XIX

NEW YEAR'S DAY AND SOME OTHER FESTIVALS

WHEN we consider the various days of festival or observance in the calendars or related passages of the O.T. and in the postBiblical Roll of Fasting, it quickly, if not immediately, becomes clear that three considerations actually determined the occasion, or were at times held to have determined the occasion, of these festivals: some were determined by agricultural, some by astronomical, and some by historical considerations. It is not impossible that the origin of the Passover, unlike the rest, was pastoral, and at all events this festival is in the O.T. itself traced back to a pastoral period in the history of the people. But the observance of the Passover was within the historical period always associated most closely with the Feast of Unleavened Bread; and we may for the time being leave the origin of the Passover out of account and consider the relative importance of agriculture, astronomy, and history in the Jewish festal calendars.

The large influence of history in determining the festal days of the Jews is obvious in the Roll of Fasting; the influence of agriculture has left its traces on the names of the most prominent ancient festivals, the Feast of Harvest and the Feast of Ingathering; the influence of astronomy in the also ancient observance of the new moons. But not a few of the days came to wear a double character: most clearly is this so with the two great agricultural feasts which were made to wear also the character of historical commemoration.

Beyond the observance of the new moons, how much in Jewish festal rites was affected by astronomy? Since the Hebrew months were lunar months and began when the new moon first became visible, full moon fell on the average on the fifteenth day of the month. Now the great festal weeks of the year according to Lev. 23, which has governed all subsequent Jewish practice,

began at or about the full moon-the combined festival of Passover and Unleavened Bread began in the afternoon of the fourteenth of Nisan (say April), and the first day of the Feast of Booths on the fifteenth of Tishri, i.e. after the sundown with which the fourteenth of Tishri closed (say October).1 On the other hand, the Day of Atonement falls on the tenth day of the month, i. e. when the moon is about half-way between its first quarter and the full--an insignificant phase. Moreover, the Day of Firstfruits, according to the traditional reckoning of the ambiguous datum '50 days from the Sabbath' (undefined), fell at the end of the first week of the third month-say about the moon's first quarter -but even if it fell exactly on the first quarter, it fell at a not very significant phase. But curiously enough, as against this traditional theory which has prevailed with some insignificant variations of practice, a certain school of Jewish thought in the first century B. C. gave to Pentecost the same lunar character as the first days of the feasts of Passover-Unleavened Bread and Ingathering, i. e., however the calculation was managed, the Feast of Pentecost was fixed on the fifteenth day of the third month, and therefore at the full moon. This is the theory-whether practice ever corresponded to it is another question of the Book of Jubilees: Abram, we are told, celebrated the Feast of the Firstfruits of the grain harvest in the third month, in the middle of the month (151), and in the third month, in the middle of the month on the Festival of the Firstfruits of harvest, was Isaac born (1613): and Jacob starting out on the new moon of the third month, after seven days' journey offered sacrifice, then remained seven days, and then offered the harvest festival of the Firstfruits, and then on the sixteenth the Lord appeared to him.3

From the certain fact that in Lev. 23 all new moons in a year and two of the full moons were festal days we may look before and after at other certain facts and consider their significance.

1 Philo comments on Unleavened Bread and Booths beginning at the full moon. De Septen 19, 24 (Mangey ii. 293, 297); Cohu v. 1051,8, 1181 o.

2 Yet the first quarter attracted attention as the day when the 'horns disappeared'. Creation Tablets v. 17; Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament, p. 33.

3 Middle of the month in Jubilees: fifth month Abraham journeys (16"), sixth month Sarah conceives Isaac.

In Ezekiel, in addition to the generally festal character of all new moons, there are four days in the year of exceptional solemnity, the first and fourteenth days of the first month, the first and fifteenth days of the seventh month, that is two days of new moon and two days when the moon is at or on the point of becoming full. The contrast with Lev. 23 is striking for all the solemn annual days in Ezekiel fall either at new or at full moon, but in Leviticus we have the intrusion certainly of the Day of Atonement, probably of the Feast of Weeks, on days of no lunar significance. If it could be shown that prior to the time of Ezekiel the spring and autumn festivals began at the full moon, but the Feast of Harvest neither at new nor full moon, then the omission of the Feast of Harvest from Ezekiel's cycle, which is in any case remarkable, might be attributed to its lunar insignifi.

cance.

Neither in Dt. nor in Ex. 23 and 34 is there any reference either to the day of the month or to the state of the moon at the festivals: what inferences have been drawn or can be drawn from this fact had better be considered later.

But we come to facts again when we turn to the Roll of Fasting. The Roll contains about thirty-five distinct festivals, i. e. thirty-five days of single day festivals or in one or two cases initial days of longer festivals. Almost without exception these festivals purport, as we have seen, to be historical festivalsanniversaries of historical events. Such a claim need not necessarily be right, and festivals which came to be regarded as historical anniversaries might in origin be astronomical; but an examination of the days concerned shows at least that they cannot in many cases have had lunar significance. The festivals are distributed over twenty different days of the month, the ten days not occurring as the sole or initial festal days in any month being the 4th, 5th, 6th, 10th, 11th, 18th, 19th, 26th, 29th, and 30th. Of course if the historical characters of the days were merely secondary, and the days all of them primarily lunar festivals, the festivals would occur exclusively on the 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd of the months; as a matter of fact two occur on the eighth day of a month, two on the fifteenth, two on the twenty-second, and one on the first-seven in all out of thirty-five on these four days; over against this set the fact that three occur on each of such

singularly insignificant days as the twenty-fifth and twentyeighth, and two on the seventeenth and twenty-seventh, i. e. ten in all on four insignificant days as against seven on the four significant days. The one feature of the list that might at first suggest a certain lunar influence on comparison with other features is seen by itself to be inconclusive. I refer to the fact that there is a certain massing of festivals about the middle of the month, near if not actually at the full moon; four of the festivals fall on the fourteenth, two as we have seen on the fifteenth. But one of those on the fourteenth is Little Passover-institutional and not historical in character, and its date determined by the fourteenth day of the preceding month, being the date of Passover proper. This leaves us with five festivals on the fourteenth or fifteenth of a month, i.e. about the full moon, and this might seem a large enough number to be significant : but we also find five festivals on the two consecutive days which are of the most complete insignificance in reference to the moon, viz. on the twentyseventh and the twenty-eighth. We can, therefore, only infer that any of the festivals falling on the fourteenth or fifteenth day of the month were not primarily historical, if features in the observance of any of these days suggest it. Unfortunately we have little information as to the observance of any of these festivals beyond the fact that fasting and in some cases also mourning were forbidden on them. But Purim, which fell on the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar, is an exception to the rule, and the manner of the observance of this festival strongly suggests and has convinced many investigators that it is not primarily historical in character. There is some suggestion that the same may be said of the fifteenth of Ab; the origin traditionally assigned to it does not explain why the maidens clad in white vesture, not their own, went out to dance in the vineyards. It would be easier to find analogies for this in popular rites which elsewhere fall at particular seasons of the year or phases of the moon, or which at all events are not mere anniversaries of historical events.

So far we have considered only the influence of the moon on Hebrew festivals-certain in the case of the new moon festivals, probable in certain other festivals that fell at the full moon. But had the course of the sun any influence? First and generally it is to be remarked here that the sun kept the various festivals,

including those that were of lunar significance, constant to their original seasons; whereas the Mohammedan year regards only the moon, so that the same festival in the course of thirty-three years moves round the entire cycle of seasons, occurring now at mid-summer, now in mid-winter, the Hebrew festival of Unleavened Bread, for example, from the earliest times to the present day has occurred in spring.

But there are two or three festivals that may be more particularly affected by the sun. Solar festivals occur especially at or about the equinoxes. Now in the festal calendar of Lev. 23, as in Ezekiel and in Jewish practice for the past 2,000 years, the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread falls on the new moon (or one of the two full moons) nearest to the spring equinox; and consequently the Feast of Ingathering or Booths, which took and takes place exactly six months afterwards, occurs at the full moon nearest the autumn equinox. Obviously we might have here an originally lunar feast attracted and attached to a particular full moon under solar influence, or an original solar feast displaced to a slight extent in most years from the exact time of the equinox under lunar influence. The fact, whether significant or not, is this, that the two principal and most ancient Hebrew festivals fall near the spring and autumn equinoxes respectively.

Of solstitial festivals the O.T. gives no trace. On the other hand the later festal calendar, the Roll of Fasting, contains a festival vying with the two ancient festivals of Unleavened Bread and Ingathering in respect of the length of its observances, which extend over eight days; and this festival, the Feast of the Dedication, fell at or about the winter solstice-beginning on the 25th of Chisleu, which corresponds roughly to December. There is no corresponding festival at or about the summer solstice, the festival of the 25th of Sivan (June) being confined to a single day. The 9th of Ab (August), the great Fast Day, is too far removed from midsummer to see in it a summer solstitial lament for the now shortening days. Otherwise the story cited in Lightfoot xii. 341 from Ekhah Rabbati might be treated as a development or use of the motive of the antithetical characters of the two solstices. It may also be pointed out that one or more festivals occur in the last week of six other months. The mere fact, then, that the Feast of Dedication fell on the 25th of