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WHAT CHURCHES AND CHURCH LEADERS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE SABBATH

"There is but one church on the face of the earth which has the power, or claims power, to make
laws binding on the conscience, binding before God, binding under penalty of hell-fire. For
instance, the institution of Sunday. What right has any other church to keep this day? You
answer by virtue of the third commandment the Papacy changed the fourth commandment and
called it the third, which says, 'Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.' But Sunday is
not the Sabbath. Any school- boy knows that Sunday is the first Day of the week. I have
repeatedly offered one thousand dollars to anyone who will prove by the Bible alone that Sunday
IS the day we are bound to keep, and no one has called for the money. It was the holy Catholic
Church that changed the day of rest from Saturday, the seventh day, to Sunday, the first day of
the week.':-T. ENRIGHT, C. S. S. R., in a lecture delivered in 1893.

".. .. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible
says, 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' The Catholic Church says: 'No. By my divine
power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week.' And
101 the entire civilized world bows down in a reverent obedience to the command of the holy
Catholic Church."-T. ENRIGHT, C.S.S.R., in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas, Feb. 18, 1884.

"The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue
of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday."-The Catholic Mirror, Sept. 23,
1893.
ROMAN CATHOLIC LEADERS

"From this same Catholic Church you have accepted your Sunday, and that Sunday, as the Lord's
day, she has handed down as a tradition; and the entire Protestant world has accepted it as
tradition, for you have not an iota of Scripture to establish it. Therefore that which you have
accepted as your rule of faith, in- adequate as it of course is, as well as your Sunday, you have
accepted on the authority of the Roman Catholic Church."-D. B. RAY, "The Papal;
Controversy," 1892, page 179.

"You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line
authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of
Saturday, a day which we [Catholics] never sanctify."-JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS, "The
Faith of Our Fathers," page III. "Reason and sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of
these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday or Catholicity and the
keeping holy of Sunday. Compromise is impossible"--- JAMES CARDINAL. GIBBONS,
Catholic Mirror, Dec. 23, 1983.

"We Catholics, then, have precisely the same authority for keeping Sunday holy instead of
Saturday as we have for every other article of our creed, namely, the authority of the Church.
.whereas you who are Protestants have really no authority for it whatever; for there is no
authority for it [Sunday sacredness] in the Bible, and you will not allow that there can be
authority for it anywhere else." -The Brotherhood of St. Paul, "The Clifton tracts," Volume 4,
tract 4, p. 15.

"Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the [Roman Catholic] Church, has no good reason
for its Sunday theory, and ought logically to keep Saturday as the Sabbath." -John Gilmary Shea,
in the American Catholic Quarterly Review, January 1883.

"Nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed
from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the
Sabbath day, that is the seventh day of the week, Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday
because it has been revealed to us by the church [Roman] outside the Bible."-Catholic Virginian,
Oct. 3, 1947

"It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians that the
Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of
the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the
Catholic Church!" -Priest Brady, in an address, reported in the Elizabeth, N.J. News of March
18, 1903.

"Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claim to observance can be defended only on Catholic
principles. From beginning to end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the
transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first." -Catholic Press,
Sydney, Australia, August, 1900.

"We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty." Encyclical Letter, June 20, 1894. -Pope
Leo Xlll. "Not the Creator of Universe, in Genesis 2:1-3, -but the Catholic Church can claim the
honor of having granted man a pause to his work every seven days." -S. C. Mosna, Storia della
Domenica, 1969, pp. 366-367. "We define that the Holy Apostolic See (the Vatican) and the
Roman Pontiff hold the primacy over the whole world." -A Decree of the Council of Trent,
quoted in Philippe Labbe and Gabriel Cossart, "The Most Holy Councils," col. 1167. "The Pope
is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ, hidden under veil of flesh." -
The Catholic National, July 1895.

Protestant leaders[edit]
BAPTIST
"There was and is a command to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not
Sunday. It will however be readily said, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath
was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week, with all its duties, privileges
and sanctions. Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for
many years, I ask, where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New
Testament -absolutely not. There is no scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath
institution from the seventh to the first day of the week."

"To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus, during three years' intercourse with His disciples,
often conversing with them upon the Sabbath question. ..never alluded to any transference of the
day; also, that during forty days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated.

"We believe that the law of God is the eternal and unchangeable rule of His moral government."-
"Baptist Church Manual," Art. 12.

"The first four commandments set forth man's obligations directly toward God,
...But when we keep the first four commandments, we are likely to keep the
other six. ...The fourth commandment sets forth God's claim on man's time and
thought. ... The six days of labour amid the rest on the Sabbath are to be
maintained as a witness to God's toil and rest in the creation. ...Not one of
the ten words is of merely racial significance. ...The Sabbath was
established originally (long before Moses) in no special connection with the
Hebrews, but as an institution for all mankind, in commemoration of God's
rest after the six days of creation. It was designed for all the descendants
of Adam."-Adult Quarterly, Southern Baptist Convention series, Aug. 15, 1937.

"There was never any formal or authoritative change from the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath to the
Christian first-day observance." -WILLIAM OWEN CARVER, "The Lord's Day in Our Day,"
page 49.

Southern Baptist
"The sacred name of the seventh day is Sabbath. This fact is too clear to require argument
[Exodus 20:10, quoted] ..On this point the plain teaching of the Word has been admitted
in all ages. .Not once did the disciples apply the Sabbath law to the first day of the week,
-that folly was left for a later age, nor did they pretend that the first day supplanted the
seventh." -Joseph Judson Taylor, The Sabbatic Question, pp. 14-17, 41.

"Of course I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a
religious day, as we learn from the Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it
comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, then
adopted and sanctified by the Papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to
Protestantism." -Dr. E. T. Hiscox, report of his sermon at the Baptist Minister's Convention, New
York Examiner, November 16,1893.

Church of England
"Not any ecclesiastical writer of the first three centuries attributed the origin of Sunday
observance either to Christ or to His apostles."-Sm WILLIAM DOMVILLE. " Examination of
the Six Texts," pages 6,7. Supplement).

"There is no word, no hint, in the New Testament about abstaining from work on Sunday. ...Into
the rest of Sunday no divine law enters. ...The observance of Ash Wednesday or Lent stands
exactly on the same footing as the observance of Sunday .'. -CANON EXTON, "The Ten
Commandments," pages 52, 63, 65. "Is there any command in the New Testament to change the
day of weekly rest from Saturday to Sunday? None..'- "Manual of Christian Doctrine," page 127.
"The Lord's day did not succeed in the place of the Sabbath. ...The Lord's day was merely an
ecclesiastical institution. It was not introduced by virtue of the fourth commandment, because for
almost three hundred years together they kept that day which was in that commandment. ...The
primitive Christians did all manner of works upon the Lord's day, even in times of persecution,
when they are the strictest observers of all the divine commandments; but in this they knew there
was none."-BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR, " Ductor Dubitantium," Part I , Book I J, Chap. 2,
Rule 6. Sec. 51, 59.

"Sunday being the day on which the Gentiles solemnly adore that planet and called it Sunday,
partly from its influence on that day especially, and partly in respect to its divine body ( as they
conceived it), the Christians thought fit to keep the same day and the same name of it, that they
might not appear causelessly peevish, and by that means hinder the conversion of the Gentiles,
and bring a greater prejudice than might be otherwise taken against the gospel."-T. M. MORER.
"Dialogues on the Lord's day," pages 22, 23.

"Where are we told in Scripture that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to
keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day. ...The reason why we
keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that we observe
many other things, not because the Bible, but because the church has enjoined it."-lSAAC
WILLIAMS B.D., "Plain Sermons on the Catechism," Vol. I, pages 334-336:

"Dear Madam: "In reply to your letter of May 7th, I am asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury
to say that from the first century onward the Christian church has observed the first day of the
week as the weekly commemoration of the resurrection of our :Lord Jesus Christ. Many of the
early Christians. ..deliberately substituted the first day of the week for the seventh on the ground
that It was on the first day that our Lord rose from the dead italics ours.] . 'Yours faithfully,
"ALAN C. DON.

Anglican
"And where are we told in the Scriptures that we are to keep the first day at all? We are
commanded to keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day." -
Isaac Williams, Plain Sermons on the Catechism, pp. 334,336.
Churches of Christ ( Also Disciples of Christ )
"There is no direct Scriptural authority for designating the first day the
Lord's day."-DR. D. H. LUCAS, Christian Oracle, Jan. 23, 1890.

"The first day of the week is commonly called the Sabbath. This is a mistake. The Sabbath of the
Bible was the day just preceding the first day of the week. The first day of the week is never
called the Sabbath anywhere in the entire Scriptures. It is also an error to talk about the change of
the Sabbath. There never was any change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. There is not
in any place in the Bible any intimation of such a change."-"First-Day Observance," pages 17,
19.
"It has reversed the fourth commandment by doing away with the Sabbath of God's Word, and
instituting Sunday as a holiday." DR. N. SUMMERBELL, " History of the Christian Church,"
Third Edition, page 415.

"To command. ..men. ..to observe. ..the Lord's day. .. is contrary to the gospel."-"Memoirs of
Alexander Campbell," Vol. I, page 528.

"It is clearly proved that the pastors of the churches have struck out one of God's ten words,
which, not only in the Old Testament, but in all revelation, are the most emphatically regarded as
the synopsis of all religion and morality ."-ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, " Debate With Purcell,"
page 214.

"I do not believe that the Lord's day came in the room of the Jewish Sabbath, or that the Sabbath
was changed from the seventh to the first day, for this plain reason, where there is no testimony,
there can be no faith. Now there is no testimony in all the oracles of heaven that the Sabbath was
changed, or that the Lord's day came in the room of it."-ALEXANDER CAMPBELL,
Washington Reporter, Oct. 8, 1821. 11

Lutheran

"I wonder exceedingly how it came to be imputed to me that I should reject the law of Ten
Commandments. ...Whosoever abrogates the law must of necessity' abrogate sin also."-MARTIN
LUTHER, Spiritual Antichrist," pages 71,72.

"The observance of the Lord's day [Sunday) is founded not on any command of God, but on the
authority of the church."- .4ugsburg Confession of Faith, quoted in "Catholic Sabbath Annual,"
Part 2, Chap. I, Sec. 10.

"For up to this day mankind has absolutely trifled with the original and most special revelation of
the Holy God, the ten words written upon the tables of the Law from Sinai."-"Crown Theological
Library," page I 78.

"They [ the Catholics ] allege the Sabbath changed into Sun- day, the Lord's day, contrary to the
Decalogue, as it appears, neither is there any example more boasted of than the changing of the
Sabbath day. Great, say they, is the power and authority of the church, since it dispensed with
one of the Ten Commandments."-Augsburg Confession of Faith, Art. 28, par. 9.

"The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance."-
AUGUSTUS NEANDER, " History of the Christian Religion and Church," Vol. I, page 186.

Methodist
"It is true that there is no positive command for infant baptism. Nor is
there any for keeping holy the first day of the week. Many believe that
Christ changed the Sabbath. But, from His own words, we see that He came for
no such purpose. Those who believe that Jesus changed the Sabbath base it
only on a supposition." -Amos Binney, Theological Compendium, pp. 180-181.

"The moral law contained in the Ten Commandments and, enforced by the prophets, He [Christ]
did not take away. It was not the design of His coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law
which never can be broken. ...Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind and
in all ages; as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change,
but on the nature of God and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other;"-
John WESLEY "Sermons on Several Occasions," Vol. I, Sermon XXV.

"....The moral law stands on an entirely different foundation from the ceremonial or ritual law.
...Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind and in all ages."- JOHN
WESLEY, "Sermons on Several Occasions," 2-Vol. Edition, Vol. I, pages 221,222.

"No Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called
moral."-".Methodist Church Discipline," (1904), page 23. "Take the matter of Sunday. There are
indications in the New Testament as to how the church came to keep the first day of the week as
its day of worship, but there is no passage telling Christians to keep that day, or to transfer the
Jewish Sabbath to that day." HARRIS FRANKLIN RALL, Christian Advocate, July 2, 1942.

"The Sabbath was made for MAN ; not for the Hebrews, but for ALL MEN."-E. 0. HAVEN,
"Pillars of Truth," page 88.

Episcopalian
"We have made the change from the seventh to the first day, from Saturday to Sunday, on
the authority of the one holy, catholic, apostolic church of Christ." -Bishop Seymour,
Why We Keep Sunday.

"The day is now changed from the seventh to the first day. .but as we meet with no Scriptural
direction for the change, we may conclude it was done by the authority of the church." -"The
Protestant Episcopal Explanation of the Catechism.

Presbyterian
"There is no word, no hint in the New Testament about abstaining from work on Sunday.
The observance of Ash Wednesday , or Lent, stands exactly on the same footing as the
observance of Sunday. Into the rest of Sunday no Divine Law enters." -Canon Exton, Ten
Commandments.
Congregationalist
"It is quite clear that however rigidly or devotedly we may spend Sunday, we are not
keeping the Sabbath.. The Sabbath was founded on a specific divine command. We can
plead no such command for the observance of Sunday. . There is not a single line in the
New Testament to suggest that we incur any penalty by violating the supposed sanctity of
Sunday. " -Dr. R. W. Dale, The Ten Commandments, pp. 106-107.
American Congregationalist
"The current notion, that Christ and His apostles authoritatively substituted the first day
for the seventh, is absolutely without any authority in the New Testament." -Dr. Lyman
Abbot, Christian Union, June 26, 1890.
Christian Church
"Now there is no testimony in all the oracles of heaven that the Sabbath is changed, or
that the Lord's Day came in the room of it."- Alexander Campbell, Reporter, October
8,1921.
Moody Bible Institute

"The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth
commandment begins with the word 'remember " showing that the Sabbath already existed when
God wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one
commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still
binding?"- D. L. MOODY, "Weighed and Wanting," page 47.

"I honestly believe that this commandment [ the fourth, or Sabbath commandment] is just as
binding today as it ever was. I have talked with men who have said that it has been abrogated,
but they have never been able to point to any place in the Bible where God repealed it. When
Christ was on earth, He did nothing to set it aside; He freed it from the traces under which the
scribes and Pharisees had put it, and gave it its true place. 'The Sabbath was made for man, and
not man for the sabbath.' It is just as practicable and as necessary for men today as it ever was--in
fact, more than ever, because we live in such an intense age."-ld., page 46. " 'Sabbath' means rest,
and the meaning of the word gives a hint as to the true way to observe the day. God rested after
creation, and ordained the Sabbath as a rest for man."-ld., pages 46,47.

MISCELLANEOUS

"Practically everything that Protestants regard as essential or important they have received from
the Catholic Church. They accepted Sunday rather than Saturday as the day for public worship
after the Catholic Church made that change. "But the Protestant mind does not seem to realize
that in accepting the Bible, in observing the Sunday, in keeping Christmas and Easter, they are
accepting the authority of the spokesman for the church, the pope."-Our Sunday Visitor, Feb. 5,
1950.

"Only gradually did Christians begin to observe Sunday as a day of rest. ., .In the third century,
as we learn from Tertullian, many Christians had begun to keep Sunday as a day of rest to some
extent. ... "The real need of Sunday as a day of rest as well as worship came much later, in the
sixth century."-"Yes, I Condemned the Catholic Church" (Supreme Council. Knights of
Columbus) , page 4.

"When St. Paul repudiated the works of the law, he was not thinking of the Ten Commandments,
which are as unchangeable as God Himself is, which God could not change and still remain the
infinitely holy God."-Our Sunday Visitor, Oct. 7, 1951.

"You will tell me that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, but that the Christian Sabbath has been
changed to Sunday. Changed ! But by whom ? Who has authority to change an express
commandment of Almighty God? When God has spoken and said, 'Thou shalt keep holy the
seventh day " who shall dare to say. 'Nay , thou mayest work and do all manner of business on
the seventh day; but thou shalt keep holy the first day in its stead'? This is a most important
question, which I know not how you can answer . "You are a Protestant, and you profess to go
by the Bible and the Bible only; and yet in so important a matter as the observance of one day in
seven as a holy day, you go against the plain letter of the Bible, and put another day in the place
of that day which the Bible has commanded. The command to keep holy the seventh day is one
of the Ten Commandments; you believe that the other nine are still binding; who gave you
authority to tamper with the fourth? If you are consistent with your own principles, if you really
follow the Bible and the Bible only, you ought to be able to produce some portion of the New
Testament in which this fourth commandment is expressly altered."-"The Library of Christian
Doctrine" pages 3, 4.

"The first precept in the Bible is that of sanctifying the seventh day: 'God blessed the seventh
day, and sanctified it.' Genesis 2: 3. This precept was confirmed by God in the Ten
Commandments: 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. ...The seventh day is the Sabbath
of the Lord thy God.' Exodus 20: 8, 10. On the other hand, Christ declares that He is not come to
destroy the law, but to fulfil it. (Matthew 5: 17.) He Himself observed the Sabbath: ' And, as His
custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day.' Luke 4: 16. His disciples likewise
observed it after His death: 'They. ..rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.' Luke
23: 56. Yet with all this weight of Scripture authority for keeping the Sabbath or seventh day
holy. Protestants of all denominations make' this a profane day and transfer the obligation of it to
the first day of the week or the Sunday. Now what authority have they for doing this? None at all
but the unwritten word, or tradition of the Catholic Church. which declares that the apostle made
the change in honour of Christ's resurrection, and the descent of the Holy Ghost on that day of
the week."-JOHN MILNER, "The End of Religious Controversy ," page 7 I.

'Most certainly the Commandments are needed today, perhaps more than ever before, Their
divine message confronts us with a profound moral challenge in an epidemic of evil; a unifying
message acceptable alike to Jew, Moslem, and Christian, Who, reading the Ten in the light of
history and of current events, can doubt their identity with the eternal law of nature?"-ld" page
124.

"The Sabbath is commanded to be kept on the seventh day. It could not be kept on any other day.
To observe the first day of the week or the fourth is not to observe the Sabbath. ... It was the last
day of the week, after six days of work, that was to be kept holy. The observance of no other day
would fulfil the law."-H. ]. FLOWERS. B.A., B.D., "The Permanent Value of the Ten
Commandments," page 131.

SETZLER, Head Curator, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institute, from a letter

dated Sept. I. 1949. "He that observes the Sabbath aright holds the history of that which it
celebrates to be authentic, and therefore believes in the creation of the first man; in the creation
of a fair abode for man in the space of six days; in the primeval and absolute creation of the
heavens and the earth, and, as a necessary antecedent to all this, in the Creator, who at the close
of His latest creative effort, rested on the seventh day. The Sabbath thus becomes a sign by
which the believers in a historical revelation are distinguished from those who have allowed
these great facts to fade from their remembrance."-JAMES G. MURPHY, "Commentary on the
Book of Exodus," comments on Exodus 20: 8-11.

Shabbat
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This article is about the rest day in Judaism. For Sabbath in the Bible, see Biblical Sabbath. For
the Talmudic tractate, see Shabbat (Talmud).
"Oyneg Shabes" and "Oneg Shabbat" redirect here. For the collection of documents from the
Warsaw Ghetto collected and preserved by the group known by the code name Oyneg Shabes,
see Ringelblum Archive.
Shabbat candles
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Shabbat (/ʃəˈbɑːt/; Hebrew: ‫[ שַׁ בָּ ת‬ʃa'bat], "rest" or "cessation") or Shabbos (['ʃa.bəs], Yiddish:
‫ )שבת‬or the Sabbath is Judaism's day of rest and seventh day of the week, on which religious
Jews, Samaritans and certain Christians (such as Seventh Day Adventists and Seventh Day
Baptists) remember the Biblical creation of the heavens and the earth in six days and the Exodus
of the Hebrews, and look forward to a future Messianic Age. Shabbat observance entails
refraining from work activities, often with great rigor, and engaging in restful activities to honor
the day. Judaism's traditional position is that unbroken seventh-day Shabbat originated among
the Jewish people, as their first and most sacred institution, though some suggest other origins.
Variations upon Shabbat are widespread in Judaism and, with adaptations, throughout the
Abrahamic and many other religions.

According to halakha (Jewish religious law), Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before
sunset on Friday evening until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night.[1]
Shabbat is ushered in by lighting candles and reciting a blessing. Traditionally, three festive
meals are eaten: in the evening, in the early afternoon, and late in the afternoon. The evening
meal typically begins with a blessing called kiddush and another blessing recited over two loaves
of challah. Shabbat is closed the following evening with a havdalah blessing. Shabbat is a festive
day when Jews exercise their freedom from the regular labors of everyday life. It offers an
opportunity to contemplate the spiritual aspects of life and to spend time with family.

Contents
[hide]

 1 History
o 1.1 Etymology
o 1.2 Biblical sources
o 1.3 Origins
o 1.4 Status as a holy day
 2 Rituals
o 2.1 Welcoming Sabbath
o 2.2 Other rituals
o 2.3 Bidding farewell
 3 Prohibited activities
o 3.1 Orthodox and Conservative
 3.1.1 Electricity
 3.1.2 Automobiles
 3.1.3 Modifications
 3.1.4 Permissions
o 3.2 Reform and Reconstructionist
 4 Encouraged activities
 5 Special Shabbatoth
 6 Sabbath adaptation
 7 See also
 8 References
 9 External links

History[edit]
Etymology[edit]

Main article: Sabbath etymology

The word "Shabbat" derives from the Hebrew verb shavat (Hebrew: ‫)שָּ בַׁ ת‬. Although frequently
translated as "rest" (noun or verb), another accurate translation of these words is "ceasing [from
work]", as resting is not necessarily denoted. The related modern Hebrew word shevita (labor
strike), has the same implication of active rather than passive abstinence from work. The notion
of active cessation from labor is also regarded as more consistent with an omnipotent God's
activity on the seventh day of Creation according to Genesis.

Biblical sources[edit]

Main article: Biblical Sabbath

Sabbath is given special status as a holy day at the very beginning of the Torah in Genesis 2:1–3.
It is first commanded after the Exodus from Egypt, in Exodus 16:26 (relating to the cessation of
manna) and in Exodus 16:29 (relating to the distance one may travel by foot on the Sabbath), as
also in Exodus 20:8–11 (as the fourth of the Ten Commandments). Sabbath is commanded and
commended many more times in the Torah and Tanakh; double the normal number of animal
sacrifices are to be offered on the day.[2] Sabbath is also described by the prophets Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, and Nehemiah.

Origins[edit]

A silver matchbox holder for Shabbat from the Republic of Macedonia

The longstanding traditional Jewish position is that unbroken seventh-day Shabbat originated
among the Jewish people, as their first and most sacred institution.[3] The origins of Shabbat and a
seven-day week are not clear to scholars; the Mosaic tradition claims an origin from the Biblical
creation.[4][5]

Seventh-day Shabbat did not originate with the Egyptians, to whom it was unknown;[6] and other
origin theories based on the day of Saturn, or on the planets generally, have also been
abandoned.[7]

The first non-Biblical reference to Sabbath is in an ostracon found in excavations at Mesad

Hashavyahu, which is dated 630 BCE.[8]

Connection to Sabbath observance has been suggested in the designation of the seventh,
fourteenth, nineteenth, twenty-first and twenty-eight days of a lunar month in an Assyrian
religious calendar as a 'holy day', also called ‘evil days’ (meaning "unsuitable" for prohibited
activities). The prohibitions on these days, spaced seven days apart, include abstaining from
chariot riding, and the avoidance of eating meat by the King. On these days officials were
prohibited from various activities and common men were forbidden to "make a wish", and at
least the 28th was known as a "rest-day".[9][10] The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia advanced a
theory of Assyriologists like Friedrich Delitzsch[3] (and of Marcello Craveri)[11] that Shabbat
originally arose from the lunar cycle in the Babylonian calendar[12][13] containing four weeks
ending in Sabbath, plus one or two additional unreckoned days per month.[14] The difficulties of
this theory include reconciling the differences between an unbroken week and a lunar week, and
explaining the absence of texts naming the lunar week as Sabbath in any language.[7]

Status as a holy day[edit]

A challah cover with Hebrew inscription

The Tanakh and siddur describe Shabbat as having three purposes:

1. To commemorate God's creation of the universe, on the seventh day of which God rested
from (or ceased) his work;
2. To commemorate the Israelites' redemption from slavery in ancient Egypt;
3. As a "taste" of Olam Haba (the Messianic Age).

Judaism accords Shabbat the status of a joyous holy day. In many ways, Jewish law gives
Shabbat the status of being the most important holy day in the Jewish calendar:

 It is the first holy day mentioned in the Bible, and God was the first to observe it with the
cessation of Creation (Genesis 2:1–3).
 Jewish liturgy treats Shabbat as a "bride" and "queen" (see Shekhinah).
 The Sefer Torah is read during the Torah reading which is part of the Shabbat morning
services, with a longer reading than during the week. The Torah is read over a yearly
cycle of 54 parashioth, one for each Shabbat (sometimes they are doubled). On Shabbat,
the reading is divided into seven sections, more than on any other holy day, including
Yom Kippur. Then, the Haftarah reading from the Hebrew prophets is read.
 A tradition states that the Jewish Messiah will come if every Jew properly observes two
consecutive Shabbatoth.[15]
 The punishment in ancient times for desecrating Shabbat (stoning) is the most severe
punishment in Jewish law.[16]

Rituals[edit]
Welcoming Sabbath[edit]

Reciting blessing over Shabbat candles

Honoring Shabbat (kavod Shabbat) on Preparation Day (Friday) includes bathing, having a
haircut and cleaning and beautifying the home (with flowers, for example). According to Jewish
law, Shabbat starts a few minutes before sunset. Candles are lit at this time. It is customary in
many communities to light the candles 18 minutes before sundown (tosefet Shabbat, though
sometimes 36 minutes), and most printed Jewish calendars adhere to this custom. The Kabbalat
Shabbat service is a prayer service welcoming the arrival of Shabbat. Before Friday night dinner,
it is customary to sing two songs, one "greeting" two Shabbat angels into the house[17] and the
other praising the woman of the house for all the work she has done over the past week.[18] After
blessings over the wine and challah, a festive meal is served. Singing is traditional at Sabbath
meals.[19] In modern times, many composers have written sacred music for use during the
Kabbalat Shabbat observance, including Robert Strassburg.[20]

According to rabbinic literature, God via the Torah commands Jews to observe (refrain from
forbidden activity) and remember (with words, thoughts, and actions) Shabbat, and these two
actions are symbolized by the customary two Shabbat candles. Candles are lit usually by the
woman of the house (or else by a man who lives alone). Some families light more candles,
sometimes in accordance with the number of children.[21]

Other rituals[edit]

Shabbat is a day of celebration as well as prayer. It is customary to eat three festive meals:
Dinner on Shabbat eve (Friday night), lunch on Shabbat day (Saturday), and a third meal (a
Seudah Shlishit) in the late afternoon (Saturday). It is also customary to wear nice clothing
(different from during the week) on Shabbat to honor the day.

Many Jews attend synagogue services on Shabbat even if they do not do so during the week.
Services are held on Shabbat eve (Friday night), Shabbat morning (Saturday morning), and late
Shabbat afternoon (Saturday afternoon).

With the exception of Yom Kippur, which is referred to in the Torah (Lev 23:32) as "Shabbat of
Shabbatoth", days of public fasting are postponed or advanced if they coincide with Shabbat.
Mourners sitting shivah (week of mourning subsequent to the death of a spouse or first-degree
relative) outwardly conduct themselves normally for the duration of the day and are forbidden to
display public signs of mourning.

Although most Shabbat laws are restrictive, the fourth of the Ten Commandments in Exodus is
taken by the Talmud and Maimonides to allude to the positive commandments of Shabbat. These
include:

 Honoring Shabbat (kavod Shabbat): on Shabbat, wearing festive clothing and refraining
from unpleasant conversation. It is customary to avoid talk about money or business
matters on Shabbat.[22]
 Recitation of kiddush over a cup of wine at the beginning of Shabbat meals, or at a
reception after the conclusion of morning prayers (see the list of Jewish prayers and
blessings).

Two homemade whole-wheat challahs covered by traditional embroidered Shabbat

challah cover
 Eating three festive meals. Meals begin with a blessing over two loaves of bread (lechem
mishneh, "double bread"), usually of braided challah, which is symbolic of the double
portion of manna that fell for the Jewish people on the day before Sabbath during their 40
years in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt. It is customary to serve meat or fish, and
sometimes both, for Shabbat evening and morning meals. Seudah Shlishit (literally, "third
meal"), generally a light meal that may be pareve or dairy, is eaten late Shabbat
afternoon.

 Enjoying Shabbat (oneg Shabbat): Engaging in pleasurable activities such as eating,

singing, spending time with the family and marital relations.
 Recitation of havdalah.

Bidding farewell[edit]

Main article: Havdalah

Observing the closing havdalah ritual in 14th-century Spain

Havdalah (Hebrew: ‫הַ ְבדָּ לָּה‬, "separation") is a Jewish religious ceremony that marks the symbolic
end of Shabbat, and ushers in the new week. At the conclusion of Shabbat at nightfall, after the
appearance of three stars in the sky, the havdalah blessings are recited over a cup of wine, and
with the use of fragrant spices and a candle, usually braided. Some communities delay havdalah
later into the night in order to prolong Shabbat. There are different customs regarding how much
time one should wait after the stars have surfaced until the sabbath technically ends. Some
people hold by 72 minutes later and other hold longer and shorter than that.

Prohibited activities[edit]
Main article: Activities prohibited on Shabbat

Jewish law (halakha) prohibits doing any form of melakhah (‫מלָּאכָּה‬,

ְ plural melakhoth) on
Shabbat, unless an urgent human or medical need is life-threatening. Though melakhah is
commonly translated as "work" in English, a better definition is "deliberate activity" or "skill and
craftmanship". There are 39 categories of prohibited activities (melakhoth) listed in Mishnah
Tractate Shabbat 7:2.
The term shomer Shabbat is used for a person (or organization) who adheres to Shabbat laws
consistently. The shomer Shabbat is an archetype mentioned in Jewish songs (e.g., Baruch El
Elyon) and the intended audience for various treatises on Jewish law and practice for Shabbat
(e.g., Shemirat Shabbat ke-Hilkhata).

There are often disagreements between Orthodox Jews and non-Orthodox Jews as to the
practical observance of the Sabbath. The (strict) observance of the Sabbath is often seen as a
benchmark for orthodoxy and indeed has legal bearing on the way a Jew is seen by an orthodox
religious court regarding their affiliation to Judaism. See Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik's "Beis
HaLevi" commentary on parasha Ki Tissa for further elaboration regarding the legal
ramifications.

The 39 categories of melakhah are:

 plowing earth
 sowing
 reaping
 binding sheaves
 threshing
 winnowing
 selecting
 grinding
 sifting
 kneading
 baking
 shearing wool
 washing wool
 beating wool
 dyeing wool
 spinning
 weaving
 making two loops
 weaving two threads
 separating two threads
 tying
 untying
 sewing stitches
 tearing
 trapping
 slaughtering
 flaying
 tanning
 scraping hide
 marking hide
 cutting hide to shape
 writing two or more letters
 erasing two or more letters
 building
 demolishing
 extinguishing a fire
  kindling a fire
 putting the finishing touch on an object, and
 transporting an object (between private and public domains, or over 4 cubits within
public domain)

The categories of labors prohibited on Shabbat are exegetically derived – on account of Biblical
passages juxtaposing Shabbat observance (Ex. 35:1–3) to making the Tabernacle (Ex. 35:4 ff.) –
that they are the kinds of work that were necessary for the construction of the Tabernacle. They
are not explicitly listed in the Torah; the Mishnah observes that "the laws of Shabbat ... are like
mountains hanging by a hair, for they are little Scripture but many laws".[23] Many rabbinic
scholars have pointed out that these labors have in common activity that is "creative", or that
exercises control or dominion over one's environment.[24]

Orthodox and Conservative[edit]

Different streams of Judaism view the prohibition on work in different ways. Observant
Orthodox and Conservative Jews refrain from performing the 39 prohibited categories of
activities. Each melakhah has derived prohibitions of various kinds. There are, therefore, many
more forbidden activities on Shabbat; all are traced back to one of the 39 above principal
melakhoth.

Given the above, the 39 melakhoth are not so much activities as "categories of activity". For
example, while "winnowing" usually refers exclusively to the separation of chaff from grain, and
"selecting" refers exclusively to the separation of debris from grain, they refer in the Talmudic
sense to any separation of intermixed materials which renders edible that which was inedible.
Thus, filtering undrinkable water to make it drinkable falls under this category, as does picking
small bones from fish (gefilte fish is one solution to this problem).

Electricity[edit]

Main article: Electricity on Shabbat

Orthodox and some Conservative authorities rule that turning electric devices on or off is
prohibited as a melakhah; however, authorities are not in agreement about exactly which one(s).
One view is that tiny sparks are created in a switch when the circuit is closed, and this would
constitute lighting a fire (category 37). If the appliance is purposed for light or heat (such as an
incandescent bulb or electric oven), then the lighting or heating elements may be considered as a
type of fire that falls under both lighting a fire (category 37) and cooking (i.e., baking, category
11). Turning lights off would be extinguishing a fire (category 36).

Another view is that a device plugged into an electrical outlet of a wall becomes part of the
building, but is nonfunctional while the switch is off; turning it on would then constitute building
(category 35) and turning it off would be demolishing (category 34). Some schools of thought
consider the use of electricity to be forbidden only by rabbinic injunction, rather than because it
violates one of the original categories.

A common solution to the problem of electricity involves preset timers (Shabbat clocks) for
electric appliances, to turn them on and off automatically, with no human intervention on
Shabbat itself. Some Conservative authorities[25][26][27] reject altogether the arguments for
prohibiting the use of electricity. Some Orthodox also hire a "Shabbos goy", a Gentile to perform
prohibited tasks (like operating light switches) on Shabbat.

Automobiles[edit]

Main article: Driving during Shabbat

Orthodox and many Conservative authorities completely prohibit the use of automobiles on
Shabbat as a violation of multiple categories, including lighting a fire, extinguishing a fire, and
transferring between domains (category 39). However, the Conservative movement's Committee
on Jewish Law and Standards permits driving to a synagogue on Shabbat, as an emergency
measure, on the grounds that if Jews lost contact with synagogue life they would become lost to
the Jewish people.

A halakhically authorized Shabbat mode added to a power-operated mobility scooter may be

used on the observance of Shabbat for those with walking limitations, often referred to as a
Shabbat scooter. It is intended only for individuals whose limited mobility is dependent on a
scooter or automobile consistently throughout the week.

Modifications[edit]

Seemingly "forbidden" acts may be performed by modifying technology such that no law is
actually violated. In Sabbath mode, a "Sabbath elevator" will stop automatically at every floor,
allowing people to step on and off without anyone having to press any buttons, which would
normally be needed to work. (Dynamic braking is also disabled if it is normally used, i.e.,
shunting energy collected from downward travel, and thus the gravitational potential energy of
passengers, into a resistor network.) However, many rabbinical authorities consider the use of
such elevators by those who are otherwise capable as a violation of Shabbat, with such
workarounds being for the benefit of the frail and handicapped and not being in the spirit of the
day.

Many observant Jews avoid the prohibition of carrying by use of an eruv. Others make their keys
into a tie bar, part of a belt buckle, or a brooch, because a legitimate article of clothing or jewelry
may be worn rather than carried. An elastic band with clips on both ends, and with keys placed
between them as integral links, may be considered a belt.

Shabbat lamps have been developed to allow a light in a room to be turned on or off at will while
the electricity remains on. A special mechanism blocks out the light when the off position is
desired without violating Shabbat.

The Shabbos App is a proposed Android app claimed by its creators to enable Orthodox Jews,
and all Jewish Sabbath-observers, to use a smartphone to text on the Jewish Sabbath. It has met
with resistance from some authorities.[28][29][30][31]

Permissions[edit]

Main article: Pikuach nefesh

In the event that a human life is in danger (pikuach nefesh), a Jew is not only allowed, but
required,[32][33] to violate any halakhic law that stands in the way of saving that person (excluding
murder, idolatry, and forbidden sexual acts). The concept of life being in danger is interpreted
broadly: for example, it is mandated that one violate Shabbat to bring a woman in active labor to
a hospital. Lesser rabbinic restrictions are often violated under much less urgent circumstances (a
patient who is ill but not critically so).

We did everything to save lives, despite Shabbat. People asked, 'Why are you here? There are no
Jews here', but we are here because the Torah orders us to save lives .... We are desecrating
Shabbat with pride.

— Mati Goldstein, commander of the Jewish ZAKA rescue-mission to the 2010 Haiti
earthquake[34]

Various other legal principles closely delineate which activities constitute desecration of
Shabbat. Examples of these include the principle of shinui ("change" or "deviation"): A violation
is not regarded as severe if the prohibited act was performed in a way that would be considered
abnormal on a weekday. Examples include writing with one's nondominant hand, according to
many rabbinic authorities. This legal principle operates bedi'avad (ex post facto) and does not
cause a forbidden activity to be permitted barring extenuating circumstances.

Reform and Reconstructionist[edit]

Generally, adherents of Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism believe that the individual Jew
determines whether to follow Shabbat prohibitions or not. For example, some Jews might find
activities, such as writing or cooking for leisure, to be enjoyable enhancements to Shabbat and its
holiness, and therefore may encourage such practices. Many Reform Jews believe that what
constitutes "work" is different for each person, and that only what the person considers "work" is
forbidden.[35] The radical Reform rabbi Samuel Holdheim advocated moving Sabbath to Sunday
for many no longer observed it, a step taken by dozens of congregations in the United States in
late 19th century.[36]

More rabbinically traditional Reform and Reconstructionist Jews believe that these halakhoth in
general may be valid, but that it is up to each individual to decide how and when to apply them.
A small fraction of Jews in the Progressive Jewish community accept these laws much the same
way as Orthodox Jews.

Encouraged activities[edit]
All Jewish denominations encourage the following activities on Shabbat:

 Reading, studying, and discussing Torah and commentary, Mishnah and Talmud, and
learning some halakha and midrash.
 Synagogue attendance for prayers.
 Spending time with other Jews and socializing with family, friends, and guests at Shabbat
meals (hachnasat orchim, "hospitality").
 Singing zemiroth or niggunim, special songs for Shabbat meals (commonly sung during
or after a meal).
 Marital relations between husband and wife.[37]
 Sleeping.
Special Shabbatoth[edit]
Main article: Special Shabbat

The Special Shabbatoth are the Shabbatoth that precede important Jewish holidays: e.g., Shabbat
haGadol (Shabbat preceding Pesach), Shabbat Zachor (Shabbat preceding Purim), and Shabbat
Shuvah (or Teshuva) (the Shabbat between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur).

Sabbath adaptation[edit]
Main articles: First-day Sabbath and Seventh-day Sabbath

Most Christians do not observe Saturday Sabbath, but instead observe a weekly day of worship
on Sunday, which is often called the "Lord's Day". Several Christian denominations, such as the
Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Church of God (7th Day), the Seventh Day Baptists, and
many others, observe seventh-day Sabbath. This observance is celebrated from Friday sunset to
Saturday sunset.

The principle of weekly Sabbath also exists in other beliefs. Examples include the Babylonian
calendar, the Buddhist uposatha, and the Unification Church's Ahn Shi Il.

Sabbath in Christianity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

A Ten Commandments monument at the Texas State Capitol that was the subject of a lawsuit,
Van Orden v. Perry

Sabbath in Christianity is the inclusion or adoption in Christianity of a Sabbath day.

Established within Judaism through Mosaic Law, Christians inherited a Sabbath practice that
reflected two great precepts: the commandment to "remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy"[1]
and God's blessing of the seventh day (Saturday) as a day of rest in the Genesis creation narrative
and declared as made for man by Jesus.[2] The first of these provisions was associated in Judaism
with the assembly of the people to worship in the Temple in Jerusalem or in synagogues.

The position now dominant in Western Christianity is that observance of the Lord's Day,
Sunday, supplanted or superseded the Sabbath commandment in that the former "celebrated the
Christian community's deliverance from captivity to sin, Satan, and worldly passions, made
possible by the resurrection on the first day of the week."[3][4] Early Christians observed the
seventh day with prayer and rest, but they also gathered on the first day. By the 4th century,
Christians were officially observing the first day, Sunday, as their day of rest, not the seventh.

A Sabbatarian movement within Oriental Orthodoxy began in the 12th century in Ethiopia and
gained momentum in the 13th, eventually establishing itself as the norm in that region. The
modern Orthodox Tewahedo churches observe a two-day Sabbath, including both Saturday and
Sunday.[5] Influenced by Puritan ideas, the Presbyterian and Congregationalist, as well as
Methodist and Baptist Churches, enshrined first-day Sabbatarian views in their confessions of
faith, observing the Lord's Day as the Christian Sabbath.[6]

Beginning about the 17th century, a few groups of Restorationist Christians took issue with some
of the practice of the churches around them, sometimes also questioning the theology that had
been so widely accepted throughout 16 centuries. Mostly Seventh-day Sabbatarians, they broke
away from their former churches to form communities that followed Seventh-day Sabbath-based
practices that differed from the rest of Christianity, often also adopting a more literal
interpretation of law, either Christian or Mosaic.

Contents
[hide]

 1 History
o 1.1 Sabbath timing
o 1.2 Early Christianity
o 1.3 Corporate worship
o 1.4 Day of rest
o 1.5 From ancient times to Middle Ages
 1.5.1 Continuations of Hebrew practices
o 1.6 Oriental Orthodoxy
o 1.7 Protestant Reformation
 2 Common theology
o 2.1 Spiritual rest
o 2.2 Weekly rest
 3 Non-sabbatarian churches
o 3.1 Roman Catholicism
o 3.2 Eastern Orthodoxy
 3.2.1 Eastern Christianity and Saturday vs. Sunday observances
o 3.3 Lutheranism
o 3.4 Latter Day Saints
 4 First-day sabbatarian churches and organizations
 5 Seventh-day sabbatarian churches
o 5.1 Seventh-day Adventist Church
 6 Other definitions
  7 Notes
 8 See also
 9 References
o 9.1 Works cited
 10 Further reading

History[edit]
Main article: Early Christianity

Sabbath timing[edit]

The Hebrew Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, is often spoken of loosely as "Saturday". In
fact, in the Hebrew calendar, a day begins at sunset, and not at midnight. The Sabbath therefore
coincides with what the Gregorian calendar identifies as Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.
Similarly, the first day of the week ("Sunday") coincides with Gregorian Saturday sunset to
Sunday sunset. The Sabbath continued to be observed on the seventh day in the early Christian
church.[note 1] To this day, the Sabbath continues to be observed in line with the Hebrew Sabbath
timing in the church calendars in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy.[7]

On the other hand, the current canons of the Roman Catholic Church (Canon 202 §1) define a
day as beginning at midnight.[8]

Early Christianity[edit]

Early Christians continued to pray and rest on the seventh day.[9] By the 2nd century AD some
Christians also observed Sunday, the day of the week on which Jesus had risen from the dead
and on which the Holy Spirit had come to the apostles.[9] Paul and the Christians of Troas, for
example, gathered on Sunday "to break bread," [10] Soon Christians were observing only Sunday
and not the Sabbath.[9] Patristic writings attest that by the second century, it had become
commonplace to celebrate the Eucharist in a corporate day of worship on the first day.[11] A
Church Father, Eusebius, stated that for Christians, "the sabbath had been transferred to
Sunday".[12]

In his noteworthy[13] book From Sabbath to Sunday, Adventist theologian Samuele Bacchiocchi
contended that the transition from the Saturday Sabbath to Sunday in the early Christian church
was due to pagan and political factors, and the decline of standards for the Sabbath day.[14]

Corporate worship[edit]

While the Lord's Day observance of the Eucharist was established separately from the Jewish
Sabbath, the centrality of the Eucharist itself made it the commonest early observance whenever
Christians gathered for worship. In many places and times as late as the 4th century, they did
continue to gather weekly on the Sabbath, often in addition to the Lord's Day, celebrating the
Eucharist on both days.[15][16][17] No disapproval of Sabbath observance of the Christian festival
was expressed at the early church councils that dealt with Judaizing. The Council of Laodicea
(363-364), for example, mandated only that Sabbath Eucharists must be observed in the same
manner as those on the first day.[17] Neander has suggested that Sabbath Eucharists in many
places were kept "as a feast in commemoration of the Creation".[17]
The issues about Hebrew practices that continued into the 2nd century tended to relate mostly to
the Sabbath. Justin Martyr, who attended worship on the first day,[18] wrote about the cessation of
Hebrew Sabbath observance and stated that the Sabbath was enjoined as a temporary sign to
Israel to teach it of human sinfulness (Gal. 3:24-25),[19] no longer needed after Christ came
without sin.[20] He rejected the need to keep literal seventh-day Sabbath, arguing instead that "the
new law requires you to keep the sabbath constantly."[21] With Christian corporate worship so
clearly aligned with the Eucharist and allowed on the seventh day, Hebrew Sabbath practices
primarily involved the observance of a day of rest.

Day of rest[edit]

A common theme in criticism of Hebrew Sabbath rest was idleness, found not to be in the
Christian spirit of rest. Irenaeus (late 2nd c.), also citing continuous Sabbath observance, wrote
that the Christian "will not be commanded to leave idle one day of rest, who is constantly
keeping sabbath",[22] and Tertullian (early 3rd century) argued "that we still more ought to
observe a sabbath from all servile work always, and not only every seventh-day, but through all
time".[23] This early metaphorical interpretation of Sabbath applied it to the entire Christian life.[24]

Ignatius, cautioning against "Judaizing" in his letter to the Magnesians,[25] contrasts the Jewish
Sabbath practices with the Christian life which includes the Lord's Day: "Let us therefore no
longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness .... But let every
one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in
relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day
before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in
dancing and plaudits which have no sense in them. And after the observance of the Sabbath, let
every friend of Christ keep the Lord's [Day, Dominicam] as a festival, the resurrection-day, the
queen and chief of all the days."[26]

The 2nd and 3rd centuries solidified the early church's emphasis upon Sunday worship and its
rejection of a Jewish (Mosaic Law-based) observation of the Sabbath and manner of rest.
Christian practice of following Sabbath after the manner of the Hebrews declined, prompting
Tertullian to note "to [us] Sabbaths are strange" and unobserved.[27] Even as late as the 4th
century, Judaizing was still sometimes a problem within the Church, but by this time it was
repudiated strongly as heresy.[28][29][30]

Sunday was another work day in the Roman Empire. On March 7, 321, however, Roman
Emperor Constantine I issued a civil decree making Sunday a day of rest from labor, stating:[31]

All judges and city people and the craftsmen shall rest upon the venerable day of the sun.
Country people, however, may freely attend to the cultivation of the fields, because it frequently
happens that no other days are better adapted for planting the grain in the furrows or the vines in
trenches. So that the advantage given by heavenly providence may not for the occasion of a short
time perish.

While established only in civil law rather than religious principle, the Church welcomed the
development as a means by which Christians could the more easily attend Sunday worship and
observe Christian rest. At Laodicea also, the Church encouraged Christians to make use of the
day for Christian rest where possible,[30] without ascribing to it any of the regulation of Mosaic
Law, and indeed, anathematizing Hebrew observance on the Sabbath. The civil law and its
effects made possible a pattern in Church life that has been imitated throughout the centuries in
many places and cultures, wherever possible.

From ancient times to Middle Ages[edit]

Augustine of Hippo followed the early patristic writers in spiritualizing the meaning of the
Sabbath commandment, referring it to eschatological rest rather than observance of a literal day.
Such writing, however, did serve to deepen the idea of Christian rest on Sunday, and its practice
increased in prominence throughout the early Middle Ages.[32]

Thomas Aquinas taught that the Decalogue is an expression of natural law which binds all men,
and therefore the Sabbath commandment is a moral requirement along with the other nine. Thus
in the west, Sunday rest became more closely associated with a Christian application of the
Sabbath, a development towards the idea of a "Christian Sabbath" rather than a Hebrew one.[32]
While Sunday worship and Sunday rest combined powerfully to relate to Sabbath commandment
precepts, the application of the commandment to Christian life was nevertheless a response
within the law of liberty, not restricted to a single day but continuous, and not a displacement of
the Sabbath in time.

Continuations of Hebrew practices[edit]

Seventh-day Sabbath was observed at least sporadically by a minority of groups during the
Middle Ages.

In the early church in Ireland, there is evidence that a sabbath-rest on Saturday may have been
kept along with mass on Sunday as the 'Lord's day'. It appears that many of the canon laws in
Ireland from that period were derived from parts of the laws of Moses. In Adomnan of Iona's
biography of St Columba it describes Columba's death by having Columba say on a Saturday
'Today is truly my sabbath, for it is my last day in this wearisome life, when I shall keep the
Sabbath after my troublesome labours. At midnight this Sunday, as Scripture saith, "I shall go
the way of my fathers"' and he then dies that night. The identification of this sabbath day as a
Saturday in the narrative is clear in the context, because Columba is recorded as seeing an angel
at the mass on the previous Sunday and the narrative claims he dies in the same week, on the
sabbath day at the end of the week, during the 'Lord's night' (referring to Saturday night-Sunday
morning).[33]

An Eastern body of Christian Sabbath-keepers mentioned from the 8th century to the 12th is
called Athenians ("touch-not") because they abstained from uncleanness and intoxicating drinks,
called Athinginians in Neander: "This sect, which had its principal seat in the city of Armorion,
in upper Phrygia, where many Jews resided, sprung out of a mixture of Judaism and Christianity.
They united baptism with the observance of all the rites of Judaism, circumcision excepted. We
may perhaps recognize a branch of the older Judaizing sects.[34]

Cardinal Hergenrother says that they stood in intimate relation with Emperor Michael II (AD
821-829), and testifies that they observed Sabbath.[35] As late as the 11th century Cardinal
Humbert still referred to the Nazarenes as a Sabbath-keeping Christian body existing at that time.
But in the 10th and 11th centuries, there was a great extension of sects from the East to the West.
Neander states that the corruption of the clergy furnished a most important vantage-ground on
which to attack the dominant church. The abstemious life of these Christians, the simplicity and
earnestness of their preaching and teaching, had their effect. "Thus we find them emerging at
once in the 11th century, in countries the most diverse, and the most remote from each other, in
Italy, France, and even in the Harz districts in Germany." Likewise, also, "traces of Sabbath-
keepers are found in the times of Gregory I, Gregory VII, and in the 12th century in
Lombardy."[36]

Oriental Orthodoxy[edit]

The Orthodox Tewahedo churches celebrate the Sabbath, a practice proselytised in the Oriental
Orthodox church in Ethiopia in the 1300s by Ewostatewos (Ge'ez: ዮስጣቴዎስ, Ancient Greek:
Ευστάθιος.[37] In response to colonial pressure by missionaries of the Catholic Church in the
1500s, the emperor Saint Gelawdewos wrote his Confession, an apologia of traditional beliefs
and practices including observation of the Sabbath and a theological defense of the Miaphysitism
of Oriental Orthodoxy.[38]

Protestant Reformation[edit]

A recreation ground on Raasay displaying a sign "Please do not use this playing field on
Sundays".

Protestant reformers, beginning in the 16th century, brought new interpretations of Christian law
to the west. According to Bauckham, while Martin Luther and John Calvin repudiated the idea
that Christians are bound to obey the Mosaic law, including the fourth of the Ten
Commandments concerning Sabbath, they did follow Aquinas's concept of natural law. They
viewed Sunday rest as a civic institution established by human authority, which provided an
occasion for bodily rest and public worship.[39] In his work against the Antinomians, Luther
rejected the idea that he had taught the abolition of the Ten Commandments.[40] Another
Protestant, John Wesley, stated "This 'handwriting of ordinances' our Lord did blot out, take
away, and nail to His cross (Col. 2:14). But the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments,
and enforced by the prophets, He did not take away .... The moral law stands on an entirely
different foundation from the ceremonial or ritual law .... Every part of this law must remain in
force upon all mankind and in all ages."[41]

Sabbatarianism arose and spread among both the continental and English Protestants during the
17th and 18th centuries. The Puritans of England and Scotland brought a new rigorism into the
observance of the Christian Lord's Day, in reaction to the customary Sunday observance of the
time, which they regarded as lax. They appealed to Sabbath ordinances with the idea that only
the Bible can bind men's consciences in whether or how they will take a break from work, or to
impose an obligation to meet at a particular time. Their influential reasoning spread to other
denominations also, and it is primarily through their influence that "Sabbath" has become the
colloquial equivalent of "Lord's Day" or "Sunday". Sunday Sabbatarianism is enshrined in its
most mature expression, the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), in the Calvinist theological
tradition. Chapter 21, Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day, sections 7-8 read:

7. As it is the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship
of God; so, in his Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding all men in all
ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him:
which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the
week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which, in
Scripture, is called the Lord's day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian
Sabbath.
8. This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts,
and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe a holy rest, all the day,
from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but
also are taken up, the whole time, in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the
duties of necessity and mercy.[citation needed]

The confession holds that not only is work forbidden in Sunday, but also "works, words, and
thoughts" about "worldly employments and recreations." Instead, the whole day should be taken
up with "public and private exercises of [one's] worship, and in the duties of necessity and
mercy."[citation needed]

Strict Sunday Sabbatarianism is sometimes called "Puritan Sabbath", which may be contrasted
with "Continental Sabbath".[42] The latter follows the reformed confessions of faith of Continental
Europe such as the Heidelberg Catechism, which emphasize rest and worship on the Lord's Day,
but do not explicitly forbid recreational activities.[43] However, in practice, many continental
Reformed Christians also abstain from recreation on the Sabbath, following the admonition by
the Heidelberg Catechism's author Zacharaias Ursinus that "To keep holy the Sabbath, is not to
spend the day in slothfulness and idleness".[44]

Though first-day Sabbatarian practice declined in the 18th century, the First Great Awakening in
the 19th century led to a greater concern for strict Sunday observance. The founding of the Day
One Christian Ministries in 1831 was influenced by the teaching of Daniel Wilson.[39]

Common theology[edit]
See also: Christian views on the Old Covenant

Many Christian theologians believe that Sabbath observance is not binding for Christians
today,[45][46] citing for instance Col. 2:16-17.[47]

Some Christian non-Sabbatarians advocate physical Sabbath rest on any chosen day of the
week,[48] and some advocate Sabbath as a symbolic metaphor for rest in Christ; the concept of
"Lord's Day" is usually treated as synonymous with "Sabbath". This non-Sabbatarian
interpretation usually states that Jesus's obedience and the New Covenant fulfilled the laws of
Sabbath, the Ten Commandments, and the Law of Moses, which are thus considered not to be
binding moral laws, and sometimes considered abolished or abrogated. While Sunday is often
observed as the day of Christian assembly and worship, in accordance with church tradition,
Sabbath commandments are dissociated from this practice.
Non-Sabbatarian Christians also cite 2 Cor. 3:2-3, in which believers are compared to "a letter
from Christ, the result of our ministry, written ... not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human
hearts"; this interpretation states that Christians accordingly no longer follow the Ten
Commandments with dead orthodoxy ("tablets of stone"), but follow a new law written upon
"tablets of human hearts". 3:7-11 adds that "if the ministry that brought death, which was
engraved in letters on stone, came with glory ..., will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more
glorious? .... And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of
that which lasts!" This is interpreted as teaching that New Covenant Christians are not bound by
the Mosaic Law, and that Sabbath-keeping is not required. Further, because "love is the
fulfillment of the law" (Rom. 13:10), the new-covenant "law" is considered to be based entirely
upon love and to rescind Sabbath requirements.

Spiritual rest[edit]

Non-Sabbatarians who affirm that Sabbath-keeping remains for God's people (as in Heb. 3:7-
4:11) frequently regard this as present weeklong spiritual rest or future heavenly rest rather than
as physical weekly rest. For instance, Irenaeus saw Sabbath rest from secular affairs for one day
each week as a sign of the way that Christians were called to permanently devote themselves to
God[49] and an eschatological symbol.[50] One such interpretation of Hebrews states that seventh-
day Sabbath is no longer relevant as a regular, literal day of rest, but instead is a symbolic
metaphor for the eternal salvation "rest" that Christians enjoy in Christ, which was in turn
prefigured by the promised land of Canaan.

"The NT indicates that the sabbath followed its own channel and found its goal in Christ's
redemptive work [John 5:17, cf. 7:23, Colossians 2:16, Matthew 11:28–12:14, Hebrews 3:7–
4:11]. It is true to the NT to say that the Mosaic sabbath as a legal and weekly matter was a
temporary symbol of a more fundamental and comprehensive salvation, epitomized by and
grounded in God's own creation sabbath, and brought to fulfillment (in already–not yet fashion)
in Christ's redemptive work. Believers are indeed to 'keep sabbath,' no longer by observance of a
day of the week but now by the upholding of that to which it pointed: the gospel of the
[Kingdom of God]."[51]

Weekly rest[edit]

Lutheran writer Marva Dawn keeps a whole day as Sabbath, advocating for rest during any
weekly complete 24-hour period[48] and favoring rest from Saturday sunset to Sunday sunset,[52]
but regarding corporate worship as "an essential part of God's Sabbath reclamation."[53]

Non-sabbatarian churches[edit]
See also: Sabbatarianism and Lord's Day

Much of Western Christianity came to view Sunday as a transference of Sabbath observance to

the first day, identifying Sunday with a first-day "Christian Sabbath". While first-day
Sabbatarian practice declined during the 18th century, leaving few modern followers, its concern
for stricter Sunday observances did have influence in the west, shaping the origin of the Christian
Sabbath. The term no longer applies to a specific set of practices, but tends to be used to describe
the general establishment of Sunday worship and rest observances within Christianity. It does not
necessarily imply the displacement of the Sabbath itself, which is often recognized as remaining
on Saturday. As such, the Christian Sabbath generally represents a reinterpretation of the
meaning of the Sabbath in the light of Christian law, emphases of practice, and values.

Roman Catholicism[edit]

In 1998 Pope John Paul II wrote an apostolic letter Dies Domini,[54] "on keeping the Lord's day
holy". He encourages Catholics to remember the importance of keeping Sunday holy, urging that
it not lose its meaning by being blended with a frivolous "weekend" mentality.

Going beyond the traditional Catholic position and seeing to uphold the Lord's Day Act in
French Quebec, the Catholic Sunday League was formed in 1923 to promote first-day
sabbatarian restrictions in the province, especially against movie theaters.[55]

In the Latin Church, Sunday is kept in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus and
celebrated with the Eucharist (Catholic Catechism 2177).[56] It is also the day of leisure. The
Lord's Day is considered both the first day and the 'eighth day' of the week, symbolizing both
first creation and new creation (2174).[56] Roman Catholics view the first day as a day for
assembly for worship (2178, Heb. 10:25),[56] but consider a day of rigorous rest not obligatory on
Christians (Rom. 14:5, Col. 2:16).[57] Catholic recommendations to rest on Sunday do not hinder
participation in "ordinary and innocent occupations".[58] In the spirit of the Sabbath, Catholics
ought to observe a day of rest from servile work, which also becomes "a day of protest against
the servitude of work and the worship of money" (Catholic Catechism 2172). This day is often
(traditionally) observed on Sunday in conjunction with the Lord's Day (Catholic Catechism
2176).[59]

Cardinal James Gibbons affirmed Sunday observances as one of the examples of the Roman
Catholic Church's sufficiency as guide:

Now the Scriptures alone do not contain all the truths which a Christian is bound to believe, nor
do they explicitly enjoin all the duties which he is obliged to practice. Not to mention other
examples, is not every Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday and to abstain on that day from
unnecessary servile work? Is not the observance of this law among the most prominent of our
sacred duties? But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a
single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious
observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.

— Faith of Our Fathers, Cardinal Gibbons, p. 72 [60]

Eastern Orthodoxy[edit]

Orthodox Sunday worship is not a direct Sabbath observance. The Eastern Orthodox Church
observes the first day (liturgical Sunday, beginning Saturday evening) as a weekly feast, the
remembrance of Christ's resurrection, and a mini-Pascha. As such, it tends to hold the first place
within a week's observances, sharing that place only with other major feasts which occur from
time to time. The Divine Liturgy is always celebrated, joining the participants on earth with
those who offer the worship in God's kingdom, and hence joining the first day to the eighth day,
wherein the communion of the whole Church with Christ is fully realized. As such, it is never
surpassed as a time for the Orthodox to assemble in worship.
The Church affirms its authority to appoint the time of this feast (and all observances) as
deriving from the authority given to the apostles and passed to the bishops through the laying-on
of hands, for the sake of the governance of the Church on earth, and under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit (John 20:22, John 14:26, Rom. 6:14-18, Rom. 7:6). It does not treat Sunday worship
as a transference of Sabbath worship, but identifies the Sabbath, still on Saturday, as a Biblical
"type", a precursor, realized fully only after Christ's fulfillment of the Mosaic Law (Mat. 5:17-
18). Thus, the Sabbath and the Mosaic Law both remain as a teacher, reminding Christians to
worship in holiness, but now according to grace, in Christian observations and Sunday worship.

The grace received in baptism binds the Church to Christ, Who has given his people the freedom
to seek him directly in relationship, not to pursue whatever suits one's fancy. The goal of that
freedom is always union with Christ in theosis, and the maintenance of that union all the time,
throughout this life and into the next, which is sometimes described as the "sanctification of
time". Grace therefore never permits of whatever is sinful or unhelpful to salvation, such as
laziness or hedonistic revelry. Rather, it becomes a stricter guide for behavior than any legal
code, even the Mosaic, and disciplines the believer in some degree of ascetic endeavor (Rom.
6:14-18).[61]

Orthodoxy recognizes no mandated time for rest, a day or any other span, but the Church leads
the individual to holiness in different ways, and recognizes the need for economy and for rest.
Activities such as sleep, relaxation, and recreation become a matter of balance and proper
handling, and acceptance of God's mercy. St. Basil the Great expresses thanks for this in a prayer
often said by Orthodox Christians in the morning, after rising: "You do we bless, O Most High
God and Lord of mercy, ... Who has given unto us sleep for rest from our infirmity, and for
repose of our much-toiling flesh."[62] In recognition of God's gifts, therefore, the Church
welcomes and supports civil laws that provide a day away from labor, which then become
opportunities for Christians to pray, rest, and engage in acts of mercy. In grace do Christians
respond, remembering both the example of the Sabbath rest, and Christ's lordship (Mk. 2:21-28).

Eastern Christianity and Saturday vs. Sunday observances[edit]

Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches distinguish between the "Sabbath" (Saturday)
and the "Lord's Day" (Sunday), and both continue to play a special role for the faithful. Many
parishes and monasteries will serve the Divine Liturgy on both Saturday morning and Sunday
morning. The church never allows strict fasting on any Saturday (except Holy Saturday) or
Sunday, and the fasting rules on those Saturdays and Sundays which fall during one of the
fasting seasons (such as Great Lent, Apostles' Fast, etc.) are always relaxed to some degree.
During Great Lent, when the celebration of the Liturgy is forbidden on weekdays, there is always
Liturgy on Saturday as well as Sunday. The church also has a special cycle of Bible readings
(Epistle and Gospel) for Saturdays and Sundays which is different from the cycle of readings
allotted to weekdays. However, the Lord's Day, being a celebration of the Resurrection, is clearly
given more emphasis. For instance, in the Russian Orthodox Church Sunday is always observed
with an all-night vigil on Saturday night, and in all of the Eastern Churches it is amplified with
special hymns which are chanted only on Sunday. If a feast day falls on a Sunday it is always
combined with the hymns for Sunday (unless it is a Lord's Great Feast). Saturday is celebrated as
a sort of afterfeast for the previous Sunday, on which several of the hymns from the previous
Sunday are repeated.

In part, Eastern Christians continue to celebrate Saturday as Sabbath because of its role in the
history of salvation: it was on a Saturday that Jesus "rested" in the cave tomb after the Passion.
For this reason also, Saturday is a day for general commemoration of the departed, and special
requiem hymns are often chanted on this day. Orthodox Christians make time to help the poor
and needy as well on this day.

Lutheranism[edit]

Lutheran founder Martin Luther stated "I wonder exceedingly how it came to be imputed to me
that I should reject the law of Ten Commandments...Whosoever abrogates the law must of
necessity abrogate sin also."[63] The Lutheran Augsburg Confession, speaking of changes made
by Roman Catholic pontiffs, states: "They refer to the Sabbath-day as having been changed into
the Lord's Day, contrary to the Decalog, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they
make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath-day. Great, say they, is the power of the
Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments!"[64] Lutheran church
historian Augustus Neander[65] states "The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always
only a human ordinance".[66]

Lutheran writer Marva Dawn keeps a whole day as Sabbath, advocating for rest during any
weekly complete 24-hour period[67] and favoring rest from Saturday sunset to Sunday sunset,[68]
but regarding corporate worship as "an essential part of God's Sabbath reclamation."[69]

Latter Day Saints[edit]

See also: Sacrament meeting and Worship services of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints

In 1831, Joseph Smith published a revelation commanding his related movement, the formative
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to go to the house of prayer, offer up their
sacraments, rest from their labors, and pay their devotions on the Lord's day (D&C 59:9–12).
Mormons believe this means performing no labor that would keep them from giving their full
attention to spiritual matters (Ex. 20:10). LDS prophets have described this as meaning they
should not shop, hunt, fish, attend sports events, or participate in similar activities on that day.
Elder Spencer W. Kimball wrote in his The Miracle of Forgiveness that mere idle lounging on
the Sabbath does not keep the day holy, and that it calls for constructive thoughts and acts.[70]

Mormons are encouraged to prepare their meals with "singleness of heart" on the Sabbath
[71]
(D&C 59:13) and believe the day is only for righteous activities (Is. 58:13.) In most areas of
the world, Mormons worship on Sunday.[72]

First-day sabbatarian churches and organizations[edit]

Main article: Sabbatarianism § Sunday Sabbatarians

The observance of the Lord's Day (Sunday) as the Christian Sabbath is known as first-day
Sabbatarianism and this view was historically heralded by nonconformist denominations, such as
Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists, as well as many
Episcopalians.[73][74][75][76] First-day sabbatarianism impacted popular Western Christian culture,
with influences remaining to the present day, e.g. Sunday laws.[77]
The Sabbath Breakers by J.C. Dollman (1896)

For example, The Westminster Confession, historically upheld by Presbyterians, commands the
belief of first-day Sabbatarian doctrine:[78]

As it is the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of
God; so, in his Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding all men in all
ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him:
which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the
week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which, in
Scripture, is called the Lord’s day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian
Sabbath.
This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts,
and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe a holy rest, all the day,
from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but
also are taken up, the whole time, in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the
duties of necessity and mercy.

The Savoy Declaration, upheld by Puritan Congregationalists,[79] as well as the Second London
Baptist Confession, upheld by Reformed Baptists, advanced first-day Sabbatarian views identical
to those expressed in the Westminster Confession.[80] General Baptists also advocate first-day
Sabbatarian doctrine in their confessions of faith; for example, the Treatise on the Faith and
Practice of the Free Will Baptists states:[81]

This is one day in seven, which from the creation of the world God has set apart for sacred rest
and holy service. Under the former dispensation, the seventh day of the week, as commemorative
of the work of creation, was set apart for the Lord's Day. Under the gospel, the first day of the
week, in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, and by authority of Christ and the
apostles, is observed as the Christian Sabbath. On this day all men are required to refrain from
secular labor and devote themselves to the worship and service of God.[81]

In keeping with historic Methodism,[82] the Discipline of the Bible Methodist Connection of
Churches enshrines first-day Sabbatarianism:[83]

We believe that the Lord’s Day, celebrated on Sunday, the first day of the week, throughout the
Christian church, is the Christian sabbath, which we reverently observe as a day of rest and
worship and as the continuing memorial of our Savior’s resurrection. For this reason, we abstain
from secular work and from all merchandising on this holy day, except that required by mercy or
necessity.[83]
Organizations that promote Sunday Sabbatarianism include Day One Christian Ministries
(formerly known as the Lord's Day Observance Society) in the UK. With unwavering support by
mainstream Christian denominations, Sabbatarian organizations were formed, such as the
American Sabbath Union (also known as the Lord's Day Alliance) and the Sunday League of
America, following the American Civil War, to preserve the importance of Sunday as the
Christian Sabbath.[6] Founded in 1888, the Lord's Day Alliance continues to "encourage all
people to recognize and observe a day of Sabbath rest and to worship the risen Lord Jesus Christ,
on the Lord’s Day, Sunday".[84] The Board of Managers of the Lord's Day Alliance is composed
of clergy and laity from Christian churches, including Baptist, Catholic, Episcopalian, Friends,
Lutheran, Methodist, Non-Denominationalist, Orthodox, Presbyterian, and Reformed
traditions.[84] The Woman's Christian Temperance Union also supports Sabbatarian views and
worked to reflect these in the public sphere.[85] In Canada, the Lord's Day Alliance (renamed the
People for Sunday Association of Canada) was founded there and it lobbied successfully to pass
in 1906 the Lord's Day Act, which was not repealed until 1985.[86] Throughout their history,
Sabbatarian organizations, such as the Lord's Day Alliance, have mounted campaigns, with
support in both Canada and Britain from labour unions with the goals of preventing secular and
commercial interests from hampering freedom of worship and preventing them from exploiting
workers.[87]

The founder of the Moody Bible Institute declares, "Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has
been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word 'remember,' showing
that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can
men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the
other nine are still binding?"[88]

Seventh-day sabbatarian churches[edit]

Oldest Sabbatarian Meeting House in America (Seventh Day Baptists), built in 1729 in Newport,
Rhode Island, now owned by Newport Historical Society.
Main article: Sabbath in seventh-day churches

Seventh-day Protestants regard Sabbath as a day of rest for all mankind and not Israel alone,
based on Jesus's statement, "the Sabbath was made for man" (i.e., purposed for humankind at the
time of its creation, Mark 2:27, cf. Heb. 4), and on early-church Sabbath meetings. Seventh-day
Sabbatarianism has been criticized as an effort to combine Old Testament laws, practiced in
Judaism, with Christianity, or to revive the Judaizers of the Epistles or the Ebionites.

Seventh-day Sabbatarians practice a strict seventh-day Sabbath observance, similar to Shabbat in

Judaism. John Traske (1586–1636) and Thomas Brabourne first advocated seventh-day
Sabbatarianism in England. Their ideas gave rise to the Seventh Day Baptists, formed in early
17th-century in England. Samuel and Tacy Hubbard began the first American congregation on
Rhode Island in 1671.

Grace Communion International (Armstrongism) taught seventh-day Sabbath observance. The

United Church of God teaches seventh-day Sabbath observance.

Seventh-day Adventist Church[edit]

A Seventh-day Adventist Church.

See also: Seventh-day Adventist worship, Armstrongism, and Seventh-day Adventist eschatology

The Seventh-day Adventist Church arose in the mid-19th century in America after Rachel Oakes,
a Seventh Day Baptist, gave a tract about the Sabbath to an Adventist Millerite, who passed it on
to Ellen G. White.

Fundamental Belief # 20 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church states:

The beneficent Creator, after the six days of Creation, rested on the seventh day and instituted
the Sabbath for all people as a memorial of Creation. The fourth commandment of God's
unchangeable law requires the observance of this seventh-day Sabbath as the day of rest,
worship, and ministry in harmony with the teaching and practice of Jesus, the Lord of the
Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day of delightful communion with God and one another. It is a symbol
of our redemption in Christ, a sign of our sanctification, a token of our allegiance, and a foretaste
of our eternal future in God's kingdom. The Sabbath is God's perpetual sign of His eternal
covenant between Him and His people. Joyful observance of this holy time from evening to
evening, sunset to sunset, is a celebration of God's creative and redemptive acts. (Gen. 2:1-3; Ex.
20:8-11; Luke 4:16; Isa. 56:5, Isa. 6; Isa. 58:13, Isa. 14 ; Matt. 12:1-12; Ex. 31:13-17; Eze.
20:12, Eze. 20; Deut. 5:12-15; Heb. 4:1-11; Lev. 23:32; Mark 1:32.)

— Seventh-day Adventist Fundamental Beliefs[89]

Other definitions[edit]
Main article: week

By synecdoche the term "Sabbath" in the New Testament may also mean simply a "se'nnight"[90]
or seven-day week, namely, the interval between two Sabbaths. Jesus's parable of the Pharisee
and the Publican describes the Pharisee as fasting "twice a week" (Greek dis tou sabbatou,
literally, "twice of the Sabbath").
Main article: High Sabbaths

Seven annual Biblical festivals, called by the name miqra ("called assembly") in Hebrew and
"High Sabbath" in English, serve as supplemental testimonies to Sabbath. These are recorded in
the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy and do not necessarily occur on the Sabbath. They are
observed by Jews and a minority of Christians. Three of them occur in spring: the first and
seventh days of Passover, and Pentecost. Four occur in fall, in the seventh month, and are also
called Shabbaton: the Feast of Trumpets; Yom Kippur, "Sabbath of Sabbaths"; and the first and
eighth days of Tabernacles.

Main article: Shmita

The year of Shmita (Hebrew ‫שמיטה‬, literally, "release"), also called Sabbatical Year, is the
seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah for the Land of Israel.
During Shmita, the land is to be left to lie fallow. A second aspect of Shmita concerns debts and
loans: when the year ends, personal debts are considered nullified and forgiven.

Main article: Shabbat

Jewish Shabbat is a weekly day of rest cognate to Christian Sabbath, observed from sundown on
Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night; it is also observed by a
minority of Christians. Customarily, Shabbat is ushered in by lighting candles shortly before
sunset, at halakhicallly calculated times that change from week to week and from place to place.

Main article: New moon

The new moon, occurring every 29 or 30 days, is an important separately sanctioned occasion in
Judaism and some other faiths. It is not widely regarded as Sabbath, but some Hebrew Roots and
Pentecostal churches, such as the native New Israelites of Peru and the Creation Seventh Day
Adventist Church, do keep the day of the new moon as Sabbath or rest day, from evening to
evening. New-moon services can last all day.

Main article: Day of the Vow

In South Africa, Christian Boers have celebrated December 16, now called the Day of
Reconciliation, as annual Sabbath (holy day of thanksgiving) since 1838, commemorating a
famous Boer victory over the Zulu Kingdom.

Main article: Millennialism

Many early Christian writers from the 2nd century, such as pseudo-Barnabas, Irenaeus, Justin
Martyr and Hippolytus of Rome followed rabbinic Judaism (the Mishna) in interpreting Sabbath
not as a literal day of rest, but as a thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ, which would follow six
millennia of world history.[24]

Main article: Blue law

Secular use of "Sabbath" for "rest day", while it usually refers to Sunday, is often stated in North
America to refer to different purposes for the rest day than those of Christendom. In McGowan v.
Maryland (1961), the Supreme Court of the United States held that contemporary Maryland blue
laws (typically, Sunday rest laws) were intended to promote the secular values of "health, safety,
recreation, and general well-being" through a common day of rest, and that this day coinciding
with majority Christian Sabbath neither reduces its effectiveness for secular purposes nor
prevents adherents of other religions from observing their own holy days.

Notes[edit]

 Christianity portal

1. Jump up ^ The civil calendar of the ancient Roman Empire, the Julian calendar (founded in 45
BC), marked days loosely in general practice, since the timing of midnight was difficult to
determine widely at that time. Thus, the early church easily adopted for its own use the Hebrew
calendar's sunset-to-sunset formula for marking the days, even after it began to calculate Easter
according to the Julian calendar. Its daily cycle of church services began with Vespers, which was
often celebrated just after sunset, in the early evening. This pattern made its way into both Roman
and Eastern liturgical practice, and continues in use in the Eastern Orthodox Church to this day.

Hebrew calendar
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Jewish calendar, showing Adar II between 1927 and 1948

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 AM 5778
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The Hebrew or Jewish calendar (‫הַׁ ּלּוחַׁ הָּ עִ בְ ִרי‬, Ha-Luah ha-Ivri) is a lunisolar calendar used
today predominantly for Jewish religious observances. It determines the dates for Jewish
holidays and the appropriate public reading of Torah portions, yahrzeits (dates to commemorate
the death of a relative), and daily Psalm readings, among many ceremonial uses. In Israel, it is
used for religious purposes, provides a time frame for agriculture and is an official calendar for
civil purposes, although the latter usage has been steadily declining in favor of the Gregorian
calendar.

The present Hebrew calendar is the product of evolution, including a Babylonian influence. Until
the Tannaitic period (approximately 10–220 CE), the calendar employed a new crescent moon,
with an additional month normally added every two or three years to correct for the difference
between twelve lunar months and the solar year. When to add it was based on observation of
natural agriculture-related events in Israel.[1] Through the Amoraic period (200–500 CE) and into
the Geonic period, this system was gradually displaced by the mathematical rules used today.
The principles and rules were fully codified by Maimonides in the Mishneh Torah in the 12th
century. Maimonides' work also replaced counting "years since the destruction of the Temple"
with the modern creation-era Anno Mundi.

The Hebrew lunar year is about eleven days shorter than the solar year and uses the 19-year
Metonic cycle to bring it into line with the solar year, with the addition of an intercalary month
every two or three years, for a total of seven times per 19 years. Even with this intercalation, the
average Hebrew calendar year is longer by about 6 minutes and 40 seconds than the current
mean tropical year, so that every 216 years the Hebrew calendar will fall a day behind the current
mean tropical year; and about every 231 years it will fall a day behind the mean Gregorian
calendar year.[citation needed]

The era used since the Middle Ages is the Anno Mundi epoch (Latin for "in the year of the
world"; Hebrew: ‫לבריאת העולם‬, "from the creation of the world"). As with Anno Domini (A.D.
or AD), the words or abbreviation for Anno Mundi (A.M. or AM) for the era should properly
precede the date rather than follow it.

AM 5778 began at sunset on 20 September 2017 and will end at sunset on 9 September 2018.[2]

Contents
[hide]

 1 Components
o 1.1 Day and hours
o 1.2 Weeks
 1.2.1 Names of weekdays
 1.2.2 Days of week of holidays
o 1.3 Months
 1.3.1 Importance of lunar months
 1.3.2 Names of months
 1.3.3 Leap months
 1.3.4 Constellations
o 1.4 Years
 1.4.1 Anno Mundi
  1.4.2 Previous systems
 1.4.3 New year
 1.4.4 Leap years
 1.4.5 Rosh Hashanah postponement rules
 1.4.6 Deficient, regular, and complete years
 1.4.7 Four gates
 1.4.8 Holidays
 2 History
o 2.1 Mishnaic period
o 2.2 Modern calendar
o 2.3 Usage in contemporary Israel
 3 Other practices
o 3.1 Karaite calendar
o 3.2 The Qumran calendar
o 3.3 Persian civil calendar
 4 Astronomical calculations
o 4.1 Synodic month – the molad interval
o 4.2 Seasonal drift
o 4.3 Implications for Jewish ritual
o 4.4 Worked example
 5 Rectifying the Hebrew calendar
 6 Conversion between Jewish and civil calendars
 7 See also
 8 References
 9 Bibliography
 10 External links
o 10.1 Date converters

Components[edit]
Day and hours[edit]

Further information: Zmanim

The Jewish day is of no fixed length. The Jewish day is modeled on the reference to "...there was
evening and there was morning..."[3] in the creation account in the first chapter of Genesis. Based
on the classic rabbinic interpretation of this text, a day in the rabbinic Hebrew calendar runs from
sunset (start of "the evening") to the next sunset.[4] In most populated parts of the world this is
always approximately 24 standard hours, but, depending on the season of the year, it can be
slightly less or slightly more. Halachically, a day ends and a new one starts when three stars are
visible in the sky. The time between true sunset and the time when the three stars are visible
(known as 'tzait ha'kochavim') is known as 'bein hashmashot', and there are differences of
opinion as to which day it falls into for some uses. This may be relevant, for example, in
determining the date of birth of a child born during that gap.

There is no clock in the Jewish scheme, so that the local civil clock is used. Though the civil
clock, including the one in use in Israel, incorporates local adoptions of various conventions such
as time zones, standard times and daylight saving, these have no place in the Jewish scheme. The
civil clock is used only as a reference point – in expressions such as: "Shabbat starts at ...". The
steady progression of sunset around the world and seasonal changes results in gradual civil time
changes from one day to the next based on observable astronomical phenomena (the sunset) and
not on man-made laws and conventions.

In Judaism, an hour is defined as 1/12 of the time from sunrise to sunset, so, during the winter,
an hour can be much less than 60 minutes, and during the summer, it can be much more than 60
minutes. This proportional hour is known as a sha'ah z'manit (lit. a timely hour). A Jewish hour
is divided into 1080 halakim (singular: helek) or parts. A part is 3⅓ seconds or 1/18 minute. The
ultimate ancestor of the helek was a small Babylonian time period called a barleycorn, itself
equal to 1/72 of a Babylonian time degree (1° of celestial rotation).[5] These measures are not
generally used for everyday purposes.

Instead of the international date line convention, there are varying opinions as to where the day
changes. One opinion uses the antimeridian of Jerusalem. (Jerusalem is 35°13' east of the prime
meridian, so the antimeridian is at 144°47' W, passing through eastern Alaska.) Other opinions
exist as well.[6][7] (See International date line in Judaism.)

The weekdays start with Sunday (day 1, or Yom Rishon) and proceed to Saturday (day 7),
Shabbat. Since some calculations use division, a remainder of 0 signifies Saturday.

While calculations of days, months and years are based on fixed hours equal to 1/24 of a day, the
beginning of each halachic day is based on the local time of sunset. The end of the Shabbat and
other Jewish holidays is based on nightfall (Tzeth haKochabim) which occurs some amount of
time, typically 42 to 72 minutes, after sunset. According to Maimonides, nightfall occurs when
three medium-sized stars become visible after sunset. By the 17th century, this had become
three-second-magnitude stars. The modern definition is when the center of the sun is 7° below
the geometric (airless) horizon, somewhat later than civil twilight at 6°. The beginning of the
daytime portion of each day is determined both by dawn and sunrise. Most halachic times are
based on some combination of these four times and vary from day to day throughout the year and
also vary significantly depending on location. The daytime hours are often divided into Sha'oth
Zemaniyoth or "Halachic hours" by taking the time between sunrise and sunset or between dawn
and nightfall and dividing it into 12 equal hours. The nighttime hours are similarly divided into
12 equal portions, albeit a different amount of time than the "hours" of the daytime. The earliest
and latest times for Jewish services, the latest time to eat chametz on the day before Passover and
many other rules are based on Sha'oth Zemaniyoth. For convenience, the modern day using
Sha'oth Zemaniyoth is often discussed as if sunset were at 6:00 pm, sunrise at 6:00 am and each
hour were equal to a fixed hour. For example, halachic noon may be after 1:00 pm in some areas
during daylight saving time. Within the Mishnah, however, the numbering of the hours starts
with the "first" hour after the start of the day.[8]

Weeks[edit]

Shavua [‫ ]שבוע‬is a weekly cycle of seven days, mirroring the seven-day period of the Book of
Genesis in which the world is created. The names for the days of the week, like those in the
creation account, are simply the day number within the week, with Shabbat being the seventh
day. Each day of the week runs from sunset to the following sunset and is figured locally.

Names of weekdays[edit]
A bronze Shabbat candlestick holder made in British Mandate Palestine in the 1940s.

The Hebrew calendar follows a seven-day weekly cycle, which runs concurrently with but
independently of the monthly and annual cycles. The names for the days of the week are simply
the day number within the week. In Hebrew, these names may be abbreviated using the
numerical value of the Hebrew letters, for example ‫( יום א׳‬Day 1, or Yom Rishon (‫))יום ראשון‬:

1. Yom Rishon – ‫( יום ראשון‬abbreviated ‫)יום א׳‬, meaning "first day" [corresponds to
Sunday] (starting at preceding sunset of Saturday)
2. Yom Sheni – ‫( יום שני‬abbr. ‫ )יום ב׳‬meaning "second day" [corresponds to Monday]
3. Yom Shlishi – ‫( יום שלישי‬abbr. ‫ )יום ג׳‬meaning "third day" [corresponds to Tuesday]
4. Yom Reviʻi – ‫( יום רביעי‬abbr. ‫ )יום ד׳‬meaning "fourth day" [corresponds to Wednesday]
5. Yom Chamishi – ‫( יום חמישי‬abbr. ‫" = )יום ה׳‬fifth day" [corresponds to Thursday]
6. Yom Shishi – ‫( יום ששי‬abbr. ‫ )יום ו׳‬meaning "sixth day" [corresponds to Friday]
7. Yom Shabbat – ‫( יום שבת‬abbr. ‫)יום ש׳‬, or more usually, simply Shabbat – ‫ שבת‬meaning
"rest day" [corresponds to Saturday]

Yom Shabbat (‫ )יום שבת‬is also known as Yom Shabbat Kodesh – ‫ יום שבת קודש‬meaning "holy
rest day."

The names of the days of the week are modeled on the seven days mentioned in the creation
story. For example, Genesis 1:5 "... And there was evening and there was morning, one day".
One day (‫ )יֹום אֶ חָּ ד‬in Genesis 1:15 is translated in JPS as first day, and in some other contexts
(including KJV) as day one. In subsequent verses, the Hebrew refers to the days using ordinal
numbers, e.g., 'second day', 'third day', and so forth, but with the sixth and seventh days the
Hebrew includes the definite article ("the").[9]

The rest day, Shabbat, has a special role in the Jewish weekly cycle as being a special and set
apart day, where no work is done. There are many special rules that relate to Shabbat, discussed
more fully in the Talmudic tractate Shabbat.

In (Talmudic) Hebrew, the word Shabbat (‫ )שַׁ בָּ ת‬can also mean "week",[10] so that in ritual liturgy
a phrase like "Yom Reviʻi bəShabbat" means "the fourth day in the week".[11]

Days of week of holidays[edit]

Main article: Days of week on Hebrew calendar

The period from 1 Adar (or Adar II, in leap years) to 29 Marcheshvan contains all of the festivals
specified in the Bible – Purim (14 Adar), Pesach (15 Nisan), Shavuot (6 Sivan), Rosh Hashanah
(1 Tishrei), Yom Kippur (10 Tishrei), Sukkot (15 Tishrei), and Shemini Atzeret (22 Tishrei).
This period is fixed, during which no adjustments are made.

Rosh
17 Hashanah/
Passover Shavuot
Tammuz/ Sukkot/ Yom Chanukah Tu
Purim (first (first 10 Tevet
Tisha Shmini Kippur (first day) Bishvat
day) day)
B'Av Atzeret/
(first day)
Sun or Sun or Sat or
Thu Sat Sun Sun* Mon Wed
Mon Tue Mon
Fri Sun Mon Sun Tue Thu Mon Tue Mon
Wed,
Wed or Tue, Wed,
Sun Tue Wed Tue Thu Sat Thu, or
Thu or Thu
Fri
Fri or
Tue Thu Fri Thu Sat Mon Fri or Sat Thu or Sat
Sun
*Postponed from Shabbat

There are additional rules in the Hebrew calendar to prevent certain holidays from falling on
certain days of the week. (See Rosh Hashanah postponement rules, below.) These rules are
implemented by adding an extra day to Marcheshvan (making it 30 days long) or by removing
one day from Kislev (making it 29 days long). Accordingly, a common Hebrew calendar year
can have a length of 353, 354 or 355 days, while a leap Hebrew calendar year can have a length
of 383, 384 or 385 days.

Months[edit]

The Hebrew calendar is a lunisolar calendar, meaning that months are based on lunar months,
but years are based on solar years.[12] The calendar year features twelve lunar months of twenty-
nine or thirty days, with an intercalary lunar month added periodically to synchronize the twelve
lunar cycles with the longer solar year. (These extra months are added seven times every
nineteen years. See Leap months, below.) The beginning of each Jewish lunar month is based on
the appearance of the new moon.[13] Although originally the new lunar crescent had to be
observed and certified by witnesses,[14] the moment of the true new moon is now approximated
arithmetically as the molad, which is the mean new moon to a precision of one part.

The mean period of the lunar month (precisely, the synodic month) is very close to 29.5 days.
Accordingly, the basic Hebrew calendar year is one of twelve lunar months alternating between
29 and 30 days:

No. Hebrew months Length

1 Nisan 30
2 Iyar 29
3 Sivan 30
4 Tammuz 29
5 Av 30
6 Elul 29
7 Tishrei 30
8 Marcheshvan (or Cheshvan) 29/30
9 Kislev 30/29
10 Tevet 29
11 Shevat 30
12 Adar 29
Total 353, 354 or 355

In leap years (such as 5774) an additional month, Adar I (30 days) is added after Shevat, while
the regular Adar is referred to as "Adar II."

The insertion of the leap month mentioned above is based on the requirement that Passover—the
festival celebrating the Exodus from Egypt, which took place in the spring—always occurs in the
[northern hemisphere's] spring season. Since the adoption of a fixed calendar, intercalations in
the Hebrew calendar have been assigned to fixed points in a 19-year cycle. Prior to this, the
intercalation was determined empirically:

The year may be intercalated on three grounds: 'aviv [i.e.the ripeness of barley], fruits of trees,
and the equinox. On two of these grounds it should be intercalated, but not on one of them
alone.[15]

Importance of lunar months[edit]

From very early times, the Mesopotamian lunisolar calendar was in wide use by the countries of
the western Asia region. The structure, which was also used by the Israelites, was based on lunar
months with the intercalation of an additional month to bring the cycle closer to the solar cycle,
although there is no evidence of a thirteenth month mentioned anywhere in the Hebrew Bible.[16]

Num 10:10 stresses the importance in Israelite religious observance of the new month (Hebrew:
‫ראש חודש‬, Rosh Chodesh, "beginning of the month"): "... in your new moons, ye shall blow
with the trumpets over your burnt-offerings..." Similarly in Num 28:11. "The beginning of the
month" meant the appearance of a new moon, and in Exod 12:2. "This month is to you".

According to the Mishnah and Tosefta, in the Maccabean, Herodian, and Mishnaic periods, new
months were determined by the sighting of a new crescent, with two eyewitnesses required to
testify to the Sanhedrin to having seen the new lunar crescent at sunset.[17] The practice in the
time of Gamaliel II (c. 100 CE) was for witnesses to select the appearance of the moon from a
collection of drawings that depicted the crescent in a variety of orientations, only a few of which
could be valid in any given month.[18] These observations were compared against calculations.[19]

At first the beginning of each Jewish month was signaled to the communities of Israel and
beyond by fires lit on mountaintops, but after the Samaritans began to light false fires,
messengers were sent.[20] The inability of the messengers to reach communities outside Israel
before mid-month High Holy Days (Succot and Passover) led outlying communities to celebrate
scriptural festivals for two days rather than one, observing the second feast-day of the Jewish
diaspora because of uncertainty of whether the previous month ended after 29 or 30 days.[21]
In his work Mishneh Torah (1178), Maimonides included a chapter "Sanctification of the New
Moon", in which he discusses the calendrical rules and their scriptural basis. He notes,

"By how much does the solar year exceed the lunar year? By approximately 11 days. Therefore,
whenever this excess accumulates to about 30 days, or a little more or less, one month is added
and the particular year is made to consist of 13 months, and this is the so-called embolismic
(intercalated) year. For the year could not consist of twelve months plus so-and-so many days,
since it is said: throughout the months of the year (Num 28:14), which implies that we should
count the year by months and not by days."[22]

Names of months[edit]

Both the Syrian calendar, currently used in the Arabic-speaking countries of the Fertile crescent,
and the modern Assyrian calendar share many of the names for months with the Hebrew
calendar, such as Nisan, Iyyar, Tammuz, Ab, Elul, Tishri and Adar, indicating a common
origin.[16] The origin is thought to be the Babylonian calendar.[16] The modern Turkish calendar
includes the names Şubat (February), Nisan (April), Temmuz (July) and Eylul (September). The
former name for October was Tesrin.

Biblical references to the pre-exilic calendar include ten months identified by number rather than
by name. In parts of the Torah portion Noach ("Noah") (specifically, Gen 7:11, 8:3–4, 8:13–14)
it is implied that the months are thirty days long.[23] There is also an indication that there were
twelve months in the annual cycle (1 Kings 4:7, 1 Chronicles 27:1–15). Prior to the Babylonian
exile, the names of only four months are referred to in the Tanakh:

 Aviv – first month – literally "spring" (Exodus 12:2, 13:4, 23:15, 34:18, Deut. 16:1);
 Ziv – second month – literally "light" (1 Kings 6:1, 6:37);
 Ethanim – seventh month – literally "strong" in plural, perhaps referring to strong rains (1
Kings 8:2); and
 Bul – eighth month (1 Kings 6:38).

All of these are believed to be Canaanite names.[24] These names are only mentioned in
connection with the building of the First Temple. Håkan Ulfgard suggests that the use of what
are rarely used Canaanite (or in the case of Ethanim perhaps Northwest-semitic) names indicates
that "the author is consciously utilizing an archaizing terminology, thus giving the impression of
an ancient story...".[25]

In a regular (kesidran) year, Marcheshvan has 29 days and Kislev has 30 days. However,
because of the Rosh Hashanah postponement rules (see below) Kislev may lose a day to have 29
days, and the year is called a short (chaser) year, or Marcheshvan may acquire an additional day
to have 30 days, and the year is called a full (maleh) year. The calendar rules have been designed
to ensure that Rosh Hashanah does not fall on a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday. This is to ensure
that Yom Kippur does not directly precede or follow Shabbat, which would create practical
difficulties, and that Hoshana Rabbah is not on a Shabbat, in which case certain ceremonies
would be lost for a year. Hebrew names and romanized transliteration may somewhat differ,[dubious
– discuss]
as they do for Marcheshvan/Cheshvan (‫ )חשוון‬or Kislev (‫)כסלו‬: the Hebrew words shown
here are those commonly indicated, for example, in newspapers.[citation needed]

Hebrew names of the months with their Babylonian analogs

# Hebre Tiberian Academy Common/ Lengt Babylonian Holidays/ Notes
 w Other h analog Notable
days
Called
Abib
(Exodus
13:4,
23:15,
30 34:18,
1 ‫ נִ יסָּ ן‬Nīsān Nisan Nissan
days
Nisanu Passover
Deut.
16:1)
and Nisan
(Esther
3:7) in the
Tanakh.
Pesach
Called Ziv
/ ‫ִאיָּר‬ 29 Sheni
2 ʼIyyār Iyyar Iyar Ayaru in 1 Kings
‫אייר‬ days Lag
6:1, 6:37.
B'Omer
/ ‫ִסיוָּן‬ 30
3 Sīwān Sivan Siwan Simanu Shavuot
‫סיוון‬ days
Named for
Seventeent the
29
4 ‫ תַׁ ּמּוז‬Tammūz Tammuz Tamuz
days
Dumuzu h of Babylonia
Tammuz n god
Dumuzi
30 Tisha B'Av
5 ‫ אָּ ב‬ʼĀḇ Av Ab
days
Abu
Tu B'Av
29
6 ‫ אֱלּול‬ʼĔlūl Elul
days
Ululu
Rosh
Hashanah Called
Yom Ethanim in
Kippur 1 Kings
30
7 ‫שרי‬
ִ ‫ ִת‬Tišrī Tishri Tishrei
days
Tashritu Sukkot 8:2.
Shemini First
Atzeret month of
Simchat civil year.
Torah
‫מַׁ ְרחֶ ְשוָּן‬ Marcheshva
29 or Called Bul
/ Marḥešwā Marẖeshva n Arakhsamn
8 30 in 1 Kings
‫מרחשוו‬ n n Cheshvan
days
a
6:38.
‫ן‬ Marẖeshwan
Kislev 29 or
/ ‫כִ ְסלֵו‬
9 Kislēw Kislev Chisleu 30 Kislimu Hanukkah
‫כסליו‬ Chislev days
29 Tenth of
10 ‫ טֵ בֵ ת‬Ṭēḇēṯ Tevet Tebeth
days
Tebetu
Tevet
 Shevat
30
11 ‫ ְשבָּ ט‬Šəḇāṭ Shvat Shebat
days
Shabatu Tu Bishvat
Sebat
12L 30
* ‫אֲדָּ ר א׳‬ Adar I*
days *
Only in
/ ‫אֲדָּ ר‬ Leap
Adar / Adar 29
12 *‫ אֲדָּ ר ב׳‬ʼĂḏār Adaru Purim years.
II* days

Leap months[edit]

The solar year is about eleven days longer than twelve lunar months. The Bible does not directly
mention the addition of "embolismic" or intercalary months. However, without the insertion of
embolismic months, Jewish festivals would gradually shift outside of the seasons required by the
Torah. This has been ruled as implying a requirement for the insertion of embolismic months to
reconcile the lunar cycles to the seasons, which are integral to solar yearly cycles.

When the observational form of the calendar was in use, whether or not an embolismic month
was announced after the "last month" (Adar) depended on 'aviv [i.e., the ripeness of barley],
fruits of trees, and the equinox. On two of these grounds it should be intercalated, but not on one
of them alone.[15] It may be noted that in the Bible the name of the first month, Aviv, literally
means "spring". Thus, if Adar was over and spring had not yet arrived, an additional month was
observed.

Traditionally, for the Babylonian and Hebrew lunisolar calendars, the years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17,
and 19 are the long (13-month) years of the Metonic cycle. This cycle forms the basis of the
Christian ecclesiastical calendar and the Hebrew calendar and is used for the computation of the
date of Easter each year

During leap years Adar I (or Adar Aleph – "first Adar") is added before the regular Adar. Adar I
is actually considered to be the extra month, and has 30 days. Adar II (or Adar Bet – "second
Adar") is the "real" Adar, and has the usual 29 days. For this reason, holidays such as Purim are
observed in Adar II, not Adar I.

Constellations[edit]

Main articles: Hebrew astronomy and Jewish views on astrology

Chronology was a chief consideration in the study of astronomy among the Jews; sacred time
was based upon the cycles of the Sun and the Moon. The Talmud identified the twelve
constellations of the zodiac with the twelve months of the Hebrew calendar. The correspondence
of the constellations with their names in Hebrew and the months is as follows:

1. Aries – Taleh – Nisan

2. Taurus – Shor – Iyar
3. Gemini – Teomim – Sivan
4. Cancer – Sartan – Tammuz
5. Leo – Arye – Av
6. Virgo – Betulah – Elul
 7. Libra – Moznayim – Tishrei
8. Scorpio – 'Akrab – Marcheshvan
9. Sagittarius – Keshet – Kislev
10. Capricorn – Gdi – Tevet
11. Aquarius – Dli – Shevat
12. Pisces – Dagim – Adar

Some scholars identified the 12 signs of the zodiac with the 12 sons of Jacob/twelve tribes of
Israel.[26] It should be noted that the 12 lunar months of the Hebrew calendar are the normal
months from new moon to new: the year normally contains twelve months averaging 29.52 days
each. The discrepancy compared to the mean synodic month of 29.53 days is due to Adar I in a
leap year always having thirty days. This means that the calendar year normally contains 354
days.

Year 5778 since the creation of the world,

according to the traditional count.
 This year has 354 days,
making it a regular (‫ )כסדרה‬year.

 In 5778, Rosh Hashanah is on Thursday,

while Passover is on Saturday.

According to the Machzor Katan, the 19-year (Metonic) cycle

used to keep the Hebrew calendar aligned with the solar year:

 This year is the 2nd year of the 305th cycle.

It is not a leap year.

According to the Machzor Gadol, a 28-year solar cycle used to

calculate the date to recite Birkat Hachama, a blessing on the
sun:

 This year is the 10th year of the 207th cycle.

According to the current reckoning of sabbatical (shmita)

years:

 This year is the 3rd year of the cycle.

 It is a maaser ani year.

Years[edit]

The Hebrew calendar year conventionally begins on Rosh Hashanah. However, other dates serve
as the beginning of the year for different religious purposes.

There are three qualities that distinguish one year from another: whether it is a leap year or a
common year, on which of four permissible days of the week the year begins, and whether it is a
deficient, regular, or complete year. Mathematically, there are 24 (2×4×3) possible
combinations, but only 14 of them are valid. Each of these patterns is called a keviyah (Hebrew
‫ קביעה‬for "a setting" or "an established thing"), and is encoded as a series of two or three Hebrew
letters. See Four gates.

In Hebrew there are two common ways of writing the year number: with the thousands, called
‫"( לפרט גדול‬major era"), and without the thousands, called ‫"( לפרט קטן‬minor era").

Anno Mundi[edit]

Further information: Anno Mundi

The Jewish calendar's reference point is traditionally held to be about one year before the
Creation of the world.

In 1178 CE, Maimonides wrote in the Mishneh Torah, Sanctification of the Moon (11.16), that
he had chosen the epoch from which calculations of all dates should be as "the third day of Nisan
in this present year ... which is the year 4938 of the creation of the world" (March 22, 1178).[27]
He included all the rules for the calculated calendar and their scriptural basis, including the
modern epochal year in his work, and beginning formal usage of the anno mundi era. From the
eleventh century, anno mundi dating became dominant throughout most of the world's Jewish
communities.[28][29][page needed] Today, the rules detailed in Maimonides' calendrical code are those
generally used by Jewish communities throughout the world.

Since the codification by Maimonides in 1178, the Jewish calendar has used the Anno Mundi
epoch (Latin for "in the year of the world," abbreviated AM or A.M., Hebrew ‫)לבריאת העולם‬,
sometimes referred to as the "Hebrew era", to distinguish it from other systems based on some
computation of creation, such as the Byzantine calendar.

There is also reference in the Talmud to years since the creation based on the calculation in the
Seder Olam Rabbah of Rabbi Jose ben Halafta in about 160 CE.[30] By his calculation, based on
the Masoretic Text, Adam was created in 3760 BCE, later confirmed by the Muslim chronologist
al-Biruni as 3448 years before the Seleucid era.[31] An example is the c. 8th century Baraita of
Samuel.

According to rabbinic reckoning, the beginning of "year 1" is not Creation, but about one year
before Creation, with the new moon of its first month (Tishrei) to be called molad tohu (the mean
new moon of chaos or nothing). The Jewish calendar's epoch (reference date), 1 Tishrei AM 1, is
equivalent to Monday, 7 October 3761 BC/BCE in the proleptic Julian calendar, the equivalent
tabular date (same daylight period) and is about one year before the traditional Jewish date of
Creation on 25 Elul AM 1, based upon the Seder Olam Rabbah.[32] Thus, adding 3760 before
Rosh Hashanah or 3761 after to a Julian year number starting from 1 CE (AD 1) will yield the
Hebrew year. For earlier years there may be a discrepancy [see: Missing years (Jewish
calendar)].

The Seder Olam Rabbah also recognized the importance of the Jubilee and Sabbatical cycles as a
long-term calendrical system, and attempted at various places to fit the Sabbatical and Jubilee
years into its chronological scheme.

Occasionally, Anno Mundi is styled as Anno Hebraico (AH),[33] though this is subject to confusion
with notation for the Islamic Hijri year.

Previous systems[edit]

Before the adoption of the current AM year numbering system, other systems were in use. In
early times, the years were counted from some significant historic event. (e.g., 1 Kings 6:1)
During the period of the monarchy, it was the widespread practice in western Asia to use era year
numbers according to the accession year of the monarch of the country involved. This practice
was also followed by the united kingdom of Israel (e.g., 1 Kings 14:25), kingdom of Judah (e.g.,
2 Kings 18:13), kingdom of Israel (e.g., 2 Kings 17:6), Persia (e.g., Nehemiah 2:1) and others.
Besides, the author of Kings coordinated dates in the two kingdoms by giving the accession year
of a monarch in terms of the year of the monarch of the other kingdom, (e.g., 2 Kings 8:16)
though some commentators note that these dates do not always synchronise.[34] Other era dating
systems have been used at other times. For example, Jewish communities in the Babylonian
diaspora counted the years from the first deportation from Israel, that of Jehoiachin in 597 BCE,
(e.g., Ezekiel 1:1–2). The era year was then called "year of the captivity of Jehoiachin". (e.g., 2
Kings 25:27)

During the Hellenistic Maccabean period, Seleucid era counting was used, at least in the Greek-
influenced area of Israel. The Books of the Maccabees used Seleucid era dating exclusively (e.g.,
1 Maccabees 1:54, 6:20, 7:1, 9:3, 10:1). Josephus writing in the Roman period also used Seleucid
era dating exclusively. During the Talmudic era, from the 1st to the 10th century, the center of
world Judaism was in the Middle East, primarily in the Talmudic Academies of Iraq and
Palestine. Jews in these regions used Seleucid era dating (also known as the "Era of
Contracts").[28] The Avodah Zarah states:

Rav Aha b. Jacob then put this question: How do we know that our Era [of Documents] is
connected with the Kingdom of Greece at all? Why not say that it is reckoned from the Exodus
from Egypt, omitting the first thousand years and giving the years of the next thousand? In that
case, the document is really post-dated!
Said Rav Nahman: In the Diaspora the Greek Era alone is used. He [the questioner] thought that
Rav Nahman wanted to dispose of him anyhow, but when he went and studied it thoroughly he
found that it is indeed taught [in a Baraita]: In the Diaspora the Greek Era alone is used.[35]

The use of the era of documents (i.e., Seleucid era) continued till the 16th century in the East,
and was employed even in the 19th century among the Jews of Yemen.[36]

Occasionally in Talmudic writings, reference was made to other starting points for eras, such as
destruction era dating,[36] being the number of years since the 70 CE destruction of the Second
Temple. In the 8th and 9th centuries, as the center of Jewish life moved from Babylonia to
Europe, counting using the Seleucid era "became meaningless".[28] There is indication that Jews
of the Rhineland in the early Middle Ages used the "years after the destruction of the Temple"
(e.g., Mainz Anonymous).

New year[edit]

A shofar made from a ram's horn is traditionally blown in observance of Rosh Hashanah, the
beginning of the Jewish civic year.

Exodus 12:2 and Deut 16:1 set Aviv (now Nisan) as "the first of months":

this month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the
year to you.

Nisan 1 is referred to as the ecclesiastical new year.

In ancient Israel, the start of the ecclesiastical new year for the counting of months and festivals
(i.e., Nisan) was determined by reference to Passover. Passover is on 15 Nisan, (Leviticus 23:4–
6) which corresponds to the full moon of Nisan. As Passover is a spring festival, it should fall on
a full moon day around, and normally just after, the vernal (northward) equinox. If the twelfth
full moon after the previous Passover is too early compared to the equinox, a leap month is
inserted near the end of the previous year before the new year is set to begin. According to
normative Judaism, the verses in Exodus 12:1–2 require that the months be determined by a
proper court with the necessary authority to sanctify the months. Hence the court, not the
astronomy, has the final decision.[37]

According to some Christian and Karaite sources, the tradition in ancient Israel was that 1 Nisan
would not start until the barley is ripe, being the test for the onset of spring.[38] If the barley was
not ripe, an intercalary month would be added before Nisan.

The day most commonly referred to as the "New Year" is 1 Tishrei, which actually begins in the
seventh month of the ecclesiastical year. On that day the formal New Year for the counting of
years (such as Shmita and Yovel), Rosh Hashanah ("head of the year") is observed. (see Ezekiel
40:1, which uses the phrase "beginning of the year".) This is the civil new year, and the date on
which the year number advances. Certain agricultural practices are also marked from this date.[39]

In the 1st century, Josephus stated that while –

Moses...appointed Nisan...as the first month for the festivals...the commencement of the year for
everything relating to divine worship, but for selling and buying and other ordinary affairs he
preserved the ancient order [i. e. the year beginning with Tishrei]."[40]
Edwin Thiele has concluded that the ancient northern Kingdom of Israel counted years using the
ecclesiastical new year starting on 1 Aviv (Nisan), while the southern Kingdom of Judah counted
years using the civil new year starting on 1 Tishrei.[34] The practice of the Kingdom of Israel was
also that of Babylon,[41] as well as other countries of the region.[16] The practice of Judah is still
followed.

In fact the Jewish calendar has a multiplicity of new years for different purposes. The use of
these dates has been in use for a long time. The use of multiple starting dates for a year is
comparable to different starting dates for civil "calendar years", "tax or fiscal years", "academic
years", "religious cycles", etc. By the time of the redaction of the Mishnah, Rosh Hashanah 1:1
(c. 200 CE), jurists had identified four new-year dates:

The 1st of Nisan is the new year for kings and feasts; the 1st of Elul is the new year for the tithe
of cattle... the 1st of Tishri is the new year for years, of the years of release and jubilee years, for
the planting and for vegetables; and the 1st of Shevat is the new year for trees-so the school of
Shammai; and the school of Hillel say: On the 15th thereof.[42]

The month of Elul is the new year for counting animal tithes (ma'aser behemah). Tu Bishvat
("the 15th of Shevat") marks the new year for trees (and agricultural tithes).

For the dates of the Jewish New Year see Jewish and Israeli holidays 2000–2050 or calculate
using the section "Conversion between Jewish and civil calendars".

Leap years[edit]

The Jewish calendar is based on the Metonic cycle of 19 years, of which 12 are common (non-
leap) years of 12 months and 7 are leap years of 13 months. To determine whether a Jewish year
is a leap year, one must find its position in the 19-year Metonic cycle. This position is calculated
by dividing the Jewish year number by 19 and finding the remainder. For example, the Jewish
year 5778 divided by 19 results in a remainder of 2, indicating that it is year 2 of the Metonic
cycle. Since there is no year 0, a remainder of 0 indicates that the year is year 19 of the cycle.[43]

Years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 of the Metonic cycle are leap years. To assist in remembering
this sequence, some people use the mnemonic Hebrew word GUCHADZaT "‫"גוחאדז"ט‬, where
the Hebrew letters gimel-vav-het aleph-dalet-zayin-tet are used as Hebrew numerals equivalent
to 3, 6, 8, 1, 4, 7, 9. The keviyah records whether the year is leap or common: ‫ פ‬for peshuta
(‫)פשוטה‬, meaning simple and indicating a common year, and ‫ מ‬indicating a leap year (me'uberet,
‫)מעוברת‬.[44]

Another memory aid notes that intervals of the major scale follow the same pattern as do Jewish
leap years, with do corresponding to year 19 (or 0): a whole step in the scale corresponds to two
common years between consecutive leap years, and a half step to one common year between two
leap years. This connection with the major scale is more plain in the context of 19 equal
temperament: counting the tonic as 0, the notes of the major scale in 19 equal temperament are
numbers 0 (or 19), 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, the same numbers as the leap years in the Hebrew
calendar.

A simple rule for determining whether a year is a leap year has been given above. However,
there is another rule which not only tells whether the year is leap but also gives the fraction of a
month by which the calendar is behind the seasons, useful for agricultural purposes. To
determine whether year n of the calendar is a leap year, find the remainder on dividing
[(7 × n) + 1] by 19. If the remainder is 6 or less it is a leap year; if it is 7 or more it is not. For
example, the remainder on dividing [(7 × 5778) + 1] by 19 is 15, so the year 5778 is not a leap
year. The remainder on dividing [(7 × 5779) + 1] by 19 is 3, so the year 5779 is a leap year.[45]
This works because as there are seven leap years in nineteen years the difference between the
solar and lunar years increases by 7/19-month per year. When the difference goes above 18/19-
month this signifies a leap year, and the difference is reduced by one month.

Rosh Hashanah postponement rules[edit]

To calculate the day on which Rosh Hashanah of a Day of week Number of days
given year will fall, it is necessary first to calculate the Monday 353 355 383 385
expected molad (moment of lunar conjunction or new
moon) of Tishrei in that year, and then to apply a set of Tuesday 354 384
rules to determine whether the first day of the year Thursday 354 355 383 385
must be postponed. The molad can be calculated by Saturday 353 355 383 385
multiplying the number of months that will have
elapsed since some (preceding) molad whose weekday is known by the mean length of a
(synodic) lunar month, which is 29 days, 12 hours, and 793 parts (there are 1080 "parts" in an
hour, so that one part is equal to 31⁄3 seconds). The very first molad, the molad tohu, fell on
Sunday evening at 11.111⁄3, or in Jewish terms Day 2, 5 hours, and 204 parts.

In calculating the number of months that will have passed since the known molad that one uses
as the starting point, one must remember to include any leap month(s) that falls within the
elapsed interval, according to the cycle of leap years. A 19-year cycle of 235 synodic months has
991 weeks 2 days 16 hours 595 parts, a common year of 12 synodic months has 50 weeks 4 days
8 hours 876 parts, while a leap year of 13 synodic months has 54 weeks 5 days 21 hours 589
parts.

The two months whose numbers of days may be adjusted, Marcheshvan and Kislev, are the
eighth and ninth months of the Hebrew year, whereas Tishrei is the seventh month (in the
traditional counting of the months, even though it is the first month of a new calendar year). Any
adjustments needed to postpone Rosh Hashanah must be made to the adjustable months in the
year that precedes the year of which the Rosh Hashanah will be the first day.

Just four potential conditions are considered to determine whether the date of Rosh Hashanah
must be postponed. These are called the Rosh Hashanah postponement rules, or
deḥiyyot:[46][47][48][49][50]

 If the molad occurs at or later than noon, Rosh Hashanah is postponed a day. This is
called deḥiyyah molad zaken (literally, "old birth", i.e., late new moon).
 If the molad occurs on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday, Rosh Hashanah is postponed a
day. If the application of deḥiyyah molad zaken would place Rosh Hashanah on one of
these days, then it must be postponed a second day. This is called deḥiyyah lo ADU, an
acronym that means "not [weekday] one, four, or six."

The first of these rules (deḥiyyah molad zaken) is referred to in the Talmud.[19] Nowadays, molad
zaken is used as a device to prevent the molad falling on the second day of the month.[51] The
second rule, (deḥiyyah lo ADU), is applied for religious reasons.
Another two rules are applied much less frequently and serve to prevent impermissible year
lengths. Their names are Hebrew acronyms that refer to the ways they are calculated:

 If the molad in a common year falls on a Tuesday after 9 hours and 204 parts, Rosh
Hashanah is postponed to Thursday. This is deḥiyyah GaTaRaD, where the acronym
stands for "3 [Tuesday], 9, 204."
 If the molad following a leap year falls on a Monday, more than 15 hours and 589 parts
after the Hebrew day began (for calculation purposes, this is taken to be 6 pm Sunday),
Rosh Hashanah is postponed to Tuesday. This is deḥiyyah BeTUTeKaPoT, where the
acronym stands for "2 [Monday], 15, 589."

At the innovation of the sages, the calendar was arranged to ensure that Yom Kippur would not
fall on a Friday or Sunday, and Hoshana Rabbah would not fall on Shabbat.[52] These rules have
been instituted because Shabbat restrictions also apply to Yom Kippur, so that if Yom Kippur
were to fall on Friday, it would not be possible to make necessary preparations for Shabbat (such
as candle lighting). Similarly, if Yom Kippur fell on a Sunday, it would not be possible to make
preparations for Yom Kippur because the preceding day is Shabbat.[53] Additionally, the laws of
Shabbat override those of Hoshana Rabbah, so that if Hoshana Rabbah were to fall on Shabbat
certain rituals that are a part of the Hoshana Rabbah service (such as carrying willows, which is a
form of work) could not be performed.[54]

To prevent Yom Kippur (10 Tishrei) from falling on a Friday or Sunday, Rosh Hashanah (1
Tishrei) cannot fall on Wednesday or Friday. Likewise, to prevent Hoshana Rabbah (21 Tishrei)
from falling on a Saturday, Rosh Hashanah cannot fall on a Sunday. This leaves only four days
on which Rosh Hashanah can fall: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, which are
referred to as the "four gates". Each day is associated with a number (its order in the week,
beginning with Sunday as day 1). Numbers in Hebrew have been traditionally denominated by
Hebrew letters. Thus the keviyah uses the letters ‫ב‬, ‫ג‬, ‫ ה‬and ‫( ז‬representing 2, 3, 5, and 7, for
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday) to denote the starting day of the year.

Deficient, regular, and complete years[edit]

The postponement of the year is compensated for by adding a day to the second month or
removing one from the third month. A Jewish common year can only have 353, 354, or 355
days. A leap year is always 30 days longer, and so can have 383, 384, or 385 days.

 A chaserah year (Hebrew for "deficient" or "incomplete") is 353 or 383 days long. Both
Cheshvan and Kislev have 29 days. The Hebrew letter ‫" ח‬het" is used in the keviyah.
 A kesidrah year ("regular" or "in-order") is 354 or 384 days long. Cheshvan has 29 days
while Kislev has 30 days. The Hebrew letter ‫" כ‬kaf" is used in the keviyah.
 A shlemah year ("complete" or "perfect", also "abundant") is 355 or 385 days long. Both
Cheshvan and Kislev have 30 days. The Hebrew letter ‫" ש‬shin" is used in the keviyah.

Whether a year is deficient, regular, or complete is determined by the time between two adjacent
Rosh Hashanah observances and the leap year. While the keviyah is sufficient to describe a year,
a variant specifies the day of the week for the first day of Pesach (Passover) in lieu of the year
length.

A Metonic cycle equates to 235 lunar months in each 19-year cycle. This gives an average of
6939 days, 16 hours, and 595 parts for each cycle. But due to the Rosh Hashanah postponement
rules (preceding section) a cycle of 19 Jewish years can be either 6939, 6940, 6941, or 6942 days
in duration. Since none of these values is evenly divisible by seven, the Jewish calendar repeats
exactly only following 36,288 Metonic cycles, or 689,472 Jewish years. There is a near-
repetition every 247 years, except for an excess of about 50 minutes (905 parts).

Four gates[edit]

The annual calendar of a numbered Hebrew year, displayed as 12 or 13 months partitioned into
weeks, can be determined by consulting the table of Four gates, whose inputs are the year's
position in the 19-year cycle and its molad Tishrei. The resulting type (keviyah) of the desired
year in the body of the table is a triple consisting of two numbers and a letter (written left-to-
right in English). The left number of each triple is the day of the week of 1 Tishrei, Rosh
Hashanah (2 3 5 7); the letter indicates whether that year is deficient (D), regular (R), or
complete (C), the number of days in Chesvan and Kislev; while the right number of each triple is
the day of the week of 15 Nisan, the first day of Passover or Pesach (1 3 5 7), within the same
Hebrew year (next Julian/Gregorian year). The keviyah in Hebrew letters are written right-to-left,
so their days of the week are reversed, the right number for 1 Tishrei and the left for 15 Nisan.
The year within the 19-year cycle alone determines whether that year has one or two
Adars.[55][56][57][58][59]

This table numbers the days of the week and hours for the limits of molad Tishrei in the Hebrew
manner for calendrical calculations, that is, both begin at 6 pm, thus 7d 18h 0p is noon Saturday.
The years of a 19-year cycle are organized into four groups: common years after a leap year but
before a common year (1 4 9 12 15); common years between two leap years (7 18); common
years after a common year but before a leap year (2 5 10 13 16); and leap years (3 6 8 11 14 17
19), all between common years. The oldest surviving table of Four gates was written by Saadia
Gaon (892–942). It is so named because it identifies the four allowable days of the week on
which 1 Tishrei can occur.

Comparing the days of the week of molad Tishrei with those in the keviyah shows that during
39% of years 1 Tishrei is not postponed beyond the day of the week of its molad Tishrei, 47%
are postponed one day, and 14% are postponed two days. This table also identifies the seven
types of common years and seven types of leap years. Most are represented in any 19-year cycle,
except one or two may be in neighboring cycles. The most likely type of year is 5R7 in 18.1% of
years, whereas the least likely is 5C1 in 3.3% of years. The day of the week of 15 Nisan is later
than that of 1 Tishrei by one, two or three days for common years and three, four or five days for
leap years in deficient, regular or complete years, respectively.

Four gates
molad Year of 19-year cycle
Tishrei ≥ 1 4 9 12 15 7 18 2 5 10 13 16 3 6 8 11 14 17 19
7d 18h 0p 2D3 ‫בחג‬ 2D5 ‫בחה‬
1d 9h 204p
1d 20h 491p 2C5 ‫בשה‬ 2C7 ‫בשז‬
2d 15h 589p
2d 18h 0p 3R5 ‫גכה‬ 3R7 ‫גכז‬
3d 9h 204p 5R7 ‫הכז‬
 3d 18h 0p 5D1 ‫החא‬
4d 11h 695p
5d 9h 204p 5C1 ‫השא‬ 5C3 ‫השג‬
5d 18h 0p
6d 0h 408p 7D1 ‫זחא‬ 7D3 ‫זחג‬
6d 9h 204p
6d 20h 491p 7C3 ‫זשג‬ 7C5 ‫זשה‬
Holidays[edit]

See Jewish and Israeli holidays 2000–2050

History[edit]
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Mishnaic period[edit]

The Trumpeting Place inscription, a stone (2.43×1 m) with Hebrew inscription "To the
Trumpeting Place" is believed to be a part of the Second Temple.

The Tanakh contains several commandments related to the keeping of the calendar and the lunar
cycle, and records changes that have taken place to the Hebrew calendar.

It has been noted that the procedures described in the Mishnah and Tosefta are all plausible
procedures for regulating an empirical lunar calendar.[60] Fire-signals, for example, or smoke-
signals, are known from the pre-exilic Lachish ostraca.[61] Furthermore, the Mishnah contains
laws that reflect the uncertainties of an empirical calendar. Mishnah Sanhedrin, for example,
holds that when one witness holds that an event took place on a certain day of the month, and
another that the same event took place on the following day, their testimony can be held to agree,
since the length of the preceding month was uncertain.[62] Another Mishnah takes it for granted
that it cannot be known in advance whether a year's lease is for twelve or thirteen months.[63]
Hence it is a reasonable conclusion that the Mishnaic calendar was actually used in the Mishnaic
period.

The accuracy of the Mishnah's claim that the Mishnaic calendar was also used in the late Second
Temple period is less certain. One scholar has noted that there are no laws from Second Temple
period sources that indicate any doubts about the length of a month or of a year. This led him to
propose that the priests must have had some form of computed calendar or calendrical rules that
allowed them to know in advance whether a month would have 30 or 29 days, and whether a
year would have 12 or 13 months.[64]
Modern calendar[edit]

The Arch of Titus depicting the objects from the Temple being carried through Rome.

Between 70 and 1178 CE, the observation-based calendar was gradually replaced by a
mathematically calculated one.[65] Except for the epoch year number, the calendar rules reached
their current form by the beginning of the 9th century, as described by the Persian Muslim
astronomer al-Khwarizmi (c. 780–850 CE) in 823.[66][67]

One notable difference between the calendar of that era and the modern form was the date of the
epoch (the fixed reference point at the beginning of year 1), which at that time was one year later
than the epoch of the modern calendar.

Most of the present rules of the calendar were in place by 823, according to a treatise by al-
Khwarizmi. Al-Khwarizmi's study of the Jewish calendar, Risāla fi istikhrāj taʾrīkh al-yahūd
"Extraction of the Jewish Era" describes the 19-year intercalation cycle, the rules for determining
on what day of the week the first day of the month Tishrī shall fall, the interval between the
Jewish era (creation of Adam) and the Seleucid era, and the rules for determining the mean
longitude of the sun and the moon using the Jewish calendar.[66][67] Not all the rules were in place
by 835.[68]

In 921, Aaron ben Meïr proposed changes to the calendar. Though the proposals were rejected,
they indicate that all of the rules of the modern calendar (except for the epoch) were in place
before that date. In 1000, the Muslim chronologist al-Biruni described all of the modern rules of
the Hebrew calendar, except that he specified three different epochs used by various Jewish
communities being one, two, or three years later than the modern epoch.[31]

There is a tradition, first mentioned by Hai Gaon (died 1038 CE), that Hillel b. R. Yehuda "in the
year 670 of the Seleucid era" (i.e., 358–359 CE) was responsible for the new calculated calendar
with a fixed intercalation cycle. Later writers, such as Nachmanides, explained Hai Gaon's words
to mean that the entire computed calendar was due to Hillel b. Yehuda in response to persecution
of Jews. Maimonides, in the 12th century, stated that the Mishnaic calendar was used "until the
days of Abaye and Rava", who flourished c. 320–350 CE, and that the change came when "the
land of Israel was destroyed, and no permanent court was left." Taken together, these two
traditions suggest that Hillel b. Yehuda (whom they identify with the mid-4th-century Jewish
patriarch Ioulos, attested in a letter of the Emperor Julian,[69] and the Jewish patriarch Ellel,
mentioned by Epiphanius[70]) instituted the computed Hebrew calendar because of persecution. H.
Graetz[71] linked the introduction of the computed calendar to a sharp repression following a
failed Jewish insurrection that occurred during the rule of the Christian emperor Constantius and
Gallus. A later writer, S. Lieberman, argued[72] instead that the introduction of the fixed calendar
was due to measures taken by Christian Roman authorities to prevent the Jewish patriarch from
sending calendrical messengers.
Both the tradition that Hillel b. Yehuda instituted the complete computed calendar, and the
theory that the computed calendar was introduced due to repression or persecution, have been
questioned.[73][74][75] Furthermore, two Jewish dates during post-Talmudic times (specifically in 506
and 776) are impossible under the rules of the modern calendar, indicating that its arithmetic
rules were developed in Babylonia during the times of the Geonim (7th to 8th centuries).[76] The
Babylonian rules required the delay of the first day of Tishrei when the new moon occurred after
noon.[citation needed]

The Talmuds do, however, indicate at least the beginnings of a transition from a purely empirical
to a computed calendar. According to a statement attributed to Yose, an Amora who lived during
the second half of the 3rd century, the feast of Purim, 14 Adar, could not fall on a Sabbath nor a
Monday, lest 10 Tishrei (Yom Kippur) fall on a Friday or a Sunday.[77] This indicates that, by the
time of the redaction of the Jerusalem Talmud (c. 400 CE), there were a fixed number of days in
all months from Adar to Elul, also implying that the extra month was already a second Adar
added before the regular Adar. In another passage, a sage is reported to have counseled "those
who make the computations" not to set the first day of Tishrei or the Day of the Willow on the
sabbath.[78] This indicates that there was a group who "made computations" and were in a position
to control, to some extent, the day of the week on which Rosh Hashanah would fall.

Usage in contemporary Israel[edit]

Early Zionist pioneers were impressed by the fact that the calendar preserved by Jews over many
centuries in far-flung diasporas, as a matter of religious ritual, was geared to the climate of their
original country: the Jewish New Year marks the transition from the dry season to the rainy one,
and major Jewish holidays such as Sukkot, Passover, and Shavuot correspond to major points of
the country's agricultural year such as planting and harvest.

Accordingly, in the early 20th century the Hebrew calendar was re-interpreted as an agricultural
rather than religious calendar.

After the creation of the State of Israel, the Hebrew calendar became one of the official calendars
of Israel, along with the Gregorian calendar. Holidays and commemorations not derived from
previous Jewish tradition were to be fixed according to the Hebrew calendar date. For example,
the Israeli Independence Day falls on 5 Iyar, Jerusalem Reunification Day on 28 Iyar, and the
Holocaust Commemoration Day on 27 Nisan.

Nevertheless, since the 1950s usage of the Hebrew calendar has steadily declined, in favor of the
Gregorian calendar. At present, Israelis—except for the religiously observant—conduct their
private and public life according to the Gregorian calendar, although the Hebrew calendar is still
widely acknowledged, appearing in public venues such as banks (where it is legal for use on
cheques and other documents, though only rarely do people make use of this option) and on the
mastheads of newspapers.

The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) is a two-day public holiday in Israel. However, since the
1980s an increasing number of secular Israelis celebrate the Gregorian New Year (usually known
as "Silvester Night"—"‫ )"ליל סילבסטר‬on the night between 31 December and 1 January.
Prominent rabbis have on several occasions sharply denounced this practice, but with no
noticeable effect on the secularist celebrants.[79]
Wall calendars commonly used in Israel are hybrids. Most are organised according to Gregorian
rather than Jewish months, but begin in September, when the Jewish New Year usually falls, and
provide the Jewish date in small characters.

Other practices[edit]
Outside of Rabbinic Judaism, evidence shows a diversity of practice.

Karaite calendar[edit]

Karaites use the lunar month and the solar year, but the Karaite calendar differs from the current
Rabbinic calendar in a number of ways. The Karaite calendar is identical to the Rabbinic
calendar used before the Sanhedrin changed the Rabbinic calendar from the lunar, observation
based, calendar to the current, mathematically based, calendar used in Rabbinic Judaism today.

In the lunar Karaite calendar, the beginning of each month, the Rosh Chodesh, can be calculated,
but is confirmed by the observation in Israel of the first sightings of the new moon.[80] This may
result in an occasional variation of a maximum of one day, depending on the inability to observe
the new moon. The day is usually "picked up" in the next month.

The addition of the leap month (Adar II) is determined by observing in Israel the ripening of
barley at a specific stage (defined by Karaite tradition) (called aviv),[81] rather than using the
calculated and fixed calendar of rabbinic Judaism. Occasionally this results in Karaites being one
month ahead of other Jews using the calculated rabbinic calendar. The "lost" month would be
"picked up" in the next cycle when Karaites would observe a leap month while other Jews would
not.

Furthermore, the seasonal drift of the rabbinic calendar is avoided, resulting in the years affected
by the drift starting one month earlier in the Karaite calendar.

Also, the four rules of postponement of the rabbinic calendar are not applied, since they are not
mentioned in the Tanakh. This can affect the dates observed for all the Jewish holidays in a
particular year by one day.

In the Middle Ages many Karaite Jews outside Israel followed the calculated rabbinic calendar,
because it was not possible to retrieve accurate aviv barley data from the land of Israel. However,
since the establishment of the State of Israel, and especially since the Six Day War, the Karaite
Jews that have made aliyah can now again use the observational calendar.

The Qumran calendar[edit]

See also: Enoch calendar and Qumran calendrical texts

Many of the Dead Sea (Qumran) Scrolls have references to a unique calendar, used by the people
there, who are often assumed to be Essenes.

The year of this calendar used the ideal Mesopotamian calendar of twelve 30-day months, to
which were added 4 days at the equinoxes and solstices (cardinal points), making a total of 364
days.
There was some ambiguity as to whether the cardinal days were at the beginning of the months
or at the end, but the clearest calendar attestations give a year of four seasons, each having three
months of 30, 30, and 31 days with the cardinal day the extra day at the end, for a total of 91
days, or exactly 13 weeks. Each season started on the 4th day of the week (Wednesday), every
year. (Ben-Dov, Head of All Years, pp. 16–17)

With only 364 days, it is clear that the calendar would after a few years be very noticeably
different from the actual seasons, but there is nothing to indicate what was done about this
problem. Various suggestions have been made by scholars. One is that nothing was done and the
calendar was allowed to change with respect to the seasons. Another suggestion is that changes
were made irregularly, only when the seasonal anomaly was too great to be ignored any longer.
(Ben-Dov, Head of All Years, pp. 19–20)

The writings often discuss the moon, but the calendar was not based on the movement of the
moon any more than indications of the phases of the moon on a modern western calendar
indicate that that is a lunar calendar.

Persian civil calendar[edit]

Calendrical evidence for the postexilic Persian period is found in papyri from the Jewish colony
at Elephantine, in Egypt. These documents show that the Jewish community of Elephantine used
the Egyptian and Babylonian calendars.[82][83]

The Sardica paschal table shows that the Jewish community of some eastern city, possibly
Antioch, used a calendrical scheme that kept Nisan 14 within the limits of the Julian month of
March.[84] Some of the dates in the document are clearly corrupt, but they can be emended to
make the sixteen years in the table consistent with a regular intercalation scheme. Peter, the
bishop of Alexandria (early 4th century CE), mentions that the Jews of his city "hold their
Passover according to the course of the moon in the month of Phamenoth, or according to the
intercalary month every third year in the month of Pharmuthi",[85] suggesting a fairly consistent
intercalation scheme that kept Nisan 14 approximately between Phamenoth 10 (March 6 in the
4th century CE) and Pharmuthi 10 (April 5). Jewish funerary inscriptions from Zoar, south of the
Dead Sea, dated from the 3rd to the 5th century, indicate that when years were intercalated, the
intercalary month was at least sometimes a repeated month of Adar. The inscriptions, however,
reveal no clear pattern of regular intercalations, nor do they indicate any consistent rule for
determining the start of the lunar month.[86]

In 1178, Maimonides included all the rules for the calculated calendar and their scriptural basis,
including the modern epochal year in his work, Mishneh Torah. Today, the rules detailed in
Maimonides' code are those generally used by Jewish communities throughout the world.

Astronomical calculations[edit]
Synodic month – the molad interval[edit]

A "new moon" (astronomically called a lunar conjunction and, in Hebrew, a molad) is the
moment at which the sun and moon are aligned horizontally with respect to a north-south line
(technically, they have the same ecliptical longitude). The period between two new moons is a
synodic month. 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 variation range of about 13
hours and 30 minutes. Accordingly, for convenience, a long-term average length, identical to the
mean synodic month of ancient times (also called the molad interval) is used. The molad

interval is days, or 29 days, 12 hours, and 793 "parts" (1 "part" = 1/18 minute; 3 "parts" = 10
seconds) (i.e., 29.530594 days), and is the same value determined by the Babylonians in their
System B about 300 BCE[87] and was adopted by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus in the 2nd
century BCE and by the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy in the Almagest four centuries later
(who cited Hipparchus as his source). Its remarkable accuracy (less than one second from the
true value) is thought to have been achieved using records of lunar eclipses from the 8th to 5th
centuries BCE.[88]

This value is as close to the correct value of 29.530589 days as it is possible for a value to come
that is rounded off to whole "parts". The discrepancy makes the molad interval about 0.6 seconds
too long. Put another way, if the molad is taken as the time of mean conjunction at some
reference meridian, then this reference meridian is drifting slowly eastward. If this drift of the
reference meridian is traced back to the mid-4th century, the traditional date of the introduction
of the fixed calendar, then it is found to correspond to a longitude midway between the Nile and
the end of the Euphrates. The modern molad moments match the mean solar times of the lunar
conjunction moments near the meridian of Kandahar, Afghanistan, more than 30° east of
Jerusalem.

Furthermore, the discrepancy between the molad interval and the mean synodic month is
accumulating at an accelerating rate, since the mean synodic month is progressively shortening
due to gravitational tidal effects. Measured on a strictly uniform time scale, such as that provided
by an atomic clock, the mean synodic month is becoming gradually longer, but since the tides
slow Earth's rotation rate even more, the mean synodic month is becoming gradually shorter in
terms of mean solar time.

Seasonal drift[edit]

The mean year of the current mathematically based Hebrew calendar is 365 days 5 hours 55
minutes and 25+25/57 seconds (365.2468 days) – computed as the molad/monthly interval of
29.530594 days × 235 months in a 19-year metonic cycle ÷ 19 years per cycle. In relation to the
Gregorian calendar, the mean Gregorian calendar year is 365 days 5 hours 49 minutes and 12
seconds (365.2425 days), and the drift of the Hebrew calendar in relation to it is about a day
every 231 years.

Implications for Jewish ritual[edit]

This figure, in a detail of a medieval Hebrew calendar, reminded Jews of the palm branch
(Lulav), the myrtle twigs, the willow branches, and the citron (Etrog) to be held in the hand and
to be brought to the synagogue during the holiday of sukkot, near the end of the autumn holiday
season.

Although the molad of Tishrei is the only molad moment that is not ritually announced, it is
actually the only one that is relevant to the Hebrew calendar, for it determines the provisional
date of Rosh Hashanah, subject to the Rosh Hashanah postponement rules. The other monthly
molad moments are announced for mystical reasons. With the moladot on average almost 100
minutes late, this means that the molad of Tishrei lands one day later than it ought to in (100
minutes) ÷ (1440 minutes per day) = 5 of 72 years or nearly 7% of years.

Therefore, the seemingly small drift of the moladot is already significant enough to affect the
date of Rosh Hashanah, which then cascades to many other dates in the calendar year and
sometimes, due to the Rosh Hashanah postponement rules, also interacts with the dates of the
prior or next year. The molad drift could be corrected by using a progressively shorter molad
interval that corresponds to the actual mean lunar conjunction interval at the original molad
reference meridian. Furthermore, the molad interval determines the calendar mean year, so using
a progressively shorter molad interval would help correct the excessive length of the Hebrew
calendar mean year, as well as helping it to "hold onto" the northward equinox for the maximum
duration.

When the 19-year intercalary cycle was finalised in the 4th century, the earliest Passover (in year
16 of the cycle) coincided with the northward equinox, which means that Passover fell near the
first full moon after the northward equinox, or that the northward equinox landed within one
lunation before 16 days after the molad of Nisan. This is still the case in about 80% of years; but,
in about 20% of years, Passover is a month late by these criteria (as it was in AM 5765 and 5768,
the 8th and 11th years of the 19-year cycle = Gregorian 2005 and 2008 CE). Presently, this
occurs after the "premature" insertion of a leap month in years 8, 11, and 19 of each 19-year
cycle, which causes the northward equinox to land on exceptionally early Hebrew dates in such
years. This problem will get worse over time, and so beginning in AM 5817 (2057 CE), year 3 of
each 19-year cycle will also be a month late. If the calendar is not amended, then Passover will
start to land on or after the summer solstice around AM 16652 (12892 CE). (The exact year
when this will begin to occur depends on uncertainties in the future tidal slowing of the Earth
rotation rate, and on the accuracy of predictions of precession and Earth axial tilt.)

The seriousness of the spring equinox drift is widely discounted on the grounds that Passover
will remain in the spring season for many millennia, and the text of the Torah is generally not
interpreted as having specified tight calendrical limits. Of course, the Hebrew calendar also drifts
with respect to the autumn equinox, and at least part of the harvest festival of Sukkot is already
more than a month after the equinox in years 1, 9, and 12 of each 19-year cycle; beginning in
AM 5818 (2057 CE), this will also be the case in year 4. (These are the same year numbers as
were mentioned for the spring season in the previous paragraph, except that they get incremented
at Rosh Hashanah.) This progressively increases the probability that Sukkot will be cold and wet,
making it uncomfortable or impractical to dwell in the traditional succah during Sukkot. The first
winter seasonal prayer for rain is not recited until Shemini Atzeret, after the end of Sukkot, yet it
is becoming increasingly likely that the rainy season in Israel will start before the end of Sukkot.

No equinox or solstice will ever be more than a day or so away from its mean date according to
the solar calendar, while nineteen Jewish years average 6939d 16h 33m 031⁄3s compared to the
6939d 14h 26m 15s of nineteen mean tropical years.[89] This discrepancy has mounted up to six
days, which is why the earliest Passover currently falls on 26 March (as in AM 5773 / 2013 CE).

Worked example[edit]

Given the length of the year, the length of each month is fixed as described above, so the real
problem in determining the calendar for a year is determining the number of days in the year. In
the modern calendar, this is determined in the following manner.[90]

The day of Rosh Hashanah and the length of the year are determined by the time and the day of
the week of the Tishrei molad, that is, the moment of the average conjunction. Given the Tishrei
molad of a certain year, the length of the year is determined as follows:

First, one must determine whether each year is an ordinary or leap year by its position in the 19-
year Metonic cycle. Years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 are leap years.

Secondly, one must determine the number of days between the starting Tishrei molad (TM1) and
the Tishrei molad of the next year (TM2). For calendar descriptions in general the day begins at
6 p.m., but for the purpose of determining Rosh Hashanah, a molad occurring on or after noon is
treated as belonging to the next day (the first deḥiyyah).[91] All months are calculated as 29d, 12h,
44m, 31⁄3s long (MonLen). Therefore, in an ordinary year TM2 occurs 12 × MonLen days after
TM1. This is usually 354 calendar days after TM1, but if TM1 is on or after 3:11:20 a.m. and
before noon, it will be 355 days. Similarly, in a leap year, TM2 occurs 13 × MonLen days after
TM1. This is usually 384 days after TM1, but if TM1 is on or after noon and before 2:27:162⁄3
p.m., TM2 will be only 383 days after TM1. In the same way, from TM2 one calculates TM3.
Thus the four natural year lengths are 354, 355, 383, and 384 days.

However, because of the holiday rules, Rosh Hashanah cannot fall on a Sunday, Wednesday, or
Friday, so if TM2 is one of those days, Rosh Hashanah in year 2 is postponed by adding one day
to year 1 (the second deḥiyyah). To compensate, one day is subtracted from year 2. It is to allow
for these adjustments that the system allows 385-day years (long leap) and 353-day years (short
ordinary) besides the four natural year lengths.
But how can year 1 be lengthened if it is already a long ordinary year of 355 days or year 2 be
shortened if it is a short leap year of 383 days? That is why the third and fourth deḥiyyahs are
needed.

If year 1 is already a long ordinary year of 355 days, there will be a problem if TM1 is on a
Tuesday,[92] as that means TM2 falls on a Sunday and will have to be postponed, creating a 356-
day year. In this case, Rosh Hashanah in year 1 is postponed from Tuesday (the third deḥiyyah).
As it cannot be postponed to Wednesday, it is postponed to Thursday, and year 1 ends up with
354 days.

On the other hand, if year 2 is already a short year of 383 days, there will be a problem if TM2 is
on a Wednesday.[93] because Rosh Hashanah in year 2 will have to be postponed from Wednesday
to Thursday and this will cause year 2 to be only 382 days long. In this case, year 2 is extended
by one day by postponing Rosh Hashanah in year 3 from Monday to Tuesday (the fourth
deḥiyyah), and year 2 will have 383 days.

Rectifying the Hebrew calendar[edit]

The attribution of the fixed arithmetic Hebrew calendar solely to Hillel II has, however, been
questioned by a few authors, such as Sasha Stern, who claim that the calendar rules developed
gradually over several centuries.[60]

Given the importance in Jewish ritual of establishing the accurate timing of monthly and annual
times, some futurist writers and researchers have considered whether a "corrected" system of
establishing the Hebrew date is required. The mean year of the current mathematically based
Hebrew calendar has "drifted" an average of 7–8 days late relative to the equinox relationship
that it originally had. It is not possible, however, for any individual Hebrew date to be a week or
more "late", because Hebrew months always begin within a day or two of the molad moment.
What happens instead is that the traditional Hebrew calendar "prematurely" inserts a leap month
one year before it "should have been" inserted, where "prematurely" means that the insertion
causes the spring equinox to land more than 30 days before the latest acceptable moment, thus
causing the calendar to run "one month late" until the time when the leap month "should have
been" inserted prior to the following spring. This presently happens in 4 years out of every 19-
year cycle (years 3, 8, 11, and 19), implying that the Hebrew calendar currently runs "one month
late" more than 21% of the time.

Dr. Irv Bromberg has proposed a 353-year cycle of 4366 months, which would include 130 leap
months, along with use of a progressively shorter molad interval, which would keep an amended
fixed arithmetic Hebrew calendar from drifting for more than seven millennia.[94] It takes about 3
1
⁄2 centuries for the spring equinox to drift an average of 1⁄19th of a molad interval earlier in the
Hebrew calendar. That is a very important time unit, because it can be cancelled by simply
truncating a 19-year cycle to 11 years, omitting 8 years including three leap years from the
sequence. That is the essential feature of the 353-year leap cycle ((9 × 19) + 11 + (9 × 19) = 353
years).

Religious questions abound about how such a system might be implemented and administered
throughout the diverse aspects of the world Jewish community.[95]

Conversion between Jewish and civil calendars[edit]

The list below gives a time which can be used to determine the day the Jewish ecclesiastical
(spring) year starts over a period of nineteen years:

20:18 Monday, 31 March 2014

05:07 Saturday, 21 March 2015

02:40 Friday, 8 April 2016

11:28 Tuesday, 28 March 2017

20:17 Saturday, 17 March 2018

17:50 Friday, 5 April 2019

02:38 Wednesday, 25 March 2020

11:27 Sunday, 14 March 2021

09:00 Saturday, 2 April 2022

17:49 Wednesday, 22 March 2023

15:21 Tuesday, 9 April 2024

00:10 Sunday, 30 March 2025

08:59 Thursday, 19 March 2026

06:31 Wednesday, 7 April 2027

15:20 Sunday, 26 March 2028

00:09 Friday, 16 March 2029

21:41 Wednesday, 3 April 2030

06:30 Monday, 24 March 2031

15:19 Friday, 12 March 2032

Every nineteen years this time is 2 days, 16 hours, 33 1/18 minutes later in the week. That is
either the same or the previous day in the civil calendar, depending on whether the difference in
the day of the week is three or two days. If 29 February is included fewer than five times in the
nineteen – year period the date will be later by the number of days which corresponds to the
difference between the actual number of insertions and five. If the year is due to start on Sunday,
it actually begins on the following Tuesday if the following year is due to start on Friday
morning. If due to start on Monday, Wednesday or Friday it actually begins on the following
day. If due to start on Saturday, it actually begins on the following day if the previous year was
due to begin on Monday morning.
The table below lists, for a Jewish year commencing on 23 March, the civil date of the first day
of each month. If the year does not begin on 23 March, each month's first day will differ from the
date shown by the number of days that the start of the year differs from 23 March. The correct
column is the one which shows the correct starting date for the following year in the last row. If
29 February falls within a Jewish month the first day of later months will be a day earlier than
shown.

Jewish
Civil date of first day of Jewish month
month
Length of
353 days 354 days 355 days 383 days 384 days 385 days
year
First 23 March 23 March 23 March
23 March 23 March 23 March
Second 22 April 22 April 22 April
22 April 22 April 22 April
Third 21 May 21 May 21 May
21 May 21 May 21 May
Fourth 20 June 20 June 20 June
20 June 20 June 20 June
Fifth 19 July 19 July 19 July
19 July 19 July 19 July
Sixth 18 August 18 August 18 August
18 August 18 August 18 August
16 16 16 16 16 16
Seventh
September September September
September September September
Eighth 16 October 16 October 16 October
16 October 16 October 16 October
14 14 15 14 14 15
Ninth
November November November
November November November
13 14 15 13 14 15
Tenth
December December December
December December December
Eleventh 11 January 12 January 13 January
11 January 12 January 13 January
Added month 10 February 11 February 12 February
Twelfth 10 February 11 February 12 February 12 March 13 March 14 March
First 11 March 12 March 13 March 10 April 11 April 12 April

For long period calculations, dates should be reduced to the Julian calendar and converted back
to the civil calendar at the end of the calculation. The civil calendar used here (Exigian) is correct
to one day in 44,000 years and omits the leap day in centennial years which do not give
remainder 200 or 700 when divided by 900.[96] It is identical to the Gregorian calendar between
15 October 1582 CE and 28 February 2400 CE (both dates inclusive).

To find how many days the civil calendar is ahead of the Julian in any year from 301 BCE (the
calendar is proleptic [assumed] up to 1582 CE) add 300 to the year, multiply the hundreds by 7,
divide by 9 and subtract 4. Ignore any fraction of a day. When the difference between the
calendars changes the calculated value applies on and from March 1 (civil date) for conversions
to Julian. For earlier dates reduce the calculated value by one. For conversions to the civil date
the calculated value applies on and from February 29 (Julian date). Again, for earlier dates
reduce the calculated value by one. The difference is applied to the calendar one is converting
into. A negative value indicates that the Julian date is ahead of the civil date. In this case it is
important to remember that when calculating the civil equivalent of February 29 (Julian),
February 29 is discounted. Thus if the calculated value is −4 the civil equivalent of this date is
February 24. Before 1 CE use astronomical years rather than years BCE. The astronomical year
is (year BCE) – 1.
Up to the 4th century CE, these tables give the day of the Jewish month to within a day or so and
the number of the month to within a month or so. From the 4th century, the number of the month
is given exactly and from the 9th century the day of the month is given exactly as well.

In the Julian calendar, every 76 years the Jewish year is due to start 5h 47 14/18m earlier, and 3d
18h 12 4/18m later in the week.

Example calculation

On what civil date does the eighth month begin in CE 20874-5?

20874=2026+(248x76). In (248x76) Julian years the Jewish year is due to start (248x3d 18h 12
4/18m) later in the week, which is 932d 2h 31 2/18m or 1d 2h 31 2/18m later after removing
complete weeks. Allowing for the current difference of thirteen days between the civil and Julian
calendars, the Julian date is 13+(248x0d 5h 47 4/18m) earlier, which is 72d 21h 28 16/18m
earlier. Convert back to the civil calendar by applying the formula.

20874+300=21174
211x7=1477
1477/9=164 remainder 1
164-4=160.
160d-72d 21h 28 16/18m=87d 2h 31 2/18m.

So, in 20874 CE, the Jewish year is due to begin 87d 2h 31 2/18m later than in 2026 CE and 1d
2h 31 2/18m later in the week. In 20874 CE, therefore, the Jewish year is due to begin at 11.30
3/18 A.M. on Friday, 14 June. Because of the displacements, it actually begins on Saturday, 15
June. Odd months have 30 days and even months 29, so the starting dates are 2, 15 July; 3, 13
August; 4, 12 September; 5, 11 October; 6, 10 November; 7, 9 December, and 8, 8 January.

The rules are based on the theory that Maimonides explains in his book "Rabbinical
Astronomy"[97] – no allowance is made for the secular (centennial) decrease of ½ second in the
length of the mean tropical year and the increase of about four yards in the distance between the
earth and the moon resulting from tidal friction because astronomy was not sufficiently
developed in the 12th century (when Maimonides wrote his book) to detect this.

Gregorian calendar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the calendar of religious holidays and periods, see Liturgical year. For this year's
Gregorian calendar, see Common year starting on Sunday.

2017 in various calendars

2017
Gregorian calendar
MMXVII
Ab urbe condita 2770

1466
Armenian calendar
ԹՎ ՌՆԿԶ

Assyrian calendar 6767

Bahá'í calendar 173–174

Balinese saka calendar 1938–1939

Bengali calendar 1424

Berber calendar 2967

British Regnal year 65 Eliz. 2 – 66 Eliz. 2

Buddhist calendar 2561

Burmese calendar 1379

Byzantine calendar 7525–7526

丙申年 (Fire Monkey)

4713 or 4653
Chinese calendar — to —
丁酉年 (Fire Rooster)
4714 or 4654

Coptic calendar 1733–1734

Discordian calendar 3183

Ethiopian calendar 2009–2010

Hebrew calendar 5777–5778

Hindu calendars

- Vikram Samvat 2073–2074

- Shaka Samvat 1938–1939

- Kali Yuga 5117–5118

Holocene calendar 12017

Igbo calendar 1017–1018

Iranian calendar 1395–1396

Islamic calendar 1438–1439

Heisei 29
Japanese calendar
(平成２９年)

Javanese calendar 1950–1951

Juche calendar 106

Julian calendar Gregorian minus 13 days

Korean calendar 4350

ROC 106
Minguo calendar
民國106年

Nanakshahi calendar 549

Thai solar calendar 2560

阳火猴年
Tibetan calendar (male Fire-Monkey)
2143 or 1762 or 990
 — to —
阴火鸡年
(female Fire-Rooster)
2144 or 1763 or 991

Unix time 1483228800 – 1514764799

This box:

 view
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 edit

The Gregorian calendar is internationally the most widely used civil calendar.[1][2][Note 1] It is
named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582.

It was a refinement to the Julian calendar[3] involving an approximately 0.002% correction in the
length of the calendar year. The motivation for the reform was to stop the drift of the calendar
with respect to the equinoxes and solstices—particularly the northern vernal equinox, which
helps set the date for Easter. Transition to the Gregorian calendar would restore the holiday to
the time of the year in which it was celebrated when introduced by the early Church. The reform
was adopted initially by the Catholic countries of Europe. Protestants and Eastern Orthodox
countries continued to use the traditional Julian calendar and adopted the Gregorian reform, one
by one, after a time, at least for civil purposes and for the sake of convenience in international
trade. The last European country to adopt the reform was Greece, in 1923. Many (but not all)
countries that have traditionally used the Julian calendar, or the Islamic or other religious,
calendars have come to adopt the Gregorian calendar for civil purposes.

The Gregorian reform contained two parts: a reform of the Julian calendar as used prior to Pope
Gregory XIII's time, and a reform of the lunar cycle used by the Church with the Julian calendar
to calculate the date of Easter. The reform was a modification of a proposal made by Aloysius
Lilius,[4] who proposed to reduce the number of leap years that occur in every four centuries from
100 to 97, by making 3 out of 4 centurial years common years instead of leap years. Lilius also
produced an original and practical scheme for adjusting the epacts of the moon when calculating
the annual date of Easter, solving a long-standing obstacle to calendar reform.

The Gregorian reform modified the Julian calendar's scheme of leap years as follows:

Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are exactly
divisible by 100, but these centurial years are leap years if they are exactly divisible by 400. For
example, the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 are not leap years, but the year 2000 is.[5]

In addition to the change in the mean length of the calendar year from 365.25 days (365 days 6
hours) to 365.2425 days (365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 12 seconds), a reduction of 10 minutes 48
seconds per year, the Gregorian calendar reform also dealt with the accumulated difference
between these lengths. The canonical Easter tables were devised at the end of the third century,
when the vernal equinox fell either on 20 March or 21 March depending on the year's position in
the leap year cycle. As the rule was that the full moon preceding Easter was not to precede the
equinox, the date was fixed at 21 March for computational purposes and the earliest date for
Easter was fixed at 22 March. The Gregorian calendar reproduced these conditions by removing
ten days.[6]

To unambiguously specify a date, dual dating or Old Style and New Style dates are sometimes
used. Dual dating gives two consecutive years for a given date because of differences in the
starting date of the year or to give both the Julian and the Gregorian dates. The "Old Style"
(O.S.) and "New Style" (N.S.) notations indicate either that the start of the Julian year has (or has
not) been adjusted to start on 1 January (even though documents written at the time use a
different start of year), or that a date conforms to the (old) Julian calendar rather than the (new)
Gregorian.[Note 2]

The Gregorian calendar continued to use the previous calendar era (year-numbering system),
which counts years from the traditional date of the nativity (Anno Domini), originally calculated
in the 6th century by Dionysius Exiguus.[7] This year-numbering system, also known as
Dionysian era or Common Era, is the predominant international standard today.[Note 3]

Contents
[hide]

 1 Description
 2 Gregorian reform
o 2.1 Background
o 2.2 Preparation
o 2.3 Adoption
 3 Difference between Gregorian and Julian calendar dates
 4 Beginning of the year
 5 Dual dating
o 5.1 Old Style and New Style dates
 6 Proleptic Gregorian calendar
 7 Months
 8 Weeks
 9 Accuracy
o 9.1 Calendar seasonal error
 10 Proposed reforms
 11 See also
 12 Notes
 13 Citations
 14 References
 15 External links

Description
A year is divided into twelve months
No. Name Length in days
1 January 31
2 February 28 (29 in leap years)
3 March 31
4 April 30
5 May 31
6 June 30
7 July 31
8 August 31
9 September 30
10 October 31
11 November 30
12 December 31

Christopher Clavius (1538–1612), one of the main authors of the reform.

Pope Gregory XIII in an early 17th-century engraving.

The Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. A regular Gregorian year consists of 365 days, but as
in the Julian calendar, in certain years a leap year, a leap day is added to February. In the Julian
calendar a leap year occurs every 4 years, but the Gregorian calendar omits a leap day in three of
every 400 years. In the Julian calendar, the leap day was inserted by doubling 24 February, and
the Gregorian reform did not change the date of the leap day. In the modern period, it has
become customary to number the days from the beginning of the month, and 29 February is
typically considered as the leap day. Some churches, notably the Roman Catholic Church, delay
February festivals after the 23rd by one day in leap years.[9]

Gregorian years are identified by consecutive year numbers.[10] The cycles repeat completely
every 146,097 days, which equals 400 years.[Note 4][Note 5] Of these 400 years, 303 are regular years of

365 days and 97 are leap years of 366 days. A mean calendar year is 365 days = 365.2425
days, or 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds.[Note 6]
A calendar date is fully specified by the year (numbered by some scheme beyond the scope of
the calendar itself), the month (identified by name or number), and the day of the month
(numbered sequentially starting at 1). Although the calendar year currently runs from 1 January
to 31 December, at previous times year numbers were based on a different starting point within
the calendar (see the "beginning of the year" section below).

Gregorian reform

First page of the papal bull Inter gravissimas

Detail of the pope's tomb by Camillo Rusconi (completed 1723); Antonio Lilio is genuflecting
before the pope, presenting his printed calendar.

The Gregorian calendar was a reform of the Julian calendar. It was instituted in 1582 by Pope
Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by papal bull Inter gravissimas dated 24
February 1582.[3] The motivation for the adjustment was to bring the date for the celebration of
Easter to the time of year in which it was celebrated when it was introduced by the early Church.
Although a recommendation of the First Council of Nicaea in 325 specified that all Christians
should celebrate Easter on the same day, it took almost five centuries before virtually all
Christians achieved that objective by adopting the rules of the Church of Alexandria (see Easter
for the issues which arose).[Note 7]

Background

Further information: Computus

Because the date of Easter was tied to the Spring Equinox, the Roman Catholic Church
considered the seasonal drift in the date of Easter undesirable. The Church of Alexandria
celebrated Easter on the Sunday after the 14th day of the moon (computed using the Metonic
cycle) that falls on or after the vernal equinox, which they placed on 21 March. However, the
Church of Rome still regarded 25 March (Lady Day) as the equinox (until 342), and used a
different cycle to compute the day of the moon.[12] In the Alexandrian system, since the 14th day
of the Easter moon could fall at earliest on 21 March its first day could fall no earlier than 8
March and no later than 5 April. This meant that Easter varied between 22 March and 25 April.
In Rome, Easter was not allowed to fall later than 21 April, that being the day of the Parilia or
birthday of Rome and a pagan festival. The first day of the Easter moon could fall no earlier than
5 March and no later than 2 April.

Easter was the Sunday after the 15th day of this moon, whose 14th day was allowed to precede
the equinox. Where the two systems produced different dates there was generally a compromise
so that both churches were able to celebrate on the same day. By the 10th century all churches
(except some on the eastern border of the Byzantine Empire) had adopted the Alexandrian
Easter, which still placed the vernal equinox on 21 March, although Bede had already noted its
drift in 725—it had drifted even further by the 16th century.[13]

Worse, the reckoned Moon that was used to compute Easter was fixed to the Julian year by a 19-
year cycle. That approximation built up an error of one day every 310 years, so by the 16th
century the lunar calendar was out of phase with the real Moon by four days.

European scholars had been well aware of the calendar drift since the early medieval period.
Bede, writing in the 8th century, showed that the accumulated error in his day was more than
three days. Roger Bacon in c. 1200 estimated the error at seven or eight days. Dante, writing c.
1300, was aware of the need of a calendar reform. The first attempt to go forward with such a
reform was undertaken by Pope Sixtus IV, who in 1475 invited Regiomontanus to the Vatican
for this purpose. However, the project was interrupted by the death of Regiomontanus shortly
after his arrival in Rome.[14] The increase of astronomical knowledge and the precision of
observations towards the end of the 15th century made the question more pressing. Numerous
publications over the following decades called for a calendar reform, among them a paper sent to
the Vatican by the University of Salamanca in 1515,[citation needed] but the project was not taken up
again until the 1540s, and implemented only under Pope Gregory XIII (r. 1572–1585).

Preparation

In 1545, the Council of Trent authorized Pope Paul III to reform the calendar, requiring that the
date of the vernal equinox be restored to that which it held at the time of the First Council of
Nicaea in 325 and that an alteration to the calendar be designed to prevent future drift. This
would allow for a more consistent and accurate scheduling of the feast of Easter.

In 1577, a Compendium was sent to expert mathematicians outside the reform commission for
comments. Some of these experts, including Giambattista Benedetti and Giuseppe Moleto,
believed Easter should be computed from the true motions of the sun and moon, rather than
using a tabular method, but these recommendations were not adopted.[15] The reform adopted was
a modification of a proposal made by the Calabrian doctor Aloysius Lilius (or Lilio).[4]

Lilius's proposal included reducing the number of leap years in four centuries from 100 to 97, by
making three out of four centurial years common instead of leap years. He also produced an
original and practical scheme for adjusting the epacts of the moon when calculating the annual
date of Easter, solving a long-standing obstacle to calendar reform.

Ancient tables provided the sun's mean longitude.[16][17] Christopher Clavius, the architect of the
Gregorian calendar, noted that the tables agreed neither on the time when the sun passed through
the vernal equinox nor on the length of the mean tropical year. Tycho Brahe also noticed
discrepancies.[18][19] The Gregorian leap year rule (97 leap years in 400 years) was put forward by
Petrus Pitatus of Verona in 1560. He noted that it is consistent with the tropical year of the
Alfonsine tables and with the mean tropical year of Copernicus (De revolutionibus) and
Reinhold (Prutenic tables). The three mean tropical years in Babylonian sexagesimals as the
excess over 365 days (the way they would have been extracted from the tables of mean
longitude) were 14,33,9,57 (Alphonsine), 14,33,11,12 (Copernicus) and 14,33,9,24 (Reinhold).
All values are the same to two places (14:33) and this is also the mean length of the Gregorian
year. Thus Pitatus' solution would have commended itself to the astronomers.[20]

Lilius's proposals had two components. Firstly, he proposed a correction to the length of the
year. The mean tropical year is 365.24219 days long.[21] As the average length of a Julian year is
365.25 days, the Julian year is almost 11 minutes longer than the mean tropical year. The
discrepancy results in a drift of about three days every 400 years. Lilius's proposal resulted in an
average year of 365.2425 days (see Accuracy). At the time of Gregory's reform there had already
been a drift of 10 days since the Council of Nicaea, resulting in the vernal equinox falling on 10
or 11 March instead of the ecclesiastically fixed date of 21 March, and if unreformed it would
drift further. Lilius proposed that the 10-day drift should be corrected by deleting the Julian leap
day on each of its ten occurrences over a period of forty years, thereby providing for a gradual
return of the equinox to 21 March.

Lilius's work was expanded upon by Christopher Clavius in a closely argued, 800-page volume.
He would later defend his and Lilius's work against detractors. Clavius's opinion was that the
correction should take place in one move, and it was this advice which prevailed with Gregory.

The second component consisted of an approximation which would provide an accurate yet
simple, rule-based calendar. Lilius's formula was a 10-day correction to revert the drift since the
Council of Nicaea, and the imposition of a leap day in only 97 years in 400 rather than in 1 year
in 4. The proposed rule was that years divisible by 100 would be leap years only if they were
divisible by 400 as well.

The 19-year cycle used for the lunar calendar was also to be corrected by one day every 300 or
400 years (8 times in 2500 years) along with corrections for the years that are no longer leap
years (i.e., 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, etc.). In fact, a new method for computing the date of Easter
was introduced.

When the new calendar was put in use, the error accumulated in the 13 centuries since the
Council of Nicaea was corrected by a deletion of 10 days. The Julian calendar day Thursday, 4
October 1582 was followed by the first day of the Gregorian calendar, Friday, 15 October 1582
(the cycle of weekdays was not affected).

Adoption

Main article: Adoption of the Gregorian calendar

Although Gregory's reform was enacted in the most solemn of forms available to the Church, the
bull had no authority beyond the Catholic Church and the Papal States. The changes that he was
proposing were changes to the civil calendar, over which he had no authority. They required
adoption by the civil authorities in each country to have legal effect.

The bull Inter gravissimas became the law of the Catholic Church in 1582, but it was not
recognised by Protestant Churches, Orthodox Churches, and a few others. Consequently, the
days on which Easter and related holidays were celebrated by different Christian Churches again
diverged.

A month after having decreed the reform, the pope with a brief of 3 April 1582 granted to
Antonio Lilio, the brother of Luigi Lilio, the exclusive right to publish the calendar for a period
of ten years. The Lunario Novo secondo la nuova riforma printed by Vincenzo Accolti, one of
the first calendars printed in Rome after the reform, notes at the bottom that it was signed with
papal authorization and by Lilio (Con licentia delli Superiori... et permissu Ant(onii) Lilij). The
papal brief was later revoked, on 20 September 1582, because Antonio Lilio proved unable to
keep up with the demand for copies.[22]

On 29 September 1582, Philip II of Spain decreed the change from the Julian to the Gregorian
calendar.[23] This affected much of Roman Catholic Europe, as Philip was at the time ruler over
Spain and Portugal as well as much of Italy. In these territories, as well as in the Polish–
Lithuanian Commonwealth[citation needed] (ruled by Anna Jagiellon) and in the Papal States, the new
calendar was implemented on the date specified by the bull, with Julian Thursday, 4 October
1582, being followed by Gregorian Friday, 15 October 1582. The Spanish and Portuguese
colonies followed somewhat later de facto because of delay in communication.[24]

Many Protestant countries initially objected to adopting a Catholic innovation; some Protestants
feared the new calendar was part of a plot to return them to the Catholic fold.

Britain and the British Empire (including the eastern part of what is now the United States)
adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752. Sweden followed in 1753.

Prior to 1917, Turkey used the lunar Islamic calendar with the Hegira era for general purposes
and the Julian calendar for fiscal purposes. The start of the fiscal year was eventually fixed at 1
March and the year number was roughly equivalent to the Hegira year (see Rumi calendar). As
the solar year is longer than the lunar year this originally entailed the use of "escape years" every
so often when the number of the fiscal year would jump. From 1 March 1917 the fiscal year
became Gregorian, rather than Julian. On 1 January 1926 the use of the Gregorian calendar was
extended to include use for general purposes and the number of the year became the same as in
most other countries.

Adoption of the Gregorian Calendar

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900
1582: Spain, Portugal,
France, Poland, Italy,
1700: 'Germany', Swiss
1610: 1873: 1912: China,
Cantons, Protestant Low
Catholic Low Prussia Japan Albania
Countries, Norway, Denmark
Countries, Luxemburg,
and colonies
1584: Kingdom of 1648: 1752: Great Britain and 1875: 1915: Latvia,
Bohemia Alsace colonies Egypt Lithuania
1682: 1896:
1753: Sweden and Finland 1916: Bulgaria
Strasbourg Korea
1918: USSR,
Estonia
1919: Romania,
Yugoslavia{[Note 8]
1923: Greece
1926: Turkey

Difference between Gregorian and Julian calendar dates

Conversion from Julian to Gregorian dates.[25]
Gregorian range Julian range Difference
From 15 October 1582 From 5 October 1582
10 days
to 28 February 1700 to 18 February 1700
From 1 March 1700 From 19 February 1700
11 days
to 28 February 1800 to 17 February 1800
From 1 March 1800 From 18 February 1800
12 days
to 28 February 1900 to 16 February 1900
From 1 March 1900 From 17 February 1900
13 days
to 28 February 2100 to 15 February 2100
From 1 March 2100 From 16 February 2100
14 days
to 28 February 2200 to 14 February 2200

Since the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, the difference between Gregorian and Julian
calendar dates has increased by three days every four centuries (all date ranges are inclusive):

This section always places the intercalary day on 29 February even though it was always
obtained by doubling 24 February (the bissextum (twice sixth) or bissextile day) until the late
Middle Ages. The Gregorian calendar is proleptic before 1582 (assumed to exist before 1582).

The following equation gives the number of days (actually, dates) that the Gregorian calendar is
ahead of the Julian calendar, called the secular difference between the two calendars. A negative
difference means the Julian calendar is ahead of the Gregorian calendar.[26]

where is the secular difference and is the year using astronomical year numbering, that

is, use (year BC) − 1 for BC years. means that if the result of the division is not an integer it
is rounded down to the nearest integer. Thus during the 1900s, 1900/400 = 4, while during the
−500s, −500/400 = −2.
The general rule, in years which are leap years in the Julian calendar but not the Gregorian, is as
follows:

Up to 28 February in the calendar you are converting from add one day less or subtract one day
more than the calculated value. Remember to give February the appropriate number of days for
the calendar you are converting into. When you are subtracting days to move from Julian to
Gregorian be careful, when calculating the Gregorian equivalent of 29 February (Julian), to
remember that 29 February is discounted. Thus if the calculated value is −4 the Gregorian
equivalent of this date is 24 February.[27][28]

Beginning of the year

Start numbered year Adoption of
Country
on 1 January Gregorian calendar
Gradual change from
Denmark 1700
13th to 16th centuries[29]
Venice 1522 1582
Holy Roman Empire (Catholic states) 1544 1583
Spain, Poland, Portugal 1556 1582
Holy Roman Empire (Protestant states) 1559 1700
Sweden 1559 1753
France 1564 [30]
1582[n 1]
Southern Netherlands 1576[31] 1582
Lorraine 1579 1682
Dutch Republic 1583 1582
Scotland 1600[32][33] 1752
Russia 1700 [34]
1918
Tuscany 1721 1750
Great Britain and the British Empire
1752[32] 1752
except Scotland

The year used in dates during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire was the consular year,
which began on the day when consuls first entered office—probably 1 May before 222 BC, 15
March from 222 BC and 1 January from 153 BC.[35] The Julian calendar, which began in 45 BC,
continued to use 1 January as the first day of the new year. Even though the year used for dates
changed, the civil year always displayed its months in the order January to December from the
Roman Republican period until the present.

During the Middle Ages, under the influence of the Catholic Church, many Western European
countries moved the start of the year to one of several important Christian festivals—25
December (supposed Nativity of Jesus), 25 March (Annunciation), or Easter (France),[36] while
the Byzantine Empire began its year on 1 September and Russia did so on 1 March until 1492
when the new year was moved to 1 September.[37]

In common usage, 1 January was regarded as New Year's Day and celebrated as such,[38] but from
the 12th century until 1751 the legal year in England began on 25 March (Lady Day).[39] So, for
example, the Parliamentary record lists the execution of Charles I on 30 January as occurring in
1648 (as the year did not end until 24 March),[40] although later histories adjust the start of the
year to 1 January and record the execution as occurring in 1649.[41]

Most Western European countries changed the start of the year to 1 January before they adopted
the Gregorian calendar. For example, Scotland changed the start of the Scottish New Year to 1
January in 1600 (this means that 1599 was a short year). England, Ireland and the British
colonies changed the start of the year to 1 January in 1752 (so 1751 was a short year with only
282 days) though in England the start of the tax year remained at 25 March (O.S.), 5 April (N.S.)
till 1800, when it moved to 6 April. Later in 1752 in September the Gregorian calendar was
introduced throughout Britain and the British colonies (see the section Adoption). These two
reforms were implemented by the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750.[42]

In some countries, an official decree or law specified that the start of the year should be 1
January. For such countries a specific year when a 1 January-year became the norm can be
identified. In other countries the customs varied, and the start of the year moved back and forth
as fashion and influence from other countries dictated various customs.

Neither the papal bull nor its attached canons explicitly fix such a date, though it is implied by
two tables of saint's days, one labelled 1582 which ends on 31 December, and another for any
full year that begins on 1 January. It also specifies its epact relative to 1 January, in contrast with
the Julian calendar, which specified it relative to 22 March. The old date was derived from the
Greek system: the earlier Supputatio Romana specified it relative to 1 January.

1. Jump up ^ In 1793 France abandoned the Gregorian calendar in favour of the French Republican
Calendar. This change was reverted in 1805.

Dual dating
Main article: Dual dating

During the period between 1582, when the first countries adopted the Gregorian calendar, and
1923, when the last European country adopted it, it was often necessary to indicate the date of
some event in both the Julian calendar and in the Gregorian calendar, for example, "10/21
February 1750/51", where the dual year accounts for some countries already beginning their
numbered year on 1 January while others were still using some other date. Even before 1582, the
year sometimes had to be double dated because of the different beginnings of the year in various
countries. Woolley, writing in his biography of John Dee (1527–1608/9), notes that immediately
after 1582 English letter writers "customarily" used "two dates" on their letters, one OS and one
NS.[43]

Old Style and New Style dates

Main articles: Old Style and New Style dates and Dual dating

"Old Style" (OS) and "New Style" (NS) are sometimes added to dates to identify which calendar
reference system is used for the date given. In Britain and its Colonies, where the Calendar Act
of 1750 altered the start of the year,[Note 9] and also aligned the British calendar with the Gregorian
calendar, there is some confusion as to what these terms mean. They can indicate that the start of
the Julian year has been adjusted to start on 1 January (NS) even though contemporary
documents use a different start of year (OS); or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian
calendar (OS), formerly in use in many countries, rather than the Gregorian calendar
(NS).[41][44][45][46]

Proleptic Gregorian calendar

Main article: Proleptic Gregorian calendar

Extending the Gregorian calendar backwards to dates preceding its official introduction produces
a proleptic calendar, which should be used with some caution. For ordinary purposes, the dates
of events occurring prior to 15 October 1582 are generally shown as they appeared in the Julian
calendar, with the year starting on 1 January, and no conversion to their Gregorian equivalents.
For example, the Battle of Agincourt is universally considered to have been fought on 25
October 1415 which is Saint Crispin's Day.

Usually, the mapping of new dates onto old dates with a start of year adjustment works well with
little confusion for events that happened before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar. But
for the period between the first introduction of the Gregorian calendar on 15 October 1582 and
its introduction in Britain on 14 September 1752, there can be considerable confusion between
events in continental western Europe and in British domains in English language histories.

Events in continental western Europe are usually reported in English language histories as
happening under the Gregorian calendar. For example, the Battle of Blenheim is always given as
13 August 1704. Confusion occurs when an event affects both. For example, William III of
England arrived at Brixham in England on 5 November 1688 (Julian calendar), after setting sail
from the Netherlands on 11 November 1688 (Gregorian calendar).

Shakespeare and Cervantes seemingly died on exactly the same date (23 April 1616), but
Cervantes predeceased Shakespeare by ten days in real time (as Spain used the Gregorian
calendar, but Britain used the Julian calendar). This coincidence encouraged UNESCO to make
23 April the World Book and Copyright Day.

Astronomers avoid this ambiguity by the use of the Julian day number.

For dates before the year 1, unlike the proleptic Gregorian calendar used in the international
standard ISO 8601, the traditional proleptic Gregorian calendar (like the Julian calendar) does
not have a year 0 and instead uses the ordinal numbers 1, 2, … both for years AD and BC. Thus
the traditional time line is 2 BC, 1 BC, AD 1, and AD 2. ISO 8601 uses astronomical year
numbering which includes a year 0 and negative numbers before it. Thus the ISO 8601 time line
is −0001, 0000, 0001, and 0002.

Months
The Gregorian calendar continued to employ the Julian months, which have Latinate names and
irregular numbers of days:

 January (31 days), from Latin mēnsis Iānuārius, "Month of Janus",[47] the Roman god of
gates, doorways, beginnings and endings
  February (28 days in common and 29 in leap years), from Latin mēnsis Februārius,
"Month of the Februa", the Roman festival of purgation and purification,[48][49] cognate
with fever,[48] the Etruscan death god Februus ("Purifier"),[citation needed] and the PIE word for
sulfur[48]
 March (31 days), from Latin mēnsis Mārtius, "Month of Mars",[50] the Roman war god[49]
 April (30 days), from Latin mēnsis Aprīlis, of uncertain meaning[51] but usually derived
from some form of the verb aperire ("to open")[52] or the name of the goddess
Aphrodite[49][56]
 May (31 days), from Latin mēnsis Māius, "Month of Maia",[57] a Roman vegetation
goddess[49] whose name is cognate with Latin magnus ("great")[57] and English major
 June (30 days), from Latin mēnsis Iūnius, "Month of Juno",[58] the Roman goddess of
marriage, childbirth, and rule[49]
 July (31 days), from Latin mēnsis Iūlius, "Month of Julius Caesar", the month of Caesar's
birth, instituted in 44 BC[59] as part of his calendrical reforms[49]
 August (31 days), from Latin mēnsis Augustus, "Month of Augustus", instituted by
Augustus in 8 BC in agreement with July and from the occurrence during the month of
several important events during his rise to power[60]
 September (30 days), from Latin mēnsis september, "seventh month", from its position in
the Roman calendar before 153 BC[61]
 October (31 days), from Latin mēnsis octōber, "eighth month",[62] from its position in the
Roman calendar before 153 BC[61]
 November (30 days), from Latin mēnsis november, "ninth month",[63] from its position in
the Roman calendar before 153 BC[61]
 December (31 days), from Latin mēnsis december, "tenth month",[64] from its position in
the Roman calendar before 153 BC[61]

Europeans sometimes attempt to remember the number of days in each month by memorizing
some form of the traditional verse "Thirty Days Hath September". It appears in Latin,[65][66]
Italian,[67] and French,[68] and belongs to a broad oral tradition but the earliest currently attested
form of the poem is the English marginalia inserted into a calendar of saints c. 1425:[69][70][71]

Thirti dayes hath novembir Thirty days have November,

April june and Septembir. April, June, and September.
Of xxviij is but oon Of 28 is but one
And alle the remenaunt xxx and j[70] And all the remnant 30 and 1.

The knuckle mnemonic for the days of the months of the year

Variations appeared in Mother Goose and continue to be taught at schools. The unhelpfulness of
such involved mnemonics has been parodied as "Thirty days hath September / But all the rest I
can't remember"[72] but it has also been called "probably the only sixteenth-century poem most
ordinary citizens know by heart".[73] A common nonverbal alternative is the knuckle mnemonic,
considering the knuckles of one's hands as months with 31 days and the lower spaces between
them as the months with fewer days. Using two hands, one may start from either pinkie knuckle
as January and count across, omitting the space between the index knuckles (July and August).
The same procedure can be done using the knuckles of a single hand, returning from the last
(July) to the first (August) and continuing through. A similar mnemonic is to move up a piano
keyboard in semitones from an F key, taking the white keys as the longer months and the black
keys as the shorter ones.

Weeks
Main article: Seven-day week

In conjunction with the system of months there is a system of weeks. A physical or electronic
calendar provides conversion from a given date to the weekday, and shows multiple dates for a
given weekday and month. Calculating the day of the week is not very simple, because of the
irregularities in the Gregorian system. When the Gregorian calendar was adopted by each
country, the weekly cycle continued uninterrupted. For example, in the case of the few countries
that adopted the reformed calendar on the date proposed by Gregory XIII for the calendar's
adoption, Friday, 15 October 1582, the preceding date was Thursday, 4 October 1582 (Julian
calendar).

Opinions vary about the numbering of the days of the week. ISO 8601, in common use
worldwide, starts with Monday=1; printed monthly calendar grids often list Mondays in the first
(left) column of dates and Sundays in the last. Software often starts with Sunday=0, which places
Sundays in the left column of a monthly calendar page.

Accuracy
The Gregorian calendar improves the approximation made by the Julian calendar by skipping
three Julian leap days in every 400 years, giving an average year of 365.2425 mean solar days
long.[74] This approximation has an error of about one day per 3,030 years[75] with respect to the
current value of the mean tropical year. However, because of the precession of the equinoxes,
which is not constant, and the movement of the perihelion (which affects the Earth's orbital
speed) the error with respect to the astronomical vernal equinox is variable; using the average
interval between vernal equinoxes near 2000 of 365.24237 days[76] implies an error closer to 1
day every 7,700 years. By any criterion, the Gregorian calendar is substantially more accurate
than the 1 day in 128 years error of the Julian calendar (average year 365.25 days).

In the 19th century, Sir John Herschel proposed a modification to the Gregorian calendar with
969 leap days every 4000 years, instead of 970 leap days that the Gregorian calendar would
insert over the same period.[77] This would reduce the average year to 365.24225 days. Herschel's
proposal would make the year 4000, and multiples thereof, common instead of leap. While this
modification has often been proposed since, it has never been officially adopted.[78]

On time scales of thousands of years, the Gregorian calendar falls behind the astronomical
seasons because the slowing down of the Earth's rotation makes each day slightly longer over
time (see tidal acceleration and leap second) while the year maintains a more uniform duration.

Calendar seasonal error

This image shows the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the astronomical seasons.

The y-axis is the date in June and the x-axis is Gregorian calendar years.

Each point is the date and time of the June solstice in that particular year. The error shifts by
about a quarter of a day per year. Centurial years are ordinary years, unless they are divisible by
400, in which case they are leap years. This causes a correction in the years 1700, 1800, 1900,
2100, 2200, and 2300.

For instance, these corrections cause 23 December 1903 to be the latest December solstice, and
20 December 2096 to be the earliest solstice—about 2.35 days of variation compared with the
seasonal event.

Sabbath
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about rest or worship time. For other uses, see Sabbath (disambiguation).
Moses and the 10 Commandments, Jim Padgett

Sabbath (/ˈsæbəθ/) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to Exodus 20:8 the
Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest,
as God rested from creation.[1] It is observed differently among the Abrahamic religions and
informs a similar occasion in several other practices. Although many viewpoints and definitions
have arisen over the millennia, most originate in the same textual tradition of: "Remember the
sabbath day, to keep it holy".

In scripture, Sabbath is given as a day of rest, on the seventh day.[2] The term has been used to
describe a similar weekly observance in any of several other traditions; the first crescent or new
moon; any of seven annual festivals in Judaism and some Christian traditions; any of eight
annual pagan festivals (usually "sabbat"); an annual secular holiday; and a year of rest in
religious or secular usage, the sabbath year, originally every seventh year.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Biblical Sabbath
o 1.1 Seven-day week
o 1.2 High Sabbaths
o 1.3 Shmita ( Sabbath)
 2 Judaism
o 2.1 Shabbat
o 2.2 Shabbaton
 3 Christianity
o 3.1 First-day
o 3.2 Seventh-day
o 3.3 Seventh-day versus First-day
o 3.4 New moon
o 3.5 Day of the Vow
o 3.6 Millennial Sabbath
o 3.7 Spiritual Sabbath
o 3.8 In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
 4 Islam
 5 Other religious traditions
o 5.1 Babylonian rest days
o 5.2 Zoroastrianism
o 5.3 Buddhist rest day
o 5.4 Cherokee rest days
 o 5.5 Sabbath as Saturday
o 5.6 Wicca
o 5.7 Unification Church
 6 Secular traditions
o 6.1 Rest day in seven-day weeks
o 6.2 Rest day in other weeks
o 6.3 Subbotnik
o 6.4 Sabbatical
 7 References
 8 External links

Biblical Sabbath[edit]
For more details on this topic, see Biblical Sabbath.

Sabbath (as the verb ‫ שָּ בַ ת‬šāḇaṯ) is first mentioned in the Genesis creation narrative, where the
seventh day is set aside as a day of rest (in Hebrew, shabbath), and made holy by God (Genesis
2:2–3). Observation and remembrance of Sabbath (Hebrew: ‫ שַׁ בָּ ת‬šabbaṯ) is one of the Ten
Commandments (the fourth in the original Jewish, the Eastern Orthodox, and most Protestant
traditions, the third in Roman Catholic and Lutheran traditions). Most people who observe the
Sabbath regard it as having been instituted as a perpetual covenant for the Israelites (Exodus
31:13–17), as a sign respecting two events: the day during which God rested after having
completed Creation in six days (Exodus 20:8–11), and the Israelites' deliverance from Egypt
(Deuteronomy 5:12–15). The different Sabbaths were to be revered as a shadow of the Christ
who was to come (Colossians 2:16–17) who would give mankind rest from their labors in trying
to make themselves acceptable before God. For if we rest in the work of Christ on the cross, then
we can cease from our own works or self efforts in trying to make ourselves acceptable before
God (Hebrews: 4:9–11), however the weekly Sabbath was still to be kept even after Jesus'
ascension (Matthew 24:20). Originally, Sabbath-breakers were officially to be cut off from the
assembly or potentially killed (Exodus 31:15). Observance in the Hebrew Bible was universally
from sixth-day sundown to seventh-day sundown (Nehemiah 13:19, cf. Leviticus 23:32),[3] on a
seven-day week. Consultations with prophets (II Kings iv. 23) were sought on the Sabbath.[4]
Sabbath corporate worship was not prescribed for the community at large and the Sabbath
activities at the shrines were originally a convocation of priests for the purpose of offering divine
sacrifices with family worship and rest being centered in homes.[5][6] They were also required to
attend worship services on the Sabbath Leviticus 23:3.

Seven-day week[edit]

Main article: Seven-day week

By synecdoche (naming the whole for a part), in Jewish sources by the time of the Septuagint,
the term "Sabbath" (Greek Sabbaton, Strong's 4521) also came to mean an entire "se'nnight" or
seven-day week, the interval between two weekly Sabbaths. Jesus's parable of the Pharisee and
the Publican (Luke 18:9–14) describes the Pharisee as fasting "twice a week" (Greek dis tou
sabbatou, literally, "Twice of the Sabbath").

High Sabbaths[edit]

Main article: High Sabbaths

"High Sabbaths" are observed by Jews and some Christians. Seven annual Biblical festivals,
called miqra ("called assembly") in Hebrew and "High Sabbath" in English and serving as
supplemental testimonies to Sabbath, are specified in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy;
they do not necessarily fall on weekly Sabbath. Three occur in spring: the first and seventh days
of Pesach (Passover), and Shavuot (Pentecost). Four occur in fall, in the seventh month, and are
also called Shabbaton: Rosh Hashanah (Trumpets); Yom Kippur, "Sabbath of Sabbaths"
(Atonement); and the first and eighth days of Sukkoth (Tabernacles). "High Sabbaths" is also
often a synonym of "High Holy Days", viz., Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Shmita ( Sabbath)[edit]

For more details on this topic, see Shmita.

Shmita (Hebrew: ‫שמטה‬, Strong's 8059 as shemittah, literally "release"), also called sabbatical
year, is the seventh (‫שביעי‬, Strong's 7637 as shebiy'iy) year of the seven-year agricultural cycle
mandated by Torah for the Land of Israel, relatively little observed in Biblical tradition, but still
observed in contemporary Judaism. During Shmita, the land is left to lie fallow and all
agricultural activity, including plowing, planting, pruning and harvesting, is forbidden by Torah
and Jewish law. By tradition, other cultivation techniques (such as watering, fertilizing, weeding,
spraying, trimming and mowing) may be performed as preventative measures only, not to
improve the growth of trees or plants; additionally, whatever fruits grow of their own accord
during that year are deemed hefker (ownerless), not for the landowner but for the poor, the
stranger, and the beasts of the field; these fruits may be picked by anyone. A variety of laws also
apply to the sale, consumption and disposal of Shmita produce. When the year ended, all debts,
except those of foreigners, were to be remitted (Deuteronomy 15:1–11); in similar fashion, Torah
requires a slave who had worked for six years to go free in the seventh year. Leviticus 25
promises bountiful harvests to those who observe Shmita, and describes its observance as a test
of religious faith. The term Shmita is translated "release" five times in the Book of Deuteronomy
(from the root ‫שמט‬, shamat, "desist, remit", 8058).

Judaism[edit]
Shabbat[edit]

Main article: Shabbat

See also: Hebrew calendar

Jewish Shabbat (Shabbath, Shabbes, Shobos, etc.) is a weekly day of rest, observed from
sundown on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night. It is also
observed by a minority of Christians, such as adherents of Messianic Judaism and Seventh-day
Adventists. Thirty-nine activities prohibited on Shabbat are listed in Tractate Shabbat (Talmud).
Customarily, Shabbat is ushered in by lighting candles shortly before sunset, at halakhically
calculated times that change weekly and geographically.

Judah ha-Levi (12th century) proposed a nascent Jewish date line for dating of Shabbat, later
calculated to fall between China and Japan (other lines exist, and travelers are expected to note
both personal and local Shabbat); and Pinchas Elijah Horovitz (18th century) stated that polar
regions should observe Shabbat based on calculating 24-hour days, although without establishing
a date line.
Shabbat is a widely noted hallmark of Jewish peoples. Subbotniks (literally, Sabbatarians) are a
Russian sect, categorized as either Jews or Judaizing Christians, that became particularly branded
by strict Shabbat observance; (Hungarian-born radical Reform leader Ignaz Einhorn even shifted
his congregation's Shabbat worship to Sundays.) Several weekly Shabbats per year are
designated as Special Sabbaths, such as Shabbat haGadol, prior to Pesach (literally, "the High
Sabbath", but not to be confused with other High Sabbaths); and Shabbat Teshuvah, prior to
Yom Kippur ("Repentance Sabbath").

Shabbaton[edit]

Main article: Shabbaton

Colloquially, in contemporary Israel, the term Shabbaton or Shaboson means an event or

program of education and usually celebration held on Shabbat, or over an entire weekend with
main focus on Shabbat. Such events are held by youth groups, singles groups, synagogues,
schools, social groups, charitable groups or family reunions, can be either multi-generational and
wide-open or limited-group, and can be held where a group usually meets or offsite.
"Shabbaton", rather than just "retreat", signifies recognition of the importance of Shabbat in the
event or program.

Christianity[edit]
Main article: Sabbath in Christianity
See also: Gregorian calendar

In Eastern Christianity, the Sabbath is considered still to be on Saturday, the seventh day, in
remembrance of the Hebrew Sabbath. In Catholicism and most sects of Protestantism, the
"Lord's Day" (Greek Κυριακή) is considered to be on Sunday, the first day (and "eighth day").
Communal worship, including the Holy Mysteries, may take place on any day, but a weekly
observance of the resurrection is made consistently on Sunday. Western Christianity sometimes
refers to the Lord's Day as a "Christian Sabbath", distinct from the Hebrew Sabbath, but related
in varying manner.

First-day[edit]

For more details on this topic, see Puritan Sabbath.

Since Puritan times, most English-speaking Protestants identify the "Lord's Day" (viz., Sunday)
with a "Christian Sabbath", a term Roman Catholics in those areas may also celebrate with the
Eucharist. It is considered both the first day and the "eighth day" of the seven-day week.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints generally follow the stronger of
first-day Christian Sabbatarian traditions, avoiding shopping, leisure activities, and work unless
absolutely necessary. In Tonga, all commerce and entertainment activities cease on Sunday,
starting at midnight and ending the next day, at midnight. Tonga's constitution declares this
Sabbath sacred forever. In Oriental Orthodoxy, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has
observed both Sunday Resurrection Day and Saturday Sabbath in different ways for several
centuries, as have other Eastern Orthodox traditions.
Puritan Sabbatarianism or Reformed Sabbatarianism is strict observance of Sabbath in
Christianity that is typically characterized by its avoidance of recreational activities. "Puritan
Sabbath", expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith, is often contrasted with
"Continental Sabbath": the latter follows the Continental Reformed confessions such as the
Heidelberg Catechism, which emphasize rest and worship on Lord's Day, but do not forbid
recreational activities.

Seventh-day[edit]

Main article: Sabbath in seventh-day churches

Several Christian denominations observe Sabbath in a similar manner to Judaism, though with
observance ending at Saturday sunset instead of Saturday nightfall. Early church historians
Sozomen and Socrates cite the seventh day as the Christian day of worship except for the
Christians in Rome and Alexandria. Many Sabbatarian Judeo-Christian groups were attested
during the Middle Ages; the Szekler Sabbatarians were founded in 1588 from among the
Unitarian Church of Transylvania and maintained a presence until the group converted to
Judaism in the 1870s. Seventh Day Baptists have observed Sabbath on Saturday since the mid-
17th century (either from sundown or from midnight), and influenced the (now more numerous)
Seventh-day Adventists in America to begin the practice in the mid-19th century. They believe
that keeping seventh-day Sabbath is a moral responsibility equal to that of any of the other Ten
Commandments, based on the example of Jesus. They also use "Lord's Day" to mean the seventh
day, based on Scriptures in which God calls the day "my Sabbath" (Exodus 31:13) and "to the
LORD" (Exodus 16:23) and in which Jesus calls himself "Lord of Sabbath" (Matthew 12:8). The
question of defining Sabbath worldwide on a round earth was resolved by some seventh-day
Sabbatarians by making use of the International Date Line (i.e., permitting local rest-day
adjustment, Esther 9:16–19), while others (such as some Alaskan Sabbatarians) keep Sabbath
according to Jerusalem time (i.e., rejecting manmade temporal customs, Daniel 7:25). Many of
the Lemba in southern Africa, like some other African tribes, are Christians and claim common
descent from the Biblical Israelites, keep one day a week holy like Sabbath, and maintain many
beliefs and practices associated with Judaism.

Seventh-day versus First-day[edit]

Main articles: Sabbath in Christianity and Sabbath in seventh-day churches

In 321 AD, Roman emperor Constantine the Great enacted the first civil law regarding Sunday
observance. The law did not mention the Sabbath by name, but referred to a day of rest on "the
venerable day of the sun."

On the venerable day of the sun let the magistrate and people residing in cities rest, and let all
workshops be closed. In the country however, persons engaged in agricultural work may freely
and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable
for grain growing or for vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations
the bounty of heaven should be lost.[7]

An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine:

Q. How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days?
 A. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and
therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking
most other feasts commanded by the same church.
Q. How prove you that?
A. Because by keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the church’s power to ordain feasts,
and to command them under sin; and by not keeping the rest [of the feasts] by her
commanded, they again deny, in fact, the same power.[8]

The Augsburg Confession:

They [the Catholics] allege the Sabbath changed into Sunday, the Lord’s day, contrary to
the decalogue, as it appears; neither is there any example more boasted of than the
changing of the Sabbath day. Great, they say, is the power and authority of the church,
since it dispensed with one of the ten commandments.[9]

A Doctrinal Catechism,

Q. Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of
precept?
A. Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists
agree with her. She could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of
the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no
Scriptural authority.[10]

Catholic Christian:

Q. Has the [Catholic] church power to make any alterations in the commandments of
God?
A. ...Instead of the seventh day, and other festivals appointed by the old law, the church
has prescribed the Sundays and holy days to be set apart for God’s worship; and these we
are now obliged to keep in consequence of God’s commandment, instead of the ancient
Sabbath.[11]

The Catechism of the Council of Trent:

The Church of God has thought it well to transfer the celebration and observance of the
Sabbath to Sunday![12]

New moon[edit]

Main article: New moon

The new moon, occurring every 29 or 30 days, is an important separately sanctioned occasion in
Judaism and some other faiths. It is not widely regarded as Sabbath, but some messianic and
Pentecostal churches, such as the native New Israelites of Peru and the Creation Seventh Day
Adventist Church, do keep the day of the new moon as Sabbath or rest day, from evening to
evening. New-moon services can last all day.

Day of the Vow[edit]

Main article: Day of the Vow

Day of the Vow or Dingane's Day (Afrikaans Geloftedag or Dingaansdag, December 16) was
the name of a religious public holiday in South Africa commemorating a famous Boer victory
over the Zulu. Celebrated as annual Sabbath (a holy day of thanksgiving) since 1838, it was
renamed Day of Reconciliation in 1994. The anniversary and its commemoration are intimately
connected with various streams of Afrikaner and South African nationalism.

Millennial Sabbath[edit]

Main article: Millennial Day

Since Hippolytus of Rome in the early third century, Christians have often considered that some
thousand-year Sabbath, expected to begin six thousand years after Creation, might be identical
with the millennium described in the Book of Revelation. This view was also popular among
19th- and 20th-century dispensational premillennialists. The term "Sabbatism" or "Sabbatizing"
(Greek Sabbatismos), which generically means any literal or spiritual Sabbath-keeping, has also
been taken in Hebrews 4:9 to have special reference to this definition.

Spiritual Sabbath[edit]

Main article: Spiritual Sabbath

As another minority view, some modern Christians uphold Sabbath principles but do not limit
observance to either Saturday or Sunday, instead advocating rest on any one chosen day of the
week as following the spirit of Sabbath, or advocating Sabbath as instead a symbolic metaphor
for rest in Christ. These look upon Sabbath as a principle to be observed in spirit rather than in
letter, regarding the rest offered in Jesus as the only New Testament admonishment containing
the root word of "Sabbath" (Matthew 11:28) and sometimes as a more permanent rest than a day
could fulfill (Hebrews 4:9).

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints[edit]

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe the Lord has commanded
them to continue to observe the Sabbath, however they do so on the first day. He has promised
them that if they obey this commandment, they will receive "the fullness of the earth."[13]
Members are taught that they should keep it a holy day and it should be reserved for holy
activities. In a revelation given to founder Joseph Smith in 1831, the Lord commanded:

"That thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house
of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day; for verily this is a day appointed unto
you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High.”

— D&C 59:9–10[14]

In harmony with this revelation, members of the LDS church attend sacrament meeting each
week. Other Sabbath-day activities may include: praying, meditating, studying the scriptures and
the teachings of latter-day prophets, writing letters to family members and friends, reading
wholesome material, visiting the sick and distressed, and attending other Church meetings.[15]
Islam[edit]
Main article: Jumu'ah
See also: Islamic calendar

The Quran acknowledges a six-part Creation period (32:4, 50:38) and the Biblical Sabbath as the
seventh-day (yaum as-Sabt: 2:65, 4:47, 154, 7:163, 16:124), but Allah's mounting the throne
after Creation is taken in contradistinction to Elohim's concluding and resting from his labors,
and so Muslims replace Sabbath rest with jumu'ah (Arabic ‫) جمعة‬. Also known as "Friday
prayer", jumu'ah is a congregational prayer (salat) held every Friday (the Day of Assembly), just
after midday, in place of the otherwise daily dhuhr prayer; it commemorates the creation of
Adam on the sixth day, as a loving gathering of Adam's sons. The Quran states: "When the call is
proclaimed to prayer on Friday, hasten earnestly to the Remembrance of Allah, and leave off
business: That is best for you if ye but knew" (62:9). The next verse ("When the prayer is ended,
then disperse in the land ...") leads many Muslims not to consider Friday a rest day, as in
Indonesia, which regards the seventh-day Sabbath as unchanged; but many Muslim countries,
such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh, do consider Friday a nonwork
day, a holiday or a weekend; and other Muslim countries, like Pakistan, count it as half a rest day
(after the Friday prayer is over). Jumu'ah attendance is strictly incumbent upon all free adult
males who are legal residents of the locality.

Other religious traditions[edit]

Babylonian rest days[edit]

Main articles: Sapattu and Shappatum

Counting from the new moon, the Babylonians celebrated the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th as "holy-
days", also called "evil days" (meaning "unsuitable" for prohibited activities). On these days
officials were prohibited from various activities and common men were forbidden to "make a
wish", and at least the 28th was known as a "rest-day". On each of them, offerings were made to
a different god and goddess. Tablets from the 6th-century BCE reigns of Cyrus the Great and
Cambyses indicate these dates were sometimes approximate. The lunation of 29 or 30 days
basically contained three seven-day weeks, and a final week of nine or ten days inclusive,
breaking the continuous seven-day cycle. The Babylonians additionally celebrated the 19th as a
special "evil day", the "day of anger", because it was roughly the 49th day of the (preceding)
month, completing a "week of weeks", also with sacrifices and prohibitions. Difficulties with
Friedrich Delitzsch's origin theory connecting Hebrew Shabbat with the Babylonian lunar cycle
include reconciling the differences between an unbroken week and a lunar week, and explaining
the absence of texts naming the lunar week as Shabbat in any language. Reconstruction of a
broken tablet seems to define the rarely attested Babylonian Akkadian word Sapattum or Sabattum
as the full moon: this word is cognate or merged with Hebrew Shabbat, but is monthly rather
than weekly. It is regarded as a form of Sumerian sa-bat ("mid-rest"), attested in Akkadian as um
nuh libbi ("day of mid-repose"). This conclusion is a contextual restoration of the damaged
Enûma Eliš creation mythos, which is read as: "[Sa]pattu shalt thou then encounter,
mid[month]ly."

The pentecontad calendar, thought to be of Amorite origin, includes a period known to

Babylonians as Shappatum. The year is broken down into seven periods of fifty days (made up
of seven weeks of seven days, containing seven weekly Sabbaths, and an extra fiftieth day,
known as the atzeret), plus an annual supplement of fifteen or sixteen days, called Shappatum,
the period of harvest time at the end of each year. Identified and reconstructed by Hildegaard and
Julius Lewy in the 1940s, the calendar's use dates back to at least the 3rd millennium BCE in
Western Mesopotamia and surrounding areas; it was used by the Canaanite tribes, thought by
some to have been used by the Israelites prior to King Solomon, and related to the liturgical
calendar of the Essenes at Qumran. Used well into the modern age, forms of it have been found
in Nestorianism and among the Palestinian fellaheen. Julius Morgenstern believed that the
calendar of the Jubilees had ancient origins as a somewhat modified survival of the pentecontad
calendar.

Zoroastrianism[edit]

See also: Zoroastrian festivals

In relating to the seventh and other days of the month, the Zoroastrian calendar contributed to the
Jewish calendar.[16] A number of writings by early Christians in the New Testament apocrypha
(Zostrianos, Marsenes and Allogenes) describe God's revelation received by a man named
Zostrianos. Further evidence of Zoroastrian influence on Judaic tradition is demonstrated through
Nehemiah, the Priest in the Book of Nehemiah, a book of the Neviim contained in the Tanakh.
With the support and protection of Artaxerxes I of Persia (445/444 BCE), Nehemiah purified the
Temple and the priests and Levites and enforced the observance of the law of Moses.[17]

See also: Second Temple

For exemplar, the observance of Passover coincides with Nowruz, the Zoroastrian New Year
which marks the first day of spring or vernal Equinox.[18]

Buddhist rest day[edit]

Main article: Uposatha

The Uposatha has been observed since Gautama Buddha's time (500 BCE), and is still being
kept today in Theravada Buddhist countries. It occurs every seven or eight days, in accordance
with the four phases of the moon. Buddha taught that Uposatha is for "the cleansing of the
defiled mind", resulting in inner calm and joy. On this day, disciples and monks intensify their
practice, deepen their knowledge, and express communal commitment through millennia-old acts
of lay-monastic reciprocity.

For more details on this topic, see Wan Phra.

Thai Chinese likewise observe their Sabbaths and traditional Chinese holidays according to lunar
phases, but not on exactly the same days as Uposatha. These Sabbaths cycle through the month
with respect to the Thai solar calendar, so common Thai calendars incorporate Thai and Chinese
calendar lunar dates, as well as Uposatha dates, for religious purposes.

Cherokee rest days[edit]

The first day of the new moon, beginning at sunrise, is a holiday of quiet reflection and prayer
among the Cherokee. Monthly fasting is encouraged, for up to four days. Work, cooking, sex and
childbirth were also prohibited during the empty moon days, called "un-time" or "non-days";
childbirth during these days was considered unlucky. The Cherokee new year, the "great new
moon" or "Hunting Moon", is the first new moon in autumn, after the setting of the Pleiades star
cluster and around the time of the Leonids meteoric shower.

Sabbath as Saturday[edit]

For more details on this topic, see Saturday.

One folk tradition in English is the widespread use of "Sabbath" as a synonym of midnight-to-
midnight "Saturday" (literally, Saturn's day in at least a dozen languages): this is a simplification
of the use of "Sabbath" in other religious contexts, where the two do not coincide. (Using
midnight instead of sundown as delimiter dates back to the Roman Empire.) In over thirty other
languages, the common name for this day in the seven-day week is a cognate of "Sabbath".
"Sabbatini", originally "Sabbadini", often "Sabatini", etc., is a very frequent Italian name form
("Sabbatos" is the Greek form), indicating a family whose ancestor was born on Saturday, Italian
sabato; "Domenico" indicated birth on Sunday. In vampire hunter lore, people born on Saturday
were specially designated as sabbatianoí in Greek and sâbotnichavi in Bulgarian (rendered in
English as "Sabbatarians"). It was also believed in the Balkans that someone born on a Saturday
could see a vampire when it was otherwise invisible.

Wicca[edit]

See also: Sabbat, Esbat, and Witches' Sabbath

The annual cycle of the Earth's seasons is called the Wheel of the Year in Wicca and
neopaganism. Eight sabbats (occasionally "sabbaths", or "Sun sabbats") are spaced at
approximately even intervals throughout the year. Samhain, which coincides with Halloween, is
considered the first sabbat of the year.

An esbat is a ritual observance of the full moon in Wicca and neopaganism. Some groups extend
the esbat to include the dark moon and the first and last quarters. "Esbat" and "sabbat" are
distinct and are probably not cognate terms, although an esbat is also called "moon sabbat".

European records from the Middle Ages to the 17th century or later also place Witches' Sabbaths
on similar dates to sabbats in modern Wicca, but with some disagreement; medieval reports of
sabbat activity are generally not firsthand and may be imaginative, but many persons were
accused of, or tried for, taking part in sabbats.

Unification Church[edit]

See also: Ahn Shi Il

The Unification Church has a regular day of worship on Sunday, but every eight days
Unificationists celebrate the day of Ahn Shi Il, considered as Sabbath but cycling among the
weekdays of the Gregorian calendar. The Family Pledge, formerly recited at 5:00 a.m. on
Sundays, was moved to Ahn Shi Il in 1994 and includes eight verses containing the phrase "by
centering on true love".
Secular traditions[edit]
Rest day in seven-day weeks[edit]

See also: Secular day of rest and Weekend

Secular use of "Sabbath" for "rest day", while it usually refers to the same period of time
(Sunday) as the majority Christian use of "Sabbath", is often stated in North America to refer to
different purposes for the rest day than those of Christendom. In McGowan v. Maryland (1961),
the Supreme Court of the United States held that contemporary Maryland blue laws (typically,
Sunday rest laws) were intended to promote the secular values of "health, safety, recreation, and
general well-being" through a common day of rest, and that this day coinciding with majority
Christian Sabbath neither reduces its effectiveness for secular purposes nor prevents adherents of
other religions from observing their own holy days. Massachusetts, uncharacteristically, does not
specify the weekday in its "Day of Rest" statute, providing only that one day off from work is
required every week; an unspecified weekly day off is a very widespread business production
cycle. The Supreme Court of Canada, in R. v. Big M Drug Mart Ltd. (1985) and R. v. Edwards
Books and Art Ltd. (1986), found some blue laws invalid for having no legitimate secular
purpose, but others valid because they had no religious purpose.

The weekend is that period of the week set aside by custom or law for rest from labor. In many
countries it is Saturday and Sunday and often includes Friday night. This five-day workweek
arose in America when labor unions attempted to accommodate Jewish Sabbath, beginning at a
New England cotton mill and also instituted by Henry Ford in 1926; it became standard in
America by about 1940 and spread among English-speaking and European countries to become
the international workweek. China adopted it in 1995 and Hong Kong by 2006. India and some
other countries follow both the international workweek and a more traditional Saturday half-
workday and Sunday weekend. While Indonesia and Lebanon have the international workweek,
most Muslim countries count Friday as the weekend, alone or with Thursday (all or half) or
Saturday. Some universities permit a three-day weekend from Friday to Sunday. The weekend in
Israel, Nepal, and parts of Malaysia, is Friday (all or half) and Saturday. Only the one-day
customary or legal weekends are usually called "Sabbath".

Rest day in other weeks[edit]

See also: Blank day, Chinese week, Décadi, and Soviet week

State-mandated rest days are widespread. Laws of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE)
required imperial officials to rest on every mu (every fifth day), within a ten-day Chinese week.
The rest day was changed to huan or xún (every tenth day) in the Tang Dynasty (618–907).

The reform calendar of the French Revolution was used from 1793 to 1805. It contained twelve
months of three ten-day weeks; the five or six extra days needed to approximate the tropical year
were placed after the months at the end of each year. The tenth day of each week, décadi,
replaced Sunday as the day of rest and festivity in France.

From 1929 to 1931, the Soviet Union mandated a five-day week, with each day designated by
color as a state rest day for a different 20% of the workforce; families usually did not share rest
days. Three weeks a year were six or seven days, because interrupted by holidays. From 1931 to
1940, the Soviets mandated a six-day week, with state rest days for all upon the 6th, 12th, 18th,
24th, and 30th of each Gregorian month, as well as upon March 1. This also necessitated varying
weeks of five to seven days over the year.

Among many calendar reform proposals that eliminate the constant seven-day week in exchange
for simplified calculation of calendrical data like weekday names for given dates, some retain
Sabbatical influences. The Hermetic Lunar Week Calendar uses moon phases, resulting in weeks
of six to nine days. The International Fixed Calendar and World Calendar both consist of 364-
day years containing exactly 52 weeks (each starting on a day designated as Sunday), with an
additional one or two intercalary "blank" days not designated as part of any week (Year Day and
Leap Day in the International Fixed Calendar; Worldsday and Leapyear Day in the World
Calendar). Reform supporters sought to accommodate Sabbatical observance by retaining the
modified week and designating the intercalary days as additional Sabbaths or holidays; however,
religious leaders held that such days disrupt the traditional seven-day weekly cycle. This
unresolved issue contributed to the cessation of reform activities in the 1930s (International
Fixed Calendar) and again in 1955 (World Calendar), though supporters of both proposals
remain.

Subbotnik[edit]

Main article: Subbotnik

The subbotnik is a weekly day of volunteer work on Saturday in Russia, other (former) Soviet
republics, the Eastern Bloc, and the German Democratic Republic, sporadically observed since
1919. The voskresnik is a related volunteer workday on Sunday. They focus on community
service work; "Lenin's Subbotnik" was also observed annually around his birthday.

Sabbatical[edit]

Main article: Sabbatical

From the biblical sabbatical year came the modern concept of a 'sabbatical', a prolonged, often
one-year, hiatus in the career of an individual (not usually tied to a seven-year period). Such a
period is often taken in order to fulfill some goal such as writing a book or traveling extensively
for research. Some universities and other institutional employers of scientists, physicians, or
academics offer paid sabbatical as an employee benefit, called "sabbatical leave"; some
companies offer unpaid sabbatical for people wanting to take career breaks.