Jewish Holidays 2009

The Jewish calendar year is based on the lunar cycle and contains 12 months, each of 29 or 30 days, thus completing a year in 354 days. In order to keep up with the tropical (solar) year of 365 days, Jewish leap years (on average every 3 years) add an extra month (Adar) in early spring.

This is a busy Jewish year. Starting with Passover: this festival begins on a Wednesday evening (April 8) and runs for 2 days in the Diaspora, which means it runs straight into Shabbat… no creative work for 3 consecutive days! Shavuot also brings an exceptionality since – in the Diaspora – it lands on a Friday and Shabbat, while in Israel (where they only celebrate the festival for one day) that Shabbat is a regular one. Therefore, in Israel they'll read a parsha (weekly Torah portion) that Shabbat, while in the Diaspora there's a special Torah reading for Shavuot… thus the Diaspora will lag behind by one parsha for a while (until they double-up later in early July)!

Rosh Hashana falls on a Shabbat this year, which means no shofar (horn-blowing) until the 2 nd day of Rosh Hashana. Hannukah begins and ends on a Shabbat this year, which means we get 2 Shabbatot of Hannukah. And finally, the fast of the 10th of Tevet, 5770 (next Jewish year), will be on December 27, 2009. Did you notice that this fast in our Jewish year (5769) was on January 6, 2009? Well, that's because there are less days in the Jewish (lunar) year than in the solar year. It comes out that we have the same fast day twice in 2009 – one for 5769 and the other for 5770! (If you can wait until 2011, we get payback as this fast does not occur at all in that year!)

Every month except Cheshvan contains at least one event. Here they are:

Tishrei: High Holidays (Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur -- days of judgement and a day of atonement and fasting), Sukkot (Festival of Booths), Cheshvan: no special occasion, Kislev: Hannukah (Holiday of Lights), Tevet: 10th of Tevet (Fast Day), Shevat: Tu B'Shvat (New Year for the Trees), Adar: Purim (Holiday of Joy), Nissan: Passover (Festival of Freedom), Iyar: Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance), Yom HaZikaron (Israel Memorial Day), Yom Ha'Aztmaut (Israel Independence Day), Yom Yerushalayim (anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem), Sivan: Shavuot (Day the Torah was Given), Tammuz: 17th of Tammuz (fast day), Av: Tisha B'Av (major fast day), Elul: preparation for High Holidays.

Holidays	2009
Purim	Tuesday March 10 - Wednesday March 11
Passover	Thursday April 9 - Thursday April 16
Counting The Omer	Friday April 10 - Thursday May 28
Holocaust Remembrance Day	Tuesday April 21
Israel Memorial Day	Tuesday April 28
Israel Independence Day	Wednesday April 29
Yom Yerushalayim	Friday May 22
Shavuot	Friday May 29 - Saturday May 30
Tisha B'Av and the 3 Weeks	Thursday July 30
Rosh Hashana	Saturday September 19 - Sunday September 20
Yom Kippur	Monday September 28
Sukkot	Saturday October 3 - Sunday October 11
Simchat Torah Shmini Atzeret	Satuday October 10
Chanukah	Saturday December 12 - Saturday December 19
10th of Tevet	Sunday December 27