Seasons and Calendars
SEASONS AND CALENDARS
I
It is feasible that since human beings became aware of their environment, (in whatever stage of human development it had occurred), one of the first thing that must have impressed them very much were the changes that are continually taking place in the world around them. These changes had to be adjusted to, and this idea is beautifully expressed in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes 3, 1-2: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven… A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up the planted…” etc.
For early farmers, it was very important to know when to do the various works in fields and gardens, so as to make sure of the best crop they could get. A very basic farming calendar was found carved in stone on the site of the ancient Israelite town of Gezer, possibly written by a student:
‘sf – 2 months of ingathering (September-October – Autum equinox)
q’l – 2 months of early sowing (November-December – Winter solstice)
lqsh – 2 months of late sowing (January-February)
‘tzd psht – 1 month of flax plucking (March – Spring equinox)
qtzr sr – 1 month of barley harvest (April)
qtzr kl – 2 months of the rest of harvest (May-June – Summer solstice)
zmr – 1 month of grape harvest (July)
qtz – last month of late fruit harvest (August)
Interestingly, the names of these months, that express the farm works done in them, do not correspond to any of the traditional names of the Israelite year, either native or Babylonian (s. below).