The Jewish Calendar

Guest Blogger: Imelda Quibin

The Jews used two types of calendars. One is the Civil Calendar. This is the official calendar of governmnent, business, child births, etc. The other calendar is the Sacred Calendar, from which the dates for festivals were determined.

Note: Hebrew months were alternately 30 and 29 days long. The Jewish year is shorter than ours, with only 354 days. Therefore, about every third year (7 times in 19 years) an extra month - Veadar - was added between Adar and Nissan.

The list below names the Jewish month, the Western calendar month it corresponds with, the number of days in the month, the month of the civil year, and the month of the sacred year.

Tishri, September-October, 30, 1st, 7th
Heshvan, October-November, 29 or 30, 2nd, 8th
Kisley, November-December, 29 or 30, 3rd, 9th
Tebeth, December-January, 29, 4th, 10th
Shebat, January-February, 30, 5th, 11th
Adar, February-March, 29 or 30, 6th, 12th
Nissan (Pesach), March-April, 30, 7th, 1st
Iyar, April-May, 29, 8th, 2nd
Sivan, May-June, 30, 9th, 3rd
Tammuz, June-July, 29, 10th, 4th
Ab, July-August, 30, 11th, 5th
Elul, August-September, 29, 12th, 6th