Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 1

The calendars of ancient Egypt

The Egyptians of the ancient world used no fewer

than three calendars between the time of their
earliest history around 3000BCE and the time of
their conquest under the Persians in 525BCE.

The oldest of the three is an ecclesiological calendar

that was used for setting dates and times for
sacrifices, festivals and holidays. This was an
empirical lunar calendar, but it also recognized the
seasonal events that heralded the annual flooding
of the Nile valley which were vital for agricultural
practices in that region of the world.

In this calendar, the beginning of the year was

marked by the heliacal rising of Sopdet (Sirius),
which in the era from 3000BCE to 2500BCE occurred
in late June (according to our calendar), just before
the flooding began. (Recall that precession of the
equinoxes causes the entire celestial sphere to shift
over time, meaning that the heliacal rising of stars
drifts slowly forward in time through the year;
today, the heliacal rising of Sirius occurs in early
August for observers in Egypt!) Between July and
October, the Nile, flooded by rains that fell at the
river’s head in central Africa, would deposit rich
sediments along the river valley. Here farmers
could plant fruitful crops.
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 2

As the helical rising of a star is a solar event, this

critical date for Egyptians provided a means to
start the year. However, worship of lunar deities
was of crucial importance in Egyptian culture, so
the calendar was given a lunar foundation.

Consequently, the year began at sunrise on the day

following observation of the first new Moon after
the heliacal rising of Sirius. (Actually, a month
began on the day following a night when the
waning crescent of the previous Moon could no
longer be seen; this does not necessarily correspond
to the moment at which the Moon is new.)

The beginning of the year was also the beginning of

the first of three seasons recognized by the
Egyptians: Akhet (inundation), the season of Nile
flooding (roughly between July and October in our
calendar); Peret (going forth), the season for
planting (roughly from October to March); and
Shomu (deficiency), the season of the harvest,
during which their stores and supply would slowly
dwindle (roughly from March to July).
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 3

The year would normally contain 12 lunar months.

At first these months were simply numbered within
their appropriate season, four months per season:
they were named First of Akhet, Second of Akhet,
Third of Akhet, Fourth of Akhet, First of Peret,
Second of Peret, etc. But eventually the months
adopted unique names corresponding to an
important festival or holiday that took place in that
month (see Table 11.2, p. 154). In years that would
contain a 13th new Moon, the additional month
was intercalated at the end. Finally, we recall that
each month contained three decades of ten days
each. Days were numbered within each month, and
years were numbered regnally.

As the Egyptians became more knowledgeable

about the astronomical cycles for these events, they
recognized that their months averaged 29.5 days
long, so a 12-month year was 12 × 29.5 = 354 days
long. However, the heliacal rising of Sirius is a
sidereal event that happens every 365 days. So the
rising of Sirius would occur about 11 days later in
€
the final month of every year. If the previous year,
it occurred in the final 11 days of the year, then
this year, it would skip the 12th month entirely;
hence a 13th intercalary month would be needed
whenever Sirius rose in the last 11 days of the final
month of the present year.
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 4

The ecclesiological calendar was controlled by

astronomer-priests, but the rest of the population
felt the need for a much simpler calendar,
independent of the need for careful astronomical
observations and more amenable to civil business
planning. So a second civil calculated calendar
came into use in Egypt. This calendar consisted of
12 months of 30 days each, plus 5 additional
epagomenal days [Gr. epagomene = intercalary,
from epi + agein = inwards + to bring] to make a
year of 365 days. These epagomenal days belonged
to no month; they occurred at the end of the year
and marked a series of special holidays, the
birthdays of the gods Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis and
Nephtys.

No sighting of Sirius was required to start this civil

calendar and it ignored the sequence of phases of
the Moon. So this calendar quickly went out of
sync with astronomical events. Within a few
months, the new Moon would no longer occur at the
beginning of a month, and within a few years, the
rising of Sirius would drift to later and later dates
on this calendar. In fact, since the tropical year (as
well as the sidereal year) is a quarter of a day
longer than this 365-day civil year, the civil
calendar came a full day earlier every four years
with respect to the seasons. In the 1500 years of its
use, it fell back an entire tropical year in length!
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 5

The Romans, who ruled Egypt between 32BCE and

395CE, called this civil calendar the annus vagus
[L. wandering year], since it wandered freely
against the seasons. Clearly, its simple structure
was more compelling to the Egyptians than any
disadvantages that might arise from untying it
from astronomical events. It operated alongside
the lunar ecclesiological calendar, which was still
used for scheduling festivals and holidays.

A few world calendars still in use are based on this

Egyptian civil calendar, adopting a different set of
names for the months and epagomenal days, but
having largely the same structure. These include
the Yazdegerd calendar (used by Zoroastrians in
regions of Iran, Azerbaijan and central Asia, and by
Parsis in India) and the Armenian calendar.

Under the Ptolemies, from about the 4th c. BCE, a

third calendar was invented to reconnect to the
Moon’s phases. It intercalated a 13th month into a
civil year whenever the civil year started after the
ecclesial year. This way, the new calendar would
never go too far out of phase with the ecclesial
calendar. (Unfortunately, this reformed calendar
did not totally replace the earlier wandering civil
calendar, and so all three calendars were
simultaneously in use for centuries!)
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 6

Since the synodic month is, to four-place accuracy,

29.5306 days long and the annus vagus is always
exactly 365 days long, this means that there will be

365 days / year

= 12.36 months / year
29.5306 days / month

1236 309
But 12.36 = = , so there will be very nearly
€ 100 25
309 synodic months every 25 civil years. In other
words, the wandering of the civil calendar could be
eliminated if, in the 25 ×12 = 300 months that occur
€ in every 25 civil years, we intercalate 9 additional
months. This is exactly how the reformed calendar
was engineered.
€
It did away with the epagomenal days entirely, and
instead proposed a 25-year cycle of exactly 309
months: 16 of these years were small years of 12
months each, alternating 30 days and 29 days long,
for a total of 6 × 30 + 6 × 29 = 354 days in each small
year; and 9 of these years were great years of 13
months each, in which the 13th month was given
30 days, for a total of 354 + 30 = 384 days in a great
€
year. This cycle was 16 × 354 + 9 × 384 = 9120 days
long.
€
€
 Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 7

However,

309 synodic months = 309 × 29.5306 days

= 9124.9554 days

just an hour shorter than 9125 days. To keep in

step with the moon, all that was needed was to
€ intercalate 5 additional days into the full 25-year
cycle. This was accomplished by adding a 30th day
to the last 29-day month every 5th year.

In the 3rd c. BCE, Ptolemy III Euergetes (the third

of the Ptolemies in the Alexandrian line of kings of
Egypt), who was something of a scholar, attempted
to introduce a new lunisolar calendar. He was
aware of calculations of the length of the tropical
year by Greek astronomers, and realized that

25 tropical years = 25 × 365.24 days = 9131 days,

6 days longer than 25 lunar calendar years. So he

proposed, in the Decree of Canopus in 239BCE, to
€ intercalate an additional day at the end of every
fourth year (as 25 ÷ 6 ≈ 4).

€
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 8

His proposal was not adopted, however, until

Roman times, when it was mandated in order to
align the Egyptian calendar with the Roman Julian
calendar, which was already using this
intercalation method. The resulting calendar is
now called the Alexandrian calendar; it survives
today as the calendar in Ethiopia, and is also used
by the Coptic church and other Christians in
Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 9

The Babylonian calendar

The ancient Babylonian calendar, like the ones in

Egypt, began as an empirical lunar calendar. Each
year contained 12 months, with an occasional 13th
intercalated to keep the lunar cycles in line with
the seasonal year. Unlike in Egypt, however, the
climate of Mesopotamia did not enjoy a flooding
season. They recognized only two seasons, a
planting season (roughly from December to May in
our calendar) and a harvesting season (from June to
November). Nonetheless, in certain places the
calendar would have been divided into thirds,
named simply beginning of the year, middle of the
year and end of the year, containing four months
each (the 13th month belonging to the end period).

Under the Akkadians (ca. 2000BCE), the year began

with the barley moon (beginning in late May or
early June), the start of the harvesting season.
Months began on the evening of the sighting of the
first crescent of the new Moon, the day starting at
sunset. The decision to intercalate a 13th month
was made by royal decree under the advisement of
the king’s priests, whenever it was deemed
necessary. One cuneiform tablet from about
1000BCE claims that if the new Moon is found near
the Pleiades at the start of the year, then there
would be no need to intercalate a month that year.
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 10

Under the Babylonian kings of the middle of 8th c.

BCE, the new year was shifted to the month that
followed the spring equinox (named Nisanu – see
Table 10.1, p. 148). In these later centuries, as the
priests’ understanding of astronomy improved, they
recognized patterns in the cycle of years that
required intercalating months. This 19-year
Metonic cycle, named for the Greek astronomer
Meton of Athens who described its function in the
5th c. BCE, called for a 13th month in the year
numbers marked in bold below:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,
12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

In all of these years except the 17th, the intercalary

month was added after the 12th month Adaru, and
was named Adaru II. In the 17th year, which also
happened to be the year of the cycle that started
closest to the equinox, the intercalated month was
slipped in after the 6th month Ululu, and was
named Ululu II.

Babylonians were the first to use a 7-day week.

However, their weeks were subdivisions of the
month; they did not extend across one month to
another as they do in our calendar. This may have
begun as a way to mark the quarters of the Moon’s
phases ( 29.53 days ÷ 4 = 7.3825 ≈ 7 days).

€
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 11

Another non-astronomical explanation has been

offered as well. Apparently, the Babylonians felt
the number 7 to be quite unlucky. So they set aside
the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th day of every month as
days of sacrifices to their major gods so as to ward
off evil. In fact, the 19th day of the month, which
would be reckoned as the 49th day of the previous
30-day month, was also observed as an especially
unlucky “day of anger”, and it was dedicated to
special sacrifices as well. This practice of a weekly
holy day was then adopted by the Hebrews during
their Babylonian exile in the 6th. c. BCE and would
later be encoded in their religious law.
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 12

The Jewish calendar

Our knowledge of the early history of the Hebrew

calendar is sketchy. Before the time of King
Solomon (10th c. BCE), there is evidence that they
used an empirical lunisolar calendar in which the
new year began at the first new Moon after the
autumnal equinox. The day began at sunset, the
month was announced by the high priest in
Jerusalem on first sighting of the new crescent, and
the decision to intercalate a 13th month depended
on whether the barley harvest came in before the
celebration of Passover in the spring, so that a
proper offering of grain could be made to God on
the day after the holiday.

During the time of the Babylonian captivity (586-

537BCE), the Hebrews adopted the calendar of their
captors, including the names of the 12 months:

1 Tishrei 30 days 7 Nisan 30 days

2 Cheshvan 29 days 8 Iyyar 29 days
3 Kislev 30 days 9 Sivan 30 days
4 Tevet 29 days 10 Tammuz 29 days
5 Shvat 30 days 11 Av 30 days
6 Adar 29 days 12 Elul 29 days
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 13

They also appropriated their 7-day week, with

number-based names (see p. 397).

In 311BCE Seleucis Necator took charge of the

eastern part of the territory won by Alexander the
Great and established an empire that stretched
from present-day Turkey to Pakistan. This was the
beginning of the Seleucid era, and the Jewish
calendar counted years from this date until the
13th c. CE.

In 70 CE, Roman armies sacked Jerusalem and

destroyed the Jewish Temple there. This event
marks the Great Diaspora [Gr. dispersion], when
Jews emigrated throughout the world. It then
became most inconvenient for Jews to wait for news
from Jerusalem about when the months – and their
associated holidays and festivals – would begin.
Some Jews in faraway lands like Spain adopted the
practice of celebrating certain feasts on multiple
consecutive days to make sure they would not be in
violation of religious law! More and more of them
simply worked out methods to determine the
calendar by calculation.
 Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 14

One method for calculating the pattern of common

12-month years and embolismic 13-month years
[Gr. embolismos = intercalation] was to notice that

8 tropical years = 8 × 365.25 days = 2922 days

whereas
€ 99 lunations = 99 × 29.5306 days ≈ 2923.5 days.

That is, 8 years is only a day-and-a-half shy of 99

synodic months. Since 99 = 12 × 8 + 3, a pattern of 3
€ embolismic years in every 8, according to the
pattern
€
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,

would very nearly ensure an accurate calculated

lunisolar calendar.

More common, however, than this 8-year cycle was

the much more accurate 19-year Metonic cycle,
which was widely adopted throughout the
Diaspora. In some rabbinic traditions, it is
reported that a calculated calendar of this type was
established in Jerusalem in the 4th c. CE. It is
certainly true that this calculated calendar was in
use throughout the world by the 8th c. CE.
 Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 15

The day, which started at sunset (6 hours after

noon), was divided into 24 hours according to the
ancient Egyptian and Babylonian customs. Each
hour was divided into 1080 parts called halakim:

1 halak = 1 hour / 1080

= 60 minutes / 1080
= 60 × 60 seconds / 1080
= 3 1 seconds
3

The number 1080 seems to have been chosen

because it is highly divisible. The synodic month,
or€molod in Hebrew, was determined to be exactly

1 molod = 29 days, 12 hours, 793 halakim

long; this converts to 29.5305941 days, impressive

accuracy of less than half a second! Thus, it is
€ possible to compare the length of a common year
of 354 days ( 6 × 30 + 6 × 29 = 354) with 12 molodot
(the plural of molod):

12 molodot = 354 days, 8 hours, 876 halakim;

€
thus 12 molodot are slightly longer than 354 days.
Similarly, an embolismic year has 384 days
€ ( 354 + 30 = 384), whereas

€
 Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 16

13 molodot = 383 days, 21 hours, 589 halakim

is slight shorter. Nonetheless, the Metonic cycle of

intercalation gave a year whose average length was
€
235 molodot 29.53059 days
1 yr ⋅ ⋅ = 365.24682 days
19 yrs 1 molod

an approximation of the tropical year of 365.24219

days to an accuracy less than one day in 216 years!
€
Back in the 2nd c. CE, Rabbi Yose ben Halafta used
the Hebrew Scriptures to develop a chronology of
the world, in which he dated the day of Creation (as
told in Genesis). This he placed as having begun at
6:00pm on Saturday, October 5, 3761BCE! More
specifically, he computed that the very first new
Moon started at 5 hours, 204 halakim after sunset
two days later. Later, in the 12th c., Rabbi Moses
ben Maimon, popularly known as Maimonides,
suggested using this dating to reset the beginning
of the Jewish era. Since then, the Jewish calendar
has counted years from this date with the
designation AM, for anno mundi [L. in the year of
the world]. Thus, the current Jewish year, running
from September 30, 2008 to September 18, 2009 is
AM 5769.
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 17

The Jewish calendar includes four “new year”

celebrations (!), but only two of them are of great
importance. Apparently, the two ancient Hebrew
kingdoms of Israel and Judah had followed
different calendars – Israel the ecclesiastical
calendar and Judah the civil calendar – so both
new year celebrations were retained threafter.

The ecclesiastical new year occurs at the new Moon

after the spring equinox, according to the Biblical
prescription found in Ex 12:2:

“This
month
[Nisan]
is
for
you
the
first
of

months.”

At the full Moon of this month, on Nisan 14, the

important feast of Pesach [Heb., Passover] is
celebrated.

The civil new year is celebrated on the first two

days of Tishrei, officially the first month of the
Jewish year, with the feast of Rosh Hoshannah
[Heb., Head of the Year]. The practice of
celebrating the feast across two days derived from
the difficulty of Jews in the Diaspora to determine
with certainty the time of this new Moon.
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 18

The month of Tishrei is also the month of Yom

Kippur [Heb., Day of Atonement] (Tishrei 10), the
“Sabbath of Sabbaths”, and holiest day of the
Jewish year. Also in Tishrei is Sukkot [Heb.,
Booths] (Tishrei 14), a seven-day festival whose
final day is Hoshannah Rabbah [Heb., Great
Supplication] (Tishrei 21), a day which includes
special prayers to God for rain in the coming year.

Because Jews are forbidden by religious law from

all work – including food preparation and burial of
the dead – on the Sabbath (every Saturday), it was
important to design the calendar so that this kind
of work is not prohibited on two consecutive days.
So Yom Kippur can never fall on a Friday or a
Sunday. Also, since the prayers for rain are
considered a violation of the rules for rest on the
Sabbath, Hoshannah Rabbah cannot occur on a
Saturday. To ensure that these restrictions are
met, there are special postponement rules
followed for the intercalation or extracalation of a
day from the year.

Consequently, there are six kinds of year in the

Jewish calendar, depending on whether it is a
common year (12 months) or embolismic year (13
months), and whether it is deficient (one day
extracalated), regular (no change), or abundant
(one day intercalated).
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 19

The Metonic cycle determines whether the year is

to be common or embolismic, but a number of
factors decide whether the year is deficient, regular
or abundant.

In a common regular year, the 354-day year’s

structure is as in the table on p. 12 above. In a
deficient year, Kislev 30 is omitted and this 3rd
month of the year has only 29 days; in an abundant
year, the 2nd month Cheshvan is extended from 29
to 30 days. In embolismic years, the same pattern
sets up, but the 6th month, Adar, with 29 days, is
replaced with two months, Adar I, with 30 days,
and Adar II with 29. So embolismic years are just
30 days longer than common years. The lengths of
the years are then as in this table:

deficient regular abundant

common 353 354 355
embolismic 383 384 385

The time of the molod of Tishrei for the coming

year is computed by using the year number to
determine how many months have elapsed since
the beginning of time; then one can find the exact
moment of this molod and therefore the appointed
number of days in the current year.
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 20

Since the next molod of Tishrei should occur on the

first day of that month, one may have to adjust the
length of the current year to ensure this. (Recall
that 12 molodot are slightly longer than 354 days,
and 13 molodot are slightly shorter than 384 days.)
This temporarily establishes whether the current
year will be deficient, regular or abundant. Then,
the postponement rules come into play to ensure
that the holy days in Tishrei do not fall on a day
adjacent to a Sabbath. They work as follows:

1. It has been determined that the moment of the

astronomical new Moon (the Moon’s conjunction)
in Jerusalem precedes the visibility of the first
crescent by 6 hours. So, if the conjunction that
determines the molod of Tishrei were to take
place after noon on a given day (6 hours before
the start of the next day), the Moon’s crescent
would not be visible on the same day. To ensure
that the first day of the year coincides with the
sighting of the Moon, this rule stipulates that
when the molod begins after noon, Rosh
Hashannah (Tishrei 1) of that year should be
postponed, i.e., the previous year should be
extended by a single day.
Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 21

2. If the molod of Tishrei falls on a Sunday,

Wednesday or Friday, Tishrei 1 must be
postponed a day (and possibly a second day, if the
first rule had already gone into play), otherwise
(a) in the case of a Wednesday or Friday, Yom
Kippur (Tishrei 10) would be immediately
followed by or precede a Sabbath; and (b) in the
case of a Sunday, Hoshannah Rabbah (Tishrei
21) would fall on a Saturday. Consequently,
Rosh Hashannah can only fall on a Monday,
Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday.

3. If in a common year, the molod of Tishrei falls on

a Tuesday at 9 hours, 204 halakim after 6:00pm
or later, then this year is regular (as the molod of
Tishrei of the next year would fall on a Saturday
after noon). But this requires, by the first rule
above, that the year be extended one day, and by
the second rule (as the next Tishrei 1 cannot be
on a Sunday), that it be extended yet a second
day. As a result, the current year would last
more than 355 days long. To avoid this
circumstance, we delay the current year by one
day, making it abundant; however, this forces
Tishrei 1 to fall on a Wednesday, which is
forbidden, so we delay it a second day, to
Thursday, making it a regular year once more!
The following Rosh Hashannah then falls on a
Monday.
 Egyptian, Babylonian and Jewish calendars 22

4. If, in a year after an embolismic year, the molod

of Tishrei falls on a Monday at 15 hours, 589
halakim after 6:00pm or later, then the
embolismic year must have had a molod of
Tishrei that fell on a Tuesday after noon, making
it a regular year. But the first rule above would
then trigger, causing a one-day postponement to
Wednesday, whence the second rule would come
into play, causing a second postponement to
Thursday, and the embolismic year would then
be only 382 days long. To avoid this, we postpone
Tishrei 1 of the year after the embolismic year
from Monday to Tuesday. The embolismic year
now has 383 days, and no further changes are
required for the following year.

It may appear that, since Rosh Hashannah can fall

on any of four days of the week and since the year
can have one of six different lengths, there are 24
( 4 × 6) different possible calendar arrangements. In
fact, there are only 14 since some of the
combinations are impossible to arrange. (This is
the same as the number of combinations of our
€
current calendar, as it can begin on any of 7 days of
the week and be either a common year or a leap
year.)