Welcome to the main Calendar Page according to the Luni-Solar or Creation Calendar. If you are not familiar with the biblical system of time-keeping, please orient yourself by studying the materials here.
A biblical 'day' starts at sunrise (not sunset or midnight) and ends the following Gregorian day at sunrise. Accordingly all sabbaths, new moons and annual festivals (with the exception of Yom haKippurim which begins and ends at sunset) begin at sunrise.
For extreme northern or southern latitudes where there may be no sunrise or sunset for several months, special halachic rules apply in this ministry not specified in the calendar, in which case we normally recommend an artificial sunrise at 5 or 6 a.m.
A biblical month starts the following sunrise after the Lunar Conjunction. This means that whilst the bulk of the calendar is the same all over the world, in some locations a month may start a day sooner or later on certain months. A dynamic calendar therefore becomes essential for lunar sabbatarians. Thanks to the very hard work of our chief programmer, Deborah Peterson, such a calendar has now been created and is the first of its kind that we know of in the messianic community. As such, then, we hope that this Dyanmic Luni-Solar & Sunrise Calendar will be a great blessing.
All festivals and sabbaths except Rosh Chodesh (New Moon) and Yom Teruah (Trumpets) (which are announced by the blowing of twin silver-trumpets) are announced by the blowing of the shofar (ram's horn).
The new dynamic calendar, which you can print out for your personal use, took effect on 1 March 2012 and replaces all other ones. The Messianic Evangelical Luni-Solar Sunrise Dynamic Calendar and its coding is Strictly Copyright © 2012 Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon (nccg.org) - All Rights Reserved.
Note: THE DYNAMIC CALENDAR ONLY WORKS ONLINE!
Go Directly to the Complete Dynamic Calendar
A Word of Clarification for Those
Confused About the Calculation Process
We often get letters from people who can't understand why their calculations for Rosh Chodesh (the New Moon) are a day or two different from that shown in the dynamic calendar. Hopefully this explanation will resolve the problem.
First of all, it must be understood that the Dynamic Calendar does not calculate Rosh Chodesh using the first sighted crescent method of the talmudic rabbis. Rosh Chodesh is set or established when the moon is dark or invisible to the naked eye when an observer views the moon as the sun is rising.
If the sun rises before the moon is visible (the moon remaining invisible), the day starting with that sunrise and the period to the following sunrise determines Rosh Chodesh. If the crescent moon is visible at sunrise, we can then know for certain that is it not Rosh Chodesh, in which case Rosh Chodesh is on its way or has already passed (depending whether it is a waning or waxing crescent). This factor can lead to the commonest mistakes made by observers.
Yahweh has ordained that Rosh Chodesh and the beginning of each month be determined when the moon is dark or invisible to the naked eye. The apparent 'discrepancies' that users of the Dynamic Calendar report to us are caused by the fact that the moon is invisible to the naked eye for a certain number of hours before and after man's 'calculated moment of conjunction'.
Let's take the Biblical New Year in 2012 as an example. The calculated moment of conjunction took place on Thursday 22 March (about 14:37 GMT time according to NASA's website. The Dynamic Calendar marks Friday 23 March 2012 as Rosh Chodesh. If you had gone outside to observe the moon at sunrise on 22 March, you would have still seen a small crescent, showing that Rosh Chodesh had not yet begun. But had you gone outside at sunrise on 23 March, the moon would have been invisible to the naked eye, thus establishing Rosh Chodesh from sunrise 23 March to sunrise 24 March. Had you gone out at sunrise on 24 March you would have seen the first visible crescent. Thus the calendar is accurately fixed:
23/03/2012 - Day 1 (Rosh Chodesh)
24/03/2012 - Day 2
25/03/2012 - Day 3
26/03/2012 - Day 4
27/03/2012 - Day 5
28/03/2012 - Day 6
29/03/2012 - Day 7
30/03/2012 - Day 8 (Shabbat)
Useful Resources
For calculating new moons and moon phases accurately, use www.wolframalpha.com.
For example, in the orange search window at the top of the page, type:
moon+phase+at+(sunrise+25+july+2017 London England)
for 25 July 2017 in London, UK. This will tell the Search Engine to "determine the moon phase at the moment whrn the sun rises on the Gregorian date in this location". The result also usefully includes an illumination percentage which is something you need to pay close attention to more than the name which Wolfram gives the actual phase:
<1 means invisible to the naked eye
>1 means visible to the naked eye.
Though other factors have to be taken into consideration for absolutely accuracy, this is a good place for beginners to learn how to use online resources such as this.
