Feasts / Festivals Calendar

How to Spot the New Moon - Some like to use optical aids to spot the moon in stead of with their naked eye. The problem with this is that the optical aids are actually allowing observers to spot the moon that they would have otherwise not been able to with just their naked eye, as they did in Biblical Times. Therefore, it is not recommended to use optical aids, but only with just their naked eye.

A Simple Formula for Figuring the start of the New Year

Keep in mind that the new moon is not visible for approximately two days/nights, and if not spotted by the 3rd day, it becomes the 1st day of the month. A year in the Hebrew calendar can be 353, 354, 355, 383, 384, or 385 days long, unlike our present day calendars. The ancient Jewish calendar depended not on mathematical calculations and arrangements, but was set from month to month according the physical appearance of the new moon, it was necessary from time to time to “intercalate” a thirteenth month be fore the Passover, to prevent its being moved back into the winter. There is no mention that the new moon (rosh chodesh) had to fall after the vernal equinox, only that Passover or the full moon must fall after the vernal equinox. The full moon usually occurs 14 to 15 days after the new moon. Therefore, the ancients did not base their calendar on the first new moon after the vernal equinox, but rather on the first new moon that fell closest to the vernal equinox, which means the new moon could fall two or more weeks before the vernal equinox, just as long as Passover (which was on the fourteenth day of the first month at the time of the full moon) would occur after the vernal equinox. If it didn’t, then the Jews added a thirteenth month.

• The calendar is based on the Biblical system of observing the new moon in Palestine. Whenever possible calculated dates should be confirmed by actual observations in Palestine. Calculating may have been acceptable prior to today's abilities of observing the new moon in Palestine and then broadcasting it to the whole world, but that is no longer a valid excuse.
• The first month is called Nissan , also known as Abib [because the barley was in the green ear phase, yet it has nothing to do with the actual determination of the first month]. The sighting of the new moon [First visible sliver by the naked eye], first new moon that falls closest to the vernal equinox, as long as Passover after the vernal equinox. 
• Passover [count 14 days from that visible moon], from this you can calculate unleavened [on the 15 day].
• Feast of Harvest also known as Feast of Weeks, First Fruits, and Pentecost. Count seven Sabbaths plus one day [50 days] from the day after the weekly Sabbath that occurs during Unleavened Bread. 
• Trumpets [1st day of the 7th month], Atonement [10th day of the 7th month], Tabernacles [15th day of the 7th month], and the Eight Day [eighth day after the start of Tabernacles] is determined by the visible new moon in the seventh month, or seventh new moon.
• No month can have more than 30 days in it.

(Disclaimer: The links below will take you to a site outside of this site, and will open in a new window. I doe not necessarily endorse, in their entirety, all the agencies or organizations represented below.)

• When is the New Moon? Monthly New Moon Updates and Sightings From Israel
• Devorah's Date Tree New Moon Updates and Sightings From Israel
• timeanddate.com Jerusalem, Israel Sunrise, Sunset, and Moon Times for Today.
• Truth on the Web Projected Appointed Times for 2001 - 2030
• The Biblical Calendar This web site provides studies on the biblical calendar

• Feastgoer.org
• 7th Day Sabbath Churches of God

The Church of God Proclaimed