1st Month 5769

View HTML version.
View Karaite Korner Newsletter.
Calculate Moon Phases.

Happy New Year 5769!

Happy New Year!

Today (being from Friday the 27th of March at sunset until Saturday the 28th of March at sunset, 2009) is the first day of the Biblical new year according to the Karaite Jews.

I have decided not to shave my hair this year. I sometimes shave my hair at the start of the year to keep track of how fast it grows. One of my resolutions for the new year is to blog almost every week from now on.

5769AM is supposed to be the year anno mundi (Latin for "Year of the World"), but I think it's probably out by a few hundred years. It's not important to know which year you are in to celebrate the feasts, though. The Bible didn't keep count of the years that way either. What's important is what time of the year it is.

The Bible says that the first month of the year is the month of Abib (Exodus 12:2, 13:4). That is, the month when the barley is harvested. That's this month.

The month itself is simply from one new moon to the next. Today is the new moon.

A day, as originally and consistantly defined in the Bible, is from sunset to sunset (Genesis 1:5, Leviticus 23:32).

Happy new year!