The Jewish calendar was arranged around the different religious festivals which were commanded in the law of Moses. Each of these was linked to various stages in the agricultural year. This chart lists each of the months of the Jewish year and the western equivalent, together with the agricultural seasons and Jewish festivals.

 

1. Nisan (Abib) (March/April)                    start of the religious year
                                                                   Flax harvest, spring rains

      14th               Passover (Ex 12, Lev 23:5)                                                  Festival #1
*    15th-20th       Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:6)
      21st               Passover - last day (Lev 23:8)                                              Festival #2

2. Iyyar (April/May)                                   Barley harvest, dry season begins

      14th               Later Passover (Num 9:11)

3. Sivan (May/June)                                   Early figs ripen

*     6th                Pentecost (Weeks, Harvest) (Lev 23:15, Deut 16:9)            Festival #3
                            (Seven weeks after Passover)

4. Tammuz (June/July)                               Grape harvest

5. Ab (July/Aug)                                         Early olive harvest, summer wheat

6. Elul (Aug/Sept)                                      Dates, summer figs

7. Tishri (Sept/Oct)                                   Start of civil year
                                                                  First rains (former rains)

      1st                  Trumpets (Lev 23:24) Festival #4
      10th                Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) (Lev 16:29, 23:27)           Festival #5

*     15th-21st       Tabernacles (Booths, Ingathering) (Lev 23:34, Deut 16:13)   Festival #6
       21st               Tabernacles - last (great) day                                                Festival #7

8. Marchesvan (Oct/Nov)                        Late olive harvest, winter figs, ploughing

9. Kislev (Nov/Dec)                                  Sowing

      25th                 Festival of Light (Hanukkah) (Dedication of temple) (1 Macc 4:52,59)

10. Tebeth (Dec/Jan)                                Rains and snow (latter rains)

11. Shebat (Jan/Feb)                                 Almond blossom

12. Adar (Feb/March)                               Citrus fruit harvest

      14th                 Feast of Purim (Esther 9:16)

13. Ve-Adar (Leap month)                         Once every three years.


* "Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will chose: at the festival of unleavened bread, at the festival of weeks, and at the festival of booths" (Deut 16:16, also Ex 23:14-17)