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There is no year 0 (zero) in the Gregorian calendar. If you enter 0, this is interpreted as 1 BCE. If you enter a negative number like -1, this is interpreted to be 2 BCE. The year -99 is interpreted to be the year 100 BCE.
Also, please note: results for year 1752 C.E. and earlier are guaranteed to be inaccurate.
Hebcal does not take into account a correction of ten days that was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII known as the Gregorian Reformation. [1]
Thanks for your messages.
Pesach for Hebrew Year 5785 begins in the Diaspora at sundown on Saturday, 12 April 2025 and ends at nightfall on Sunday, 20 April 2025.
Thank you for the suggestion! We will consider this idea for a future on the website.
In the interim, there are a few great countdown apps available for Apple and Google mobile devices.
Most of the advanced REST APIs allow the client to specify a desired location using GeoNames.org numeric ID, United States ZIP code, or latitude/longitude. See the location API page for further details on how to enable/disable the optional elevation for sunset calculation.
Here is how you'd do a Friday - Sunday using the Jewish calendar API
And here is the equivalent using the Shabbat API
https://www.hebcal.com/shabbat?cfg=json&zip=90210&gy=2026&gm=9&gd=11&leyning=off
The results are nearly identical. You can specify an end date using the Jewish calendar API but you cannot with the Shabbat API.
As we mentioned before, the Jewish calendar API also gives you a bit more control. In the example above, you will note that the Jewish calendar API doesn't display fast times or minor/modern holidays (because we didn't set those URL parameters to on).
That strategy would work almost all of the time, but not quite all of the time.
For example, on Friday September 11, 2026 is Erev Rosh Hashana. You'll have a candles event that day.
Saturday, September 12, 2025 is Rosh Hashana 5787 and that evening is the 2nd erev. Although it's Saturday night, there will NOT be a havdalah event. Instead, you will have yet another candles event on Saturday night. (and then you'll have a havdalah event on Sunday night September 13 when the 2nd day of RH concludes.
The only web API that we have that shows the upcoming Shabbat's parasha haShavua every single day of the week is the Hebrew Date Converter REST API.
From the URL you posted, it looks like you are hoping to use the Jewish calendar REST API. Unfortunately, this API does not support looking up the weekly Torah portion every day of the week.
If you wish to use the Jewish calendar REST API to look up the weekly Torah portion, you will need to specify the date of Shabbat (for example, this week 2024-03-15) and not today's day.
You can also use the Leyning (Torah Reading) API to get the full kriyah leyning on Shabbat and holidays, Triennial (optionally) for Shabbat, and weekday readings on Mondays & Thursdays. However, this API would not return the weekly Torah portion on a Tuesday because there is no Torah reading on a typical Tuesday.
If you don't want to wait until Saturday at midnight local time, you can always specify an exact date. The documentation describes this as follows:
You can optionally specify an exact date, for example 13 February 2021. If unspecified, defaults to today.
- gy=2021&gm=2&gd=13
Typically doesn't mean definitely. If the Shabbat is not a regular parsha because it's a holiday instead, you will not find a parashat category present.
Sorry the docs are confusing!
Thanks for the bug report! This issue is now fixed.
Customer support service by UserEcho
What kind of phone and calendar app are you using? Can you send us a screenshot so we can see what you mean by "the holiday descriptions take up too much space on my phone's calendar?"