Pure Doctrine: The True New Year/ The Biblical New Year Supported In The Scriptures Continued
The Different Types Of Calendar

There are three main types of calendar. They are: Lunar, Solar and Lunisolar. Of the three calendars only one is found in the bible and this is the lunar calendar. The Jews first used a lunar calendar but latter changed it to lunisolar. It is evident below that before the solar calendar was adopted the lunar calendar was used. The information below was extracted from the Collier’s Encyclopedia Volume 5, pages 138 – 139 and Judism 101, Jewish calendar www.jewfaq.com.
The Lunar Calendar
“The lunar calendar preserves the length of the lunar or synodic month which is 29 ½ days long and disregards the length of the solar year. Most of the cultural groups using the lunar calendar reckoned the months as having 29 and 30 days alternately, thus averaging 29 ½ days. In using the lunar calendar, the lunar year has been taken as (12 x 29 ½) or 354 days. A lunar of 12 synodic months actually has 354.367056 days; the decimal here is unaccounted for in the calendar and amounts to 11.012 days in 30 lunar years. By intercalating (inserting) 11 days in every 30 lunar years, this calendar becomes very accurate with respect to the moon. The month was based originally on the moon’s revolution around the earth, that is, the synodic period, or interval between two successive new moons or full moons.” In thy bible it is strictly the new moon that begins and ends the month; and the day begins and ends at sunset. “A lunar month appeared to be a convenient unit of time for human affairs that was somewhere between a day and a year. Indeed, in early times much stress was put on the use of the moon a time measurer, probably because of the ease of observing the satellite in its phase. The lunation has been connected with religious matters and so has had perhaps an over important part in calendar making. The main difficulty with it is that it’s year is about 11 days shorter that the solar year, causing the seasons to occur at earlier and earlier dates through the years; hence it is impracticable in civil affairs.”
The Solar Calendar
“The solar calendar holds to the length of the solar year as nearly as possible, but it disregards the lunar month and assumes a set length of months. The Julian calendar is an excellent example; other examples are the old Mayan and Egyptian calendars. The solar year is 365.2422 days long; solar calendars include normal years of 365 days and allow for the fraction (0.2422 days) by intercalating an extra day in each of the so-called leap years. The solar calendar commonly has four crucial points – two equinoxes and the two solstices. The accuracy of such a calendar is established if the equinoxes always fall about the same day each year.” Hence the reason why Easter always falls between March 21 and April 25, no earlier, no later. “With the solar calendar the day begins at 0 hour or midnight, at least in most countries.” Throughout history it is evident that many changes were made to the solar calendar to evolve it into its present state. “The original Latin calendar comprised 10 months or 304 days, according to the old historians; 5 months having 31 days each, 4 months have 30 and one month having 29 days. The year began on March 1, thus giving the month names – October for example, for the eight month; and the day began with the midnight hour. Prior to 700 BC, Kind Numa Pompilus added two months, Januarius and Februarius. Numa’s calendar had 7 months of 29 days, 4 months of 31 days and Februarius with 28 days, making 355 days. Later, about 451 BC, a group of 10 magistrates, the Decemvirs, rearranged the months, giving them the present order; that is, they changed the year’s beginning from Martius to Januarius. Julius Caesar by 46 BC made radical changes to the calendar because many complaints had been lodged as the calendar was out of step with natural events.

To restore the calendar to its former relation to the seasons, Caesar extends the year 46 BC to an extraordinary length, upon advice of Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer. He added 23 days of an intercalary month after Februarius, and added two months of 34 and 33 days between November and December, so that the year contained 445 days. This was called the year of confusion. Caesar then adjusted the length of the year as 365 days, with one day intercalated every 4 years, after February 29, to make up to 365 ¼ days, the supposed true length of the tropical year. Caesar deliberately abandoned the lunar year entirely and adopted the solar year. He settled the length of the year to 365 days 6 hr. as the length of the year and an approximation of this value has been used ever since. He had a series of 3 common years and on a fourth, a leap year. He altered the month lengths again, giving Februarius 29 days in common years and 30 in leap years. After the deceased Julius Caesar, Augustan Caesar increased the days of Februarius from 30 to 31 days; since the leap year precept was misinterpreted because for 36 years they had a leap year every third year instead of every fourth. As if to make up for this one day was omitted from Februarius. September and November were shortened from 31 to 30 days and October and December were lengthened from 30 to 31, supposedly in order to balance the calendar. Thus the present scheme of months and days was evolved.”
The Lunisolar Calendar
“The lunisolar calendar attempts to keep the lengths of the lunar month and tropical year in harmony by periodic adjustments. Thus, the lunar month of 29 ½ days is made into a 29 day or 30 day month alternately, and 12 of these give 354 days; an additional month is added at times, to bring the number of days in a solar year. This is done by intercalating a 13th lunar month every 2 or 3 years. Such an expedient is required in order to have the agricultural seasons occur at about the same calendar day each year. The Jewish calendar is an example of the lunisolar type.” The Jews first used a lunar calendar. ‘The problems they identified with the lunar calendar is that there are approximately 12.4 lunar months in every solar year, so a 12- month lunar calendar loses about 11 days every year and a 13- month lunar gains about 19 days every year. The months on such a calendar “drift” relative to the solar year. On a 12 lunar month calendar, the month of Nissan, which is supposed to occur in the spring, would occur eleven days earlier each year, eventually occurring in the Winter, the Fall, the Summer, and then the Spring again. To compensate for this drift, an extra month was occasionally added. The month of Nissan would occur 11 days earlier for two or three years, and then would jump forward 29 or 30 days, balancing out the drift. In ancient times, this month was also added by observation: the Sanhedrin observed the conditions of the weather, the crops and the live stock, and if these were not sufficiently advanced to be considered “Spring,” then the Sanhedrin inserted an additional month into the calendar to make sure that Pesach (Passover) would occur in the spring (it is, after all, referred to in the Torah as Chag he –Aviv, the Festival of Spring!). A year with 13 months is referred to in Hebrew as Shanah Meuberet (pronounced shah- NAH meh-oo- BEH- reht), literally: a pregnant year. In English we commonly call it a leap year. The additional month inserted before the regular month is known as Adar I, (Adar Rishon or Adar Alef). It is inserted before the regular month of Adar (known in such years as Adar II,( Adar Sheini or Adar Beit). Note that Adar II is the “real” Adar, the one in which Purim is celebrated, the one in which yahrzeits for Adar are observed, the one in which a 13- year-old born in Adar becomes a Bar Mitzvah. Adar I is the extra Adar. In the fourth century, Hillel II established a fixed calendar based on astronomical calculations. This calendar, still in use, standardized the length of months over the course of a 19 year cycle, so that the lunar calendar realigns with the solar years. Adar I is added in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years of the cycle. The current cycle began in the Jewish year 5758 (the year that began October 2, 1997).”
To be continued. Have a blessed week.
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