> Midwinter is, at first blush, a stupid time for the new year, yes. But so is autumn; the changes in the natural world that you talk about are all deaths and endings. Even the harvest is simply the end of the growing season. Spring, however, is all about beginnings as new animals are born, and new plants stick their heads above the snow.

A funny thing: The modern Hebrew calendar *does* start in the fall, but the months set as "the beginning of months for you" (Exodus 12:1-2) is in the *spring*, when the barley is ripe.

How did this change come about? I'm not entirely sure. It has been suggested that somebody figured out that the Hebrew for "In the beginning", "Bereshiyt", could be anagrammed to "Aleph B'Tishriy". ("Aleph" is standing in for the letter by that name. In Hebrew, letters have different values, and are used as numbers. Aleph has a value of 1, so the phrase means "1st of Tishriy", Tishriy being the 7th month.) So, which came first, the decision to celebrate it then, or the discovery of the anagram? Search me.

Under the system as it was before then, the day the new year started was not celebrated as the start of a new year, but as the start of a new month on the New Moon. But when they decided to add a Rosh Hashanah (head of the year), they pasted it on an existing celebration, Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets, lit. "Day of Trumpet Blowing"), six months later.

This is explained as having a religious year (starting in Abib (also called Nisan), in the spring) and a civil year (starting with Tishriy, in the fall). But in a twist of irony, I've ALMOST NEVER seen a calendar that actually starts with Abib 1. Most that I've seen start with the Gregorian month that contains Tishriy 1 (September or October), or it's a normal Gregorian calendar that shows God's Holy Days, Jewish observances, traditional Torah and Haftorah readings (also suggested NT readings if it's Messianic), candle lighting times, and so on.

Nyper"So you see. Or maybe not."old