with those of the Jews but that is not the case for 2024. God says to prove all things. I had assumed that my understanding corresponded with Jewish practice and that I could rely on them, but a friend challenged me in 2024 and my calculations did not produce the same results as those published by the Jews. In the final analysis I had been left with choosing one of three options: (i) always go with the new moon that immediately preceded the equinox, (ii) always select the new moon that immediately followed the equinox, or (iii) always pick the new moon that was closest to the equinox. My original approach had come down to what was said that the Jews did, and hence was not derived by scientific evidence based on scripture and what Moses said. I will now present my proof for the approach that I have since adopted based on the evidence provided in the Metonic calendar that I developed earlier, the practice of the priesthood, and by incorporating earlier evidence that the very first month of the Israelites was determined by the spring equinox. I will repeat the calendar later down in this section with one modification. The modification is that I have added Vernal Equinox. Since I had proven earlier that the annual cycle given to Israel by God had started on the spring equinox I began the calendar with that, and since it repeats its cycle exactly every solar year then each subsequent year automatically begins with that.

Becoming Barley Educated

God did not give Israel a calendar in the modern sense. Modern calendars are systems of organizing time into days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of an individual day within the calendar system. The year that God gave to Israel was based on an agricultural cycle not a solar cycle. That is to say that the beginning of the year was determined by a crop (namely barley) and the month of that crop harvest was always the beginning of the year. The problem that we face now is to get a calendar to simulate just what God set up i.e. what Moses said. Based on the instructions that I see in the Bible I imagine that in ancient times, once His people could see that the days began to lengthen they would check each month (each new moon) to see if the barley would ripen within the next two weeks (conditions for the month of Spring i.e. Aviv). I have shown in another article that Jews had clocks (e.g. water clocks) since the time when they were in Egypt. If they were sure that barley would be ready by then the month would be considered as the beginning of the year, otherwise they would postpone it until the next month. The two weeks came about because barley had to be available for Passover and the wave sheaf. Passover was the 14^th of whatever month began the year. It was not complicated for people who were familiar with the land. God intended it to be something that everybody could observe so it was not designed to be overly complicated. You needed ripe barley to thresh and make the Omer loaves. The grain had to be stone ground and made into fine flour and then into cakes to wave. It had to be the best quality flour, fine flour, so that they would not incur the sin of Cain. Squishy barley would not work.

Barley presents a problem. I have not been able to gather much data on what contributed to the best harvest in ancient Israel and so I have had to try to adapt from available sources on current crops. Ancient farmers would not have had the luxury of specially developed strains. Barley has two harvest seasons in each year and that needs to be properly managed. The first harvest is at Passover (Winter barley) and the second is at Sukkot. Planting for the second harvest starts after the harvest at Pentecost. The barley harvest was finished around Pentecost but they continued to reap wheat. That gives us an idea of the time between the beginning of the harvest and planting again. Pentecost is 50 days after Passover so it is about two months. Now to focus on barley planted after Sukkot. They planted the barley and the wheat together but the barley matured first and they continued to harvest wheat after the barley crop finished. It does not seem as though they had time to plant until they finished harvesting both crops. In addition they had to harvest grapes at Sukkot as well. Based on the more than 50 days spent harvesting around Pentecost, the Sukkot harvest should be finished in about two months. In the Gregorian calendar that would mean Sukkot in October and harvesting continuing, taking up October and November. Barley matures in about 60-70 days, so just after two months following planting there will be a harvest. Planting for this first harvest (the one that matures in spring) is complicated by the weather, and precisely by the temperature of the ground. It did snow in ancient Israel.

Development of the crop depends on temperature and available sunlight. Sunlight is important for the maturing plant since sunlight is essential for converting nutrients to biomass, so short days and long nights are to be avoided. The plant will thrive best if the temperature is 55°F (13°C). Barley is sensitive to winter conditions and will die if the temperature drops below 17°F/-8°C (Hannaway et al., 2004). The barley will germinate if the temperature is as low as 13°C but if the temperature drops much lower after it has germinated then it will run the risk of dying and the harvest will fail. The smart farmer will try to maximise the hours of sunlight for the maturing plant, while simultaneously avoiding the temperature problem, consequently he will also wait until the weather is too cold for the seeds to germinate or too late for the temperature to drop any further and then plant his seeds. The cold will not harm the seeds so long as they have not yet started to germinate but as soon as the weather becomes warm enough they will germinate and grow to maturity in 60 to 70 days. That will bring us to March or April for the harvest, depending on the new moon.

Simulation Using the Equinox

The problem now becomes how best to simulate that in a calendar. A calendar became necessary because there was nobody in Israel to grow the barley and check for the new moon. Jews were expelled from Jerusalem in the first century. The Winter Solstice is the coldest day of the year. Ideally we assume that a farmer would have all his seed in the ground at that time and they will mature three months later at the Vernal Equinox. The seed will remain dormant until the ground warms up and then grow during February and March. We can therefore assume that farmers will wait at least two months (at least 50 days) after the Sukkot harvest begins to start sowing for the next harvest, and that their seeds will germinate soon after the new solar year begins. In the Gregorian calendar we will therefore plant in December and assume that the weather will warm up in January when the seeds will germinate and by the end of March they should be ready for harvest. The barley must be fully ripe for Passover. The question then becomes what is the equinox telling us? If it is saying that this is the beginning of Spring then whichever month it falls in, represents the beginning of Spring, and if the month of Aviv (Exodus 13:4; 23:15) also means the beginning of spring then the two must coincide. In that case whichever month the equinox falls in begins the year. On the other hand suppose the equinox is saying that the barley will be fully ripe in two weeks, then if Aviv barley has a meaning it is barley that will mature in two weeks. Any month that begins on that day or later will have ripe barley by the 14^th. Finally if Aviv is the first month that begins in the Spring then we have the vernal equinox and the next month is Aviv. I developed the table below showing the Vernal Equinox and as it stands Aviv is the month that begins after the vernal equinox and so should always have ripe barley by the 14^th.

The justification for my choice is that it closely mirrors what happened in ancient Israel. It is my understanding that the test for Spring was done by the High Priest at the beginning of the month. If conditions for Spring were not detected then it was postponed until the next new moon. Relating that to the test for the Vernal equinox then if at the beginning of the month the Vernal equinox has not come, then the test must be postponed; in other words if the Vernal equinox is not past then Spring has not come and the year cannot start. If it is on the day of the Vernal equinox then caution would say that it should be postponed because the High priest could hardly be that precise. This assumption leads me to conclude that the Vernal equinox tells us when Spring begins and Aviv must always follow that.

This is where the Metonic calendar comes in. The Metonic cycle is not as accurate as the Gregorian calendar but it is good enough to show how God's months and seasons flow with the Vernal Equinox. I would have mentioned earlier that a Metonic cycle causes a calendar to be out by 7 months if there are no adjustments for leap years. If this adjustment is not made the seasons shift out of sync with the calendar year. If you look at my table, in the row labelled solar year end there are sometimes numbers other than zero. These non-zero year-ends are seven and represent the adjustment for the 7 months that have to be made to bring the table back in alignment. In my table the 19^th year contains 358 days, which brings us to the 235 lunations required for 19 years, and causes the lunar cycles and solar cycles of the table to be perfectly in sync for the beginning of the next 19-year cycle. These are the measures that I have used to correct for the shift that is associated with the Metonic Cycle. It should therefore be as accurate as is necessary for our purposes. Assume that the first year starts correctly in sync with the Vernal Equinox. Take a look at it and see that the first row shows the position of the Vernal Equinox in relation to the rest of the year. The next row shows the days to the new moon. You will also notice that the new moon or God’s new year always comes after the Vernal Equinox. The latest will be in year 9 and it will be 28 days after. Each equinox is exactly one solar year apart so if the first of God's years began exactly on the vernal Equinox then all subsequent New Years will begin after the Vernal Equinox on a Metonic cycle. Each column shows one solar year so the next column will always begin with the Vernal Equinox. God's New year cannot come before the Vernal Equinox for the reasons mentioned earlier about the High Priest etc. I have already provided my evidence for only God's very first new year for Israel beginning on the Vernal Equinox in the article called Passover and Shavuot linked. All others would be at least one day later. This means that God's new year will always begin on the new moon following the vernal Equinox.

From the table above it is clear the the New year will begin April 8, 2024. It is worthwhile to note that if the Eastern standard time is 5:00 hours behind GMT, hence 7:00 pm EST and any time later it falls under the next day in GMT. Once we know the new moons we can derive all the other holy days. In Israel, Pesach lasts seven days; everywhere else, it's eight days. Some Jewish holidays outside Israel were extended an extra day, originally to account for variations in information about when the event technically started in Jerusalem, so the extra day is allowed for error. There is no corresponding adjustment for Christians but the holy period at Passover still lasts 8 days because the Jews celebrate beginning one day late according to their tradition as seen from Christ's Crucifixion. For more details on calculating Shavuot please consider reading our article on Pentecost timing.

Skirting Around the Obvious

You might recall me saying that the Jews base their calendar on Molads and on the calendar developed by Hillel. That appears to be the source of some inconsistencies. Consider this comment that I have been so far unable to corroborate:

Because of the standardization of the ancient calendar, Rosh Chodesh occasionally falls on the dark moon instead of the first sliver of the moon. You will also notice that sometimes there are two days of Rosh Chodesh, when a month has thirty instead of twenty-nine days. You will see this in the transition from Tishrei to Cheshvan, Shvat to Adar, Nisan to Iyar, Sivan to Tamuz, and Av to Elul.

Editors of Dreaming the World to ComeRosh ChodeshDreaming the World to Comehttps://www.dreamingtheworldtocome.com/rosh-chodeshSat 09 Mar 2024

It is here that I think it best to address the question of a black moon. There is no evidence that the early Israelites had a calendar, so they could not tell when the year would end. They were also required to count to Pentecost so they did not know when the month ended from months before, however they could tell when the new moon would be.

For me there are four points that need to be addressed in dealing with the black moon: (i) How Jonathan knew that the next day would be the new moon, (ii) It is called a new moon not a no moon, (iii) It is the only way to account for the time between the first Passover and Pentecost, (iv) You cannot trust what the Jews do only what they have preserved of Moses and the Prophets.

To deal with (ii) you can easily search for new moon and see what the Hebrew is saying. It is translated in to Greek in Collossians 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath [days]: so you can see how the meaning was preserved. For (iii) You can read Passover_and_Shavuot_linked.xml, which is my article that addresses that. For (iv) you can begin by reading Pentecost_timing_-_the_flaws_of_the_pharisees.xml, in which I look at things like Moses' seat and the Pharisees.

So let's deal with (iv). How was Johnathan able to know that the nest day was the new moon? I propose it is because it was a black moon. I have not found another explanation. There is no way to tell when there is the last sliver because there is always the possibility that the next day will have a shade of light, so he could not have known it from that. On the other hand when the moon is fully black there is only one place to go. The Jews celebrated the new moon so everybody needed to know and it had to be consistent. According to Judaism 101, Jewish Calendar, it was done by observation. It could not be a black moon this month and first sliver next month and who knows what the month after that. It does not make sense to call a moon new when it is ending, so the last glimmer before the black moon would hardly qualify based on the name. As a matter of fact it does not make sense to call a black moon new either because there is no moon to be seen. As far as I can see arguing against the Waxing Crescent Moon is skirting around the obvious. So where does that leave us?

The best information that I could find on the visibility of the new moon was at https://dictionary.obspm.fr/index.php?showAll=1&formSearchTextfield=visibility. where it records the following:

The first sighting of the → New Moon after its → conjunction with the Sun. Although the date and time of each New Moon can be computed exactly, the visibility of the lunar → crescent as a function of the → Moon's age depends upon many factors and cannot be predicted with certainty. The sighting within one day of New Moon is usually difficult. The crescent at this time is quite thin, has a low surface brightness, and can easily be lost in the → twilight. Generally, the lunar crescent will become visible to suitably-located, experienced observers with good sky conditions about one day after New Moon. However, the time that the crescent actually becomes visible varies from one month to another. The visibility depends on sky conditions and the location, experience, and preparation of the observer. Ignoring atmospheric conditions, the size and brightness of the lunar crescent depend on the → elongation which in turn depends on several factors: 1) The Moon's elongation at New Moon (the elongation of the Moon at New Moon is not necessarily 0). 2) The speed of the Moon in its elliptical orbit. 3) The distance of the Moon, and 4) The observer's location (parallax). The combined effect of the first three factors gives geocentric elongation of the Moon from the Sun at an age of one day which can vary between about 10 and 15 degrees. This large range of possible elongations in the one-day-old Moon is critical (US Naval Observatory).

There are certain criteria needed for the new crescent Moon to be visible.

1. The Sun must be below the horizon i.e. already set. This is because it needs to be dark enough to spot the mere strip of the new crescent.
2. The Moon needs to be above the horizon. You cant see it if it is below.
   
3. The Moon and the Sun need to be far enough apart in the sky. The official designation is the Danjon Limit, which states that the Sun and Moon need to be separated by around 5-7 degrees. According to observers that is about the same width as your first three fingers held out at arms length.

The day after the black moon seems credible to me while the others do not. It satisfies all necessary and sufficient criteria for Jonathan to have made his prediction. The waxing crescent moon appears to have been the tradition. The waxing crescent phase follows the new moon or black moon. It's visible characteristic is a thin sliver of brightness on the right side of the moon. Unfortunately there does not appear to be any historical verification of this or any other method. Nevertheless that explanation about standardising the calendar does not justify why Rosh Chodesh Nisan and Rosh Chodesh Tishrei sometimes fall on a black moon in the Jewish calendar. For example Rosh Hashanah for 2024 begins sunset Wednesday, October 2 which is a black moon. Rosh Hashanah is supposed to begin on Rosh Chodesh Tishrei. Rosh Chodesh (the first day of the Hebrew month) is supposed to occur when there is the first sliver of the moon after a completely dark moon. To simulate the first sliver I will use the day following the black moon. There does not appear to be any corresponding standard practice by the Jews. The more that I research this subject the more I discover practices by the Jews that cannot be rigorously supported by the Bible. I have not been able to uncover any authoritative technique for the dates presented in the Jewish calendar and so I can neither confirm nor denounce these claims. I am setting out a comparison of what I can substantiate with what the Jews have published.

Deriving Feast Days for 2025

New Moons and Equinox were obtained from https://astropixels.com/almanac/almanac21/almanac2025est.html

Time Zones' Abbreviations (where UTC = Coordinated Universal Time)
• ART = Argentina Time (= UTC - 3 hours)
• AST = Atlantic Standard Time (= UTC - 4 hours
• EST = Eastern Standard Time (= UTC - 5 hours)
• CST = Central Standard Time (= UTC - 6 hours)
• MST = Mountain Standard Time (= UTC - 7 hours)
• PST = Pacific Standard Time (= UTC - 8 hours)
• AKST = Alaskan Standard Time (= UTC - 9 hours)
• HST = Hawaiian Standard Time (= UTC - 10 hours)

So far we have worked it out according to when God's days start i.e. in the evening. The Julian Conversion is therefore the beginning of the day in the evening when it could be detected by the sliver of moon, so now we have to convert that to show the daylight period in the Julian calendar. The daytime portion of each Feast Day is in the column labelled Julian Daytime.

You may want to consider that Rosh Chodesh Nisan for 2025 is Sat, Mar 29 i.e. 1 Nisan 5785

A note on global warming

I find it interesting that ALL of global warming is being attributed to overuse of fossil fuels. At the same time we find articles like https://www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/weather/weather-u-exceptional-equinox-equation-426305/ WEATHER U: Exceptional equinox equation by Cindy Day, Chief Meteorologist | Posted: March 18, 2020, 4 a.m. | Updated: March 19, 2020, 4 a.m. It claims that Interestingly, in the Northern Hemisphere, spring is currently being reduced by approximately one minute per year and winter by about one-half minute per year. Winter is the shortest astronomical season.  With its seasonal duration continuing to decrease, it is expected to attain its minimum value of 88.71 days by about the year 3500 . More sun should mean more heat so why do we not consider this when talking of global warming. God is in control.

Acknowledgements

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/skytellers/moon-phases/

https://www.space.com/15584-solar-eclipses.html

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/solar-eclipse-guide.html

https://moon.nasa.gov/inside-and-out/top-moon-questions/

https://moon.nasa.gov/moon-in-motion/overview/

http://blogstronomy.blogspot.com/2010/01/whats-difference-between-new-moon-and.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecliptic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/solar-eclipse-guide.html

https://stardate.org/nightsky/eclipses

https://stardate.org/nightsky/eclipses

https://www.farmersalmanac.com/

https://www.farmersalmanac.com/spring-equinox-first-day-spring

https://www.hebcal.com/holidays/rosh-chodesh-nisan-2023

https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/establishment-in-barley-germination-and-emergence-gs0-gs2

https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/ccpg_horde.pdf

https://grdc.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/369231/GrowNote-Barley-South-3-Planting.pdf