Jewish Holidays

Level: Basic

Holidays begin at sunset the night before

"Work" is forbidden on many holidays
Some holidays are one day longer than the Bible says
Holidays fall on different dates every year

This is the first in a series of pages on the Jewish holidays. This page discusses some basic
considerations that apply to all or many holidays. Each of the individual holiday pages talks
about the significance of a holiday, its traditional observances and related customs, the date on
which each holiday will occur for the next five years, and in some cases recipes for traditional,
Ashkenazic holiday-related foods.
The holidays covered are listed in the site index in the right margin. For those who just want
information on a need-to-know basis, there is also A Gentile's Guide to the Jewish Holidays,
which will give you a basic awareness of the holidays most commonly observed by American
Jews.

When Holidays Begin

All Jewish holidays begin the evening before the date specified on most calendars. This is
because a Jewish "day" begins and ends at sunset, rather than at midnight. If you read the story
of creation in Genesis Ch. 1, you will notice that it says, "And there was evening, and there was
morning, one day." From this, we infer that a day begins with evening, that is, sunset. Holidays
end at nightfall of the date specified on most calendars; that is, at the time when it becomes dark
out, about an hour after sunset.
For the precise time when a holiday begins and ends in your area, consult the list of candle
lighting times provided by the Orthodox Union, by Chabad or by any Jewish calendar.
For a discussion of why Jewish holidays occur on different days every year, see Jewish Calendar.

Work on Holidays
Work is not permitted on Rosh Hashanah, on Yom Kippur, on the first and second days of
Sukkot, on Shemini Atzeret, on Simchat Torah, on Shavu'ot, and the first, second, seventh and
eighth days of Passover. The "work" prohibited on those holidays is the same as that prohibited
on Shabbat, except that cooking, baking, transferring fire and carrying, all of which are forbidden
on Shabbat, are permitted on holidays. When a holiday occurs on Shabbat, the full Shabbat
restrictions are observed.
For observant Jews who work in the secular gentile world, this can be problematic in some years:
if all of the non-working holidays fall on weekdays (as they sometimes do), an observant Jew
would need to take 13 days off of work just to observe holidays. This is more vacation time that
some people have available.

Extra Day of Holidays

You may notice that the number of days of some holidays do not accord with what the Bible
specifies. In most cases, we celebrate one more day than the Bible requires. There is an
interesting reason for this additional day.
The Jewish calendar is lunar, with each month beginning on the new moon. The new months
used to be determined by observation. When the new moon was observed, the Sanhedrin
declared the beginning of a new month and sent out messengers to tell people when the month
began. People in distant communities could not always be notified of the new moon (and
therefore, of the first day of the month), so they did not know the correct day to celebrate. They
knew that the old month would be either 29 or 30 days, so if they didn't get notice of the new
moon, they celebrated holidays on both possible days.
This practice of celebrating an extra day was maintained as a custom even after we adopted a
precise mathematical calendar, because it was the custom of our ancestors. This extra day is not
celebrated by Israelis, regardless of whether they are in Israel at the time of the holiday, because
it is not the custom of their ancestors, but it is celebrated by everybody else, even if they are
visiting Israel at the time of the holiday.
Rosh Hashanah is celebrated as two days everywhere (in Israel and outside Israel), because it
occurs on the first day of a month. Messengers were not dispatched on the holiday, so even
people in Israel did not know whether a new moon had been observed, and everybody celebrated
two days. The practice was also maintained as a custom after the mathematical calendar was
adopted.
Yom Kippur is celebrated only one day everywhere, because extending the holiday's severe
restrictions for a second day would cause an undue hardship.

List of All Holiday Dates

Below is a list of all major holiday dates for the next five years. All holidays begin at sundown
on the day before the date specified here.
5775

5776

5777

5778

5779

Rosh Hashanah

9/25/2014

9/14/2015

10/3/2016

9/21/2017

9/10/2018

Yom Kippur

10/4/2014

9/23/2015

10/12/2016

9/30/2017

9/19/2018

Sukkot

10/9/2014

9/28/2015

10/17/2016

10/5/2017

9/24/2018

Shemini Atzeret

10/16/2014

10/5/2015

10/24/2016

10/12/2017

10/1/2018

Simchat Torah

10/17/2014

10/6/2015

10/25/2016

10/13/2017

10/2/2018

Chanukkah

12/17/2014

12/7/2015

12/25/2016

12/13/2017

12/3/2018

Tu B'Shevat

2/4/2015

1/25/2016

2/11/2017

1/31/2018

1/21/2019

Purim

3/5/2015

3/24/2016

3/12/2017

3/1/2018

3/21/2019

Pesach (Passover)

4/4/2015

4/23/2016

4/11/2017

3/31/2018

4/20/2019

Lag B'Omer

5/7/2015

5/26/2016

5/14/2017

5/3/2018

5/23/2019

Shavu'ot

5/24/2015

6/12/2016

5/31/2017

5/20/2018

6/9/2019

Tisha B'Av

7/26/2015

8/14/2016

8/1/2017

7/22/2018

8/11/2019