+1
Fixed

Please go back to how it was: start date of holidays

Adam Kahn 3 years ago updated 3 years ago 4

First of all, you created a wonderful and useful website.

Seems recently that you start holiday dates with night before. Very confusing. People (including myself) are used to seeing the start date as the full secular day; we already know it starts the night before. I understand that it may be confusing for the non-regularly-observant. 

.

https://hebcal.com/holidays/


Example for 21-22: Rosh Hashanah Sep 6‑8 M‑W. At first sight seems that it is 3 days long! Please revert to how it was before. Thank you.



Answer

Answer
Fixed

Hi Adam, thanks for using Hebcal and thanks for the feedback.

Our mission at Hebcal.com is to increase awareness of Jewish holidays and to help Jews to be observant of the mitzvot.

Some of the users of Hebcal.com are observant Jews and some users of Hebcal are gentiles who want to be aware of when Jewish holidays are so they can be respectful of their Jewish friends, colleagues and classmates.


Many of the users who visit our Jewish Holidays summary page need to know exactly when a holiday begins. That it why each holiday summary page includes the following text at the top of the page:

Except for minor fasts, holidays begin at sundown on the date specified in the tables below. For example, if the dates for Rosh Hashana are listed as Sep 6-Sep 8, then the holiday begins at sundown on Sep 6 and ends at nightfall on Sep 8.

We have learned over many years that for observant Jews, adding the "Erev" before the holiday is the best way to clarify when a holiday begins in an evening, and indeed our calendar includes Erev for all major holidays and even for some minor ones like Purim. Observant Jews also will know that Rosh Hashana is only 2 days long and not three.

Oftentimes visualizing the dates on a calendar grid can help to clarify further, especially in combination with the Erev. See below for an example:

SunMonTueWedThuFriSat

1

2

3


4




5

6

Erev Rosh Hashana

7

Rosh Hashana 5782

8

Rosh Hashana II

9

Tzom Gedaliah

10

11

Shabbat Shuva

12

13

14

15

Erev Yom Kippur

16

Yom Kippur

17

18

19

20

Erev Sukkot

21

Sukkot I

22

Sukkot II

23

Sukkot III (CH''M)

24

Sukkot IV (CH''M)

25

Sukkot V (CH''M)

26

Sukkot VI (CH''M)

27

Sukkot VII (Hoshana Raba)

28

Shmini Atzeret

29

Simchat Torah

30

Thanks, Michael! That would make everbody happy. Keep up the good work. Shabbat Shalom.

Excellent suggestion! And a great solution to the problem you describe. We can add that to our feature request backlog.

May I suggest that you have a toggle switch on the page; default it displays as you currently have it; click the switch, and it only shows your the secular calendar days, not the the day before when it begins that night.

Answer
Fixed

Hi Adam, thanks for using Hebcal and thanks for the feedback.

Our mission at Hebcal.com is to increase awareness of Jewish holidays and to help Jews to be observant of the mitzvot.

Some of the users of Hebcal.com are observant Jews and some users of Hebcal are gentiles who want to be aware of when Jewish holidays are so they can be respectful of their Jewish friends, colleagues and classmates.


Many of the users who visit our Jewish Holidays summary page need to know exactly when a holiday begins. That it why each holiday summary page includes the following text at the top of the page:

Except for minor fasts, holidays begin at sundown on the date specified in the tables below. For example, if the dates for Rosh Hashana are listed as Sep 6-Sep 8, then the holiday begins at sundown on Sep 6 and ends at nightfall on Sep 8.

We have learned over many years that for observant Jews, adding the "Erev" before the holiday is the best way to clarify when a holiday begins in an evening, and indeed our calendar includes Erev for all major holidays and even for some minor ones like Purim. Observant Jews also will know that Rosh Hashana is only 2 days long and not three.

Oftentimes visualizing the dates on a calendar grid can help to clarify further, especially in combination with the Erev. See below for an example:

SunMonTueWedThuFriSat

1

2

3


4




5

6

Erev Rosh Hashana

7

Rosh Hashana 5782

8

Rosh Hashana II

9

Tzom Gedaliah

10

11

Shabbat Shuva

12

13

14

15

Erev Yom Kippur

16

Yom Kippur

17

18

19

20

Erev Sukkot

21

Sukkot I

22

Sukkot II

23

Sukkot III (CH''M)

24

Sukkot IV (CH''M)

25

Sukkot V (CH''M)

26

Sukkot VI (CH''M)

27

Sukkot VII (Hoshana Raba)

28

Shmini Atzeret

29

Simchat Torah

30