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by Zechariah (viii. 19) were revived. The fast of Adar 13, commemorating the day on which, according to the counsel of Haman, the Jews were to be destroyed, is not ancient. The Palestinians seem later to have had three fast-days after Purim (Monday, Thursday, and the following Monday), while the Babylonian Jews celebrated these in advance. Extraordinary fast-days might be appointed by a community in time of distress, but they might not fall upon the Sabbath, new moon, or a feast-day; moreover, fast-days were not to succeed each other without the interposition of other days (cf. Monday, Thursday, and Monday above). The public service of a fast was by preference celebrated in the open, and the participants had ashes on their heads. There was an exhortation to repentance, the Shemoneh `esreh, six selections from Scripture and benedictions were interpolated; so there arose a prayer with twenty-four benedictions.

III. The Jewish Calendar: For the Jewish year and week see YEAR, THE HEBREW; and WEEK. The settlement of the calendar was claimed as a prerogative by Palestinian Jews, and the announcement of the new moon was made in early times by beacon fires and later by messenger, though only in the six months in which feasts fell. The most important months in the fixing of the calendar were Nisan and Tishri, since the indication of the days of celebration appointed by the law hinged upon them. Outside of Palestine, observances covered two days (except that of the Day of Atonement) because of uncertainty as to the time of beginning the month. But, owing to the matter of intercalating a month in certain years, the calendar was long in confusion, and the first fixed system was introduced by Hillel II. (c. 350 A.D.), who provided for seven leap-years in every period of nineteen years, and fixed also the years which should have six months each with twenty-nine and thirty days and what years should have five and which seven months with twenty-nine or with thirty days each. While it is usually stated that since the second century before Christ the Jews employed the Greek era, and I Mace. uses this method of dating, there were later in use in Palestine a number of eras. The method of counting from creation is medieval in origin, the year of creation being equivalent to 3761 B.c. Aids in computation of time are G. A. Jahn, Tafeln zur gegenseitigen Verwandlung iiidischer and christlicher Zeitangaben (Leipsic, 1856); H. Schlesinger, Hundert Tabelien (Creuznach, 1862); B. Zuckermann, Anleitung and Tabellen zur VergWchung iiidischer and christlicher Zeitangaben (Breslau, 1893); and M. Simon and L. Cohen, Ein newer Maphteach (Berlin, 1897).

(G. DALMAN.)

said and the Hallel recited. The " Little " or " Second Passover 1' was celebrated on Iyyar 14 by those who had been unable to attend the celebration of the Passover (Num. ix. 10). The Feast of Tabernacles lasted eight days (Tishri 15-22), of which the first and last were full festivals and the others were half-festivals. The musaph prayer and the Hallel were recited each day; the distinctive features were the eating and sleeping in booths, the carrying of a palm with myrtle and willow branches and a citron. The seventh day was known as the day of willows, since on that day the floor was beaten with willow branches. In the post-Talmudic period the Jews encircled the reading-desk in procession carrying the palms, etc., and singing special songs with the refrain Hosanna. In Babylon, where the Pentateuch was read through in a year, the conclusion of the reading took place on what was there the ninth day of the festival, which gave rise to the feast of " the rejoicing of the Torah." The Feast of Dedication (Kislew 25-Tebet 3) was instituted by Judas Maccabeus (I Mace. iv. 59) to celebrate the rededication of the sanctuary, and, according to II Mace. i. 9, 18, ii. 10, x. 8, was generally observed by carrying branches and singing songs of praise. Ps. xxx. seems from its title to have been especially composed for this occasion. Jewish tradition enjoins recitation of the Hallel and the Shemoneh `esreh daily, but no cessation of work or musaph prayer. Josephus calls it the "feast of lights," and in each house at least one lamp was to be lighted and placed before the house. Purim was celebrated on a day between Adar 11 and 15, and recalled the deliverance recounted in the book of Esther. The Shemoneh `esreh was recited, and the universal obligation was to read or hear read the book of Esther. It was a festival marked by the giving of presents and alms. See FEASTS AND FESTIVALS, I.

On the Day of Atonement (see ATONEMENT, DAY oF; also KOL NIDRE) food, work, and anointing of oneself were prohibited during the entire twentyfour hours; the musaph and neila (the name given to the last of the services on the Day of Atonement; JE, ix. 214-222) prayers were recited, and confession of sin characterized the prayers of this day.

The killing of a cock, now found in

Other fasts were both public and private. In Palestine the one public fast outside of the Day of Atonement was the ninth of Ab, observed in commemoration of the destruction of the Temple by the Chaldeans and the Romans and the taking of Bittir in the insurrection of Bar Kokba (q.v.). From the first of the month pleasures were eliminated, while the week in which the ninth fell was one of lamentation. On the eighth of Ab there was abstention from wine and meat, and on the ninth a total fast. In Babylonia Tammuz 17 was a public fast, commemorating the taking of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans (Jer. xxxix. 2), and the setting up of an idol in the Temple by the Romans; there, too, Tishri 3 was observed to commemorate the killing of Gedaliah (Jer. x1i. 2), also Tebet 10 commemorated by a fast the day of the beginning of the Chaldean siege of Jerusalem. Clearly, after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, the ancient fasts mentioned