Yes, we have
our very own calendar! It is different than the civil (or Gregorian) calendar.
The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar that is adjusted.
It divides time according to the cycles of the moon. To understand what that
means you need to become a moon watcher. Some nights the moon is full and
round and on other nights it is just a tiny sliver in the night sky. This
is a new moon. The time from the new moon to the full moon is a cycle.
It takes 29 or 30 days to complete a cycle. From the new moon called Hodesh
in Hebrew. Hodesh is also the word for month. Twelve of these are a Shana
or year.
The calendar is adjusted because a solar year is 365 days
long and a moon year of 12 months is 354 days. In order to help us catch up
an extra month is added on certain years, this is a leap year. Every 19 years
there are seven leap years (the third, sixth, eighth, eleventh, fourteenth,
seventeenth and nineteenth years). In a leap year a 13th month is added called
Adar Sheni (the second Adar).
A Jewish day starts at sundown and ends at sundown. This
is why holidays start "the day before" (sundown). An example of this is Yom
Kippur which happens on the 10th of Tishrei - At sundown on the 9th of Tishrei
the day changes to the 10th.
The Jewish week begins on Sunday (Yom Rishon – First day)
and ends on Shabbat.
Days of the week in Hebrew
Sunday
Yom Ree-Shon
Monday Yom She-Nee
Tuesday Yom Shelee-She
Wednesday Yom Re-Ve-ee
Thursday Yom Hah-Mee-Shee
Friday Yom Shee-Shee
Shabbat Yom Sha-Bat
The Jewish month begins with Rosh Hodesh. When there is a
leap year, the extra month is added after Adar and it is called Adar Sheni,
or Adar the second.