Daf Ditty Eruvin 56: Equinox

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The ‫ ברייתא‬teaches that when measuring the ‫ תחום‬of a circular city, a square must first be drawn
around the city, and only then do we measure 2000 ‫ אמות‬from the sides of the square.

Rabbi Yosei says: If one does not know how to square the city in alignment with the four
directions of the world based upon the constellations, he should square it based upon the
seasons, although this is less precise.

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How so? Where the sun rises and sets on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice, this
route of the sun is the face of the north. The sun rises in the northeast and sets in the northwest,
and thus travels from east to west across the north side of the world. Conversely, where the sun
rises and sets on the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, this route of the sun is the face
of the south. Whereas at the vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox, when day and night are
equal in length, the sun rises in the middle of the east and sets in the middle of the west.

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As it is stated: “One generation passes away and another generation comes; but the earth abides
forever. The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to its place, where it rises again. It
goes toward the south, and turns about to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its
circuits the wind returns”

-‫ וָּבא ַהָשֶּׁמשׁ; ְוֶאל‬,‫ה ְוָזַרח ַהֶשֶּׁמשׁ‬ 5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to
.‫ ָשׁם‬,‫שׁוֵֹאף זוֵֹרַח הוּא‬--‫ְמקוֹמוֹ‬ his place where he ariseth.

;‫ָצפוֹן‬-‫ ֶאל‬,‫ ְוסוֵֹבב‬,‫ָדּרוֹם‬-‫ ֶאל‬,W‫ו הוֵֹל‬ 6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the
‫ְסִביֹבָתיו‬-‫ ְוַﬠל‬,‫ ָהרוַּח‬W‫סוֵֹבב ֹסֵבב הוֵֹל‬ north; it turneth about continually in its circuit, and the wind
.‫ָשׁב ָהרוַּח‬ returneth again to its circuits.

Eccl 1:5-6

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The verse is understood as describing the sun’s movements, as follows: “It goes toward the
south” during the day; “and turns about to the north,” on the other side of the earth, at night.
“Round and round goes the wind [ruaḥ];” the word ruaḥ can also mean direction or side.

Rabbi Yosei explains that these are the face of the east and the face of the west; sometimes the
sun traverses them visibly, and sometimes it turns about them without being seen.

Rav Mesharshiya said: There is no validity to these rules established by Rabbi Yosei, as it was
taught in a baraita: The sun has never risen, even during the summer, at the northeastern

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corner of the sky and set in the northwestern corner, nor has the sun ever risen, even during
the winter, at the southeastern corner and set in the southwestern corner. Therefore, one can
establish the directions of the world according to the sun’s path only during the autumn and spring.

Even on the longest day of the year, the sun does not really rise all the way in the northeastern
corner, nor does it set all the way on the northwestern corner of the sky.

Rather, it rises halfway between the northeastern corner and directly east, and it sets halfway
between the northwestern corner and directly west.

The same is true for where it rises and sets along the southern horizon on the shortest day of
the year.

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On the topic of the previous discussion with regard to calculating the directions of the world based
upon the seasons, Shmuel said: The vernal equinox occurs only at the beginning of one of the
four quarters of a day: Either precisely at the beginning of the day, or precisely at the
beginning of the night, or at midday, or at midnight.

The spring equinox always falls out at exactly one of the quarter points of the day - midnight,
midday, six in the evening, or six in the morning.

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The summer solstice is always at 1 and a half, or 7 and a half hours of the day or night.
The fall equinox is always at 3 or 9 hours of the day or night. The winter solstice is always at 4
and 1⁄2 or 10 and 1⁄2 hours of the day or night.

Second, there are exactly 91 days plus 7 and 1⁄2 hours between each ‫ תקופה‬or season.
Also, there is a cycle of seven ‫ מזלות‬- stars or planets, where each serves in consecutive hours of
each day.

Now since 91 days equals exactly 13 weeks, plus 7 and 1⁄2 hours, the ‫ מזל‬which served at the
beginning of one season will also serve for the first half hour of the next season.

Similarly, the summer solstice occurs only at certain times of the day: Either at the conclusion
of one and a half hours or seven and a half hours of the day or night. And the autumnal
equinox occurs only at certain times: Either at the conclusion of three hours or nine hours of
the day or night. And the winter solstice occurs only at certain times: Either at the conclusion
of four and a half hours or ten and a half hours of the day or night.

And all this is based on the principle that there are only ninety-one days and seven and a half
hours between the beginning of one season and the next, as he assumed that a year is exactly
365¼ days. And similarly, each season begins precisely one-half planetary hour past the
beginning of the previous season. There are seven heavenly bodies that are each ascendant for an
hour at a time in a constant rotation: Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, and Venus.
Each season begins half an hour later in this rotation than the previous season.

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And Shmuel said: There is no instance when the vernal equinox occurs in the planetary hour
of Jupiter and it does not break the trees with its strong winds; and there is no instance when
the winter solstice occurs in the planetary hour of Jupiter and it does not dry up the seeds. And
this applies only where the new moon appeared either at the hour of the Moon or at the hour
of Jupiter.

Summary

The Gemara qualifies the known fact that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
The Gemara says that the sun never rose [due] northeast and set [due] northwest; it never rose
[due] southeast and set [due] southwest.

The solar year always starts at either the beginning of the day or night, or the halfway point of the
day or night.
This is because the solar year is 365 and 1/4 days long. Since one quarter of a day is six hours, the
start of the solar year (or Tekufas Nisan) occurs either at the beginning of a day (0:00) or night
(12:00), or the midpoint of the day (6:00) or the midpoint of the night (18:00).

Steinzaltz (OBM) writes:1

With regard to the measurements of a city’s boundaries, the Sages taught the following baraita:
If, in order to measure the Shabbat limit, one comes to square a city, i.e., to extend the city’s
boundaries to include all of its protrusions within an imaginary square, he squares it so that the
sides of the square align with the four directions of the world. He sets the northern side of the
square to align with the north of the world, and its southern side to align with the south of the
world. And your sign by which you can recognize the directions of the world is as follows: The
constellation of Ursa Major is in the north and Scorpio is in the south. The directions of the
city are determined by these constellations.

The Great Bear (Ursa major) – referred to by the Gemara as agala, “wagon” – will always be
seen in the north. In the south, the Gemara appears to referring to the constellation Scorpius.
While the northern constellations are constant and will always be visible in the Northern
Hemisphere, Scorpius can only be seen during the summer months, and it does not always appear

1
https://steinsaltz.org/daf/eiruvin56/

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due south. It is likely that for this reason the Gemara gives other suggestions for establishing the
directions.

Rabbi Yose suggests that the directions can be ascertained based on the rising and setting of the
sun. His suggestion is based on the fact that the earth spins at an angle as it rotates around the
sun. Therefore, the seasons are not equal to one another in the length of days and nights, or where
the sun will rise and set. The dates mentioned by the Gemara are as follows:

• September 23 – Sunrise, due East; Sunset, due West

• December 22 (shortest day) – Sunrise, 27″ 55′ Southeast; Sunset, 27″ 55′ Southwest
• March 21 – Sunrise, due East; Sunset, due West
• June 22 (longest day) – Sunrise, 27″ 55′ Northeast; Sunset, 27″ 55′ Northwest

Rav Yose’s suggestion is to follow the sun on the equinox (September 23 and March 21) to learn
the directions of east and west and on the solstice (December 22 and June 22) to learn the
directions of north and south.

The Jerusalem Talmud also suggests making use of the rising and setting sun, but suggests a
much simpler approach. If you track sunrise from the shortest day of the year to the longest day
of the year, the place between those two angles is East. Similarly, the place between the setting
of the sun in summer and winter is West.

Rav Mesharshiya objects to the principles laid out in the baraita. The Meiri explains that Rav
Mesharshiya recognized that the sun never rises or sets at a precise north-east or south-west
angle.

Shmuel presents his understanding of the seasons, based on a perfect 365.25 solar year. A more
precise approach to this matter is that of Rav Adda, who believed that the solar year is slightly
shorter than that.

THE LENGTH OF THE SOLAR YEAR

Rav Mordechai Kornfeld writes:2

Our Daf quotes Shmuel who makes an important statement regarding the length of the year.
Shmuel says that each of the four Tekufos (seasons) of the year lasts 91 days and 7 1/2 hours.
Accordingly, a year is 365 days and 6 hours long (91 days and 7 1/2 hours X 4). Furthermore, each
Tekufah begins 7 1/2 hours later in the day than the time at which the previous Tekufah began.

2
https://dafyomi.co.il/eruvin/insites/ev-dt-056.htm

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How does Shmuel's measurement compare with present-day calculations of the length of the
solar year?

In the year 3714 (46 BCE), Julius Caesar arranged the first solar calendar, a calendar based on
the earth's position in relation to the sun. (See below) His calendar is the basis for the one used by
the modern world today. Caesar's astronomers advised him that the solar year is exactly 365 1/4
days (365 days and 6 hours), the same as Shmuel's calculation.

This figure, however, is imprecise. The actual length, rounded to the nearest second, is 365 days,
5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds. Thus, the actual year is about 11 minutes shorter than Shmuel
calculated. In practical terms, every 128 years the equinoxes and solstices will arrive about one
day (11 minutes X 128) too early on Shmuel's calendar.

Later astronomers revised the length of the year to 365 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes, and 25 seconds,
eliminating about half of the 11-minute discrepancy. Based on this new value, Rav Ada, a third
century Amora, organized the Jewish lunisolar calendar into the present 19-year cycle, with years
3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 as leap years. This cycle enables the lunar year to average out to the
length of the solar year.3

We follow Rav Ada's calculation in our 19-year cycle lunisolar calendar. However, for the
Halachos which depend on the Tekufos, such as when to say the prayer of "v'Sen Tal u'Matar"
outside of Eretz Yisrael and when to recite Birchas ha'Chamah, we rely on Shmuel's calculation.
(Therefore, the prayer of "v'Sen Tal u'Matar" outside of Eretz Yisrael is added to the Shemoneh
Esreh from 60 days after the autumnal equinox, and Birkas ha'Chamah is said every 28 years on
the day of the vernal equinox. This is why "v'Sen Tal u'Matar" outside of Eretz Yisrael begins on
December 4th or 5th, depending on whether or not the following year is a leap year.

Dr. Norman Bloom of Miami, Florida, noted that since we utilize two different solar calendars,
the time when Jews outside of Eretz Yisrael begin saying "v'Sen Tal u'Matar" will migrate towards
the summer faster than the spring festivals will migrate towards the summer. This means that
eventually the time to begin saying "v'Sen Tal u'Matar" will catch up to Pesach, and the first day
to say "v'Sen Tal u'Matar" will coincide with the day on which we are supposed to stop saying it!
4

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As time passed, astronomers realized that the calendar was not reflecting the true length of the year. In order to prevent the summer
months from occurring during the winter and vice versa, the astronomers modified the Julian calendar. The new calendar was called
the Gregorian calendar. First, they eliminated ten days that had been added to the year over the passage of time due to the
miscalculation of the Julian astronomers. (The day after October 4 that year was not October 5, but October 15.) Also, they agreed
to deduct three leap years every 400 years. Three out of four centesimal years (for example, the years 1700, 1800, and 1900)
would not be leap years, even though they are divisible by four (those years would have no February 29). Only a centesimal year
in which the number of centuries is divisible by 4 (such as the years 1600 and 2000) would be a leap year. According to their
calculations, the average year was 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds long. This is off by approximately 26 seconds,
but is sufficiently accurate for most purposes. The calendar will be ahead by only one day after 3,323 years. No parallel changes
were made to the Jewish lunisolar calendar.
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However, we will not encounter this problem for approximately 42,000 years, which will be long after the Ge'ulah will have come
and all of the Jews will be living in Eretz Yisrael.

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RASHI'S "SIMAN" FOR THE TEKUFOS

The Gemara quotes Shmuel's rule of astronomy that the difference between the hour in which one
Tekufah falls and the hour in which the next one falls is half an hour ("v'Ein Tekufah Mosheches
me'Chavertah Ela Chatzi Sha'ah").

This is because the actual time difference between Tekufos is 91 days and 7 1/2
hours. RASHI (DH v'Ein Tekufah Mosheches) presents a Siman (mnemonic): "Siman
l'Chetzyo AZ'CH GY'CH VA'CH TD'CH."

This Siman seems out of context and its meaning is evasive. (In fact, the BACH deletes it from
the text of Rashi.) What does it mean?

MENACHEM MESHIV NEFESH explains that the Siman is indeed out of place.

It belongs at the end of the earlier comments of Rashi (DH v'Ein Tekufas Tamuz), where Rashi
discusses the hours of the day in which each of the four Tekufos occur.

The Menachem Meshiv Nefesh offers another Siman, "AZG'Y VAT'D," as a mnemonic.

This shorter Siman means that if Tekufas Nisan occurs in a given year in the first hour (Alef), then
Tekufas Tamuz of that year will be in the seventh hour (Zayin), Tekufas Tishrei will be in the third
hour (Gimel), and Tekufas Teves will be in the tenth hour (Yud). The next four letters, "VAT'D,"
represent the hours in which the Tekufos will fall the following year: Tekufas Nisan in the sixth
hour (Vav), Tekufas Tamuz in the first hour (Alef), Tekufas Tishrei in the ninth hour (Tes), and
Tekufas Teves in the fourth hour (Dales).

However, this Siman gives us only the whole hour in which the Tekufos fall; it does not tell us
exactly when during those hours they occur. Some of the Tekufos will start on the half hour, while
others will start on the hour. This is the purpose of the next Siman. The words "Siman l'Chetzyo"
in our texts of Rashi should read "Siman l'Chatzayos," as they appear in earlier printings, and they
mean "a Siman as to which Tekufos occur on the half hour."

This Siman, "AZ'CH GY'CH VA'CH TD'CH," tells us that when Tekufas Nisan falls on the first
hour (Alef), then Tekufas Tamuz will occur on the seventh and a half hour (Zayin Chatzi -- seven
and a half). Tekufas Tishrei will be on the third hour (Gimel), and Tekufas Teves will occur on the
tenth and a half hour (Yud Chatzi).

We see that this Siman is exactly the same as the previous one, except that this Siman contains a
"Ches" after every second number in order to show that the Tekufah will be on the half hour and
not on the hour.

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RAMBAM’s Calculations of the Tekufot

Dr Irv Bromberg writes:5

Hil kiddush Hachodesh 24

Our Daf, in the context of surveying a city to determine its orientation with respect to the 4
cardinal directions for determining the eruv techumin (‫)עירוב תחומין‬, the limits outside the city
bounds beyond which one shouldn't travel on Shabbat or Yom Tov, very briefly mentions that
on Tekufat Nisan (northward or spring equinox, near the beginning of the Hebrew month of Nisan)
and on Tekufat Tishrei (southward or autumn equinox, in the Hebrew month of Tishrei, near Yom
Kippur), Sun rises at the middle of the range of sunrise points during the year and sets at the middle
of the range of sunset points.

This definition is astronomically quite valid for all inhabited locales on planet Earth, within plus
or minus a day or so of the actual equinox, but it is an observational method that doesn't yield a
way to compute the moment of any equinox.

This method is also rather inconvenient because it requires a very long period of observation (at
least from one solstice to the opposite solstice), which perhaps explains why it was apparently
never used to support the Sanhedrin Calendar Committee's decision to declare a leap year. The
insertion of the leap month had to be announced well in advance of the spring equinox, so that
pilgrims would know when to begin their journey to arrive in Jerusalem for Passover.

Our Daf didn't specify whether the observer is to note the direction to the upper limb, center, or
bottom limb of the solar disk. Atmospheric refraction near both horizons severely limits the
accuracy of this observational method, especially on a cold morning with high humidity pressure
inversion over the eastern horizon, which can make Sun appear to rise several minutes prematurely
(4 minutes earlier per degree of refraction, and as much as +2° of refraction is possible).

Observation from an elevated point also introduces errors, making the apparent sunrise earlier and
the apparent sunset later. To minimize the error due to atmospheric refraction, the recorded
direction should be that of the center of the solar disk at the moment that the bottom limb of Sun
is just touching the horizon, and to minimize the error due to elevation, the observation should be
made as close to sea level as possible. Refraction variability is less when observing sunrise and

5
https://individual.utoronto.ca/kalendis/hebrew/RMBM-seasons.htm

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sunset at sea rather than on land, because the atmospheric conditions are less variable, but it would
be difficult to permanently mark the observed directions at sea, unless observing from a small
island.

A comparable method, not mentioned in the Talmud, but requiring only a brief observation period
(a few days near the date of an equinox), is to draw a line from the direction of sunrise to the
observer, and another line from the direction of sunset to the observer. That day was an equinox
day if those two lines connect as one straight line, or if they come closer to doing so than on the
prior or next day.

More precisely, the Sun would rise exactly due East only if Earth had no atmosphere, Sun were a
point of light instead of a disk, and the equinox moment coincided with the moment of sunrise for
the observer's sea-level locale, likewise it would set exactly due West only if the equinox moment
coincided with the moment of sunset at the observer's locale.

Obviously Sun can never do both on the same day for any given locale, it is rare for the equinox
moment to coincide with either sunrise or sunset for any given locale, although for every equinox
there is always exactly one meridian of longitude somewhere on Earth that sees sunrise at the
moment of the equinox, and exactly one other meridian elsewhere (one daytime span to the East)
that sees sunset at the moment of the equinox. In modern astronomical terminology the date of an
equinox could be described as the day when the sunrise azimuth is 90° east of north or when the
sunset azimuth is 90° west of north.

If the sunrise and sunset directions are observed at Earth's equator, then the errors due to refraction
and elevation will be negligible, because at the equator Sun rises and sets nearly perpendicularly
to the horizon. Also, at the equator when it is local apparent noon on the day of an equinox, sunlight
will shine straight down any vertical shaft, and no object will cast a shadow, especially when the
equinox moment is close to noon. Requiring that observations be made at the equator, however, is
not very convenient for inhabitants of the Holy Land!

At non-equatorial latitudes, due to atmospheric refraction near the horizon and the solar semi-
diameter, especially at elevations above sea level, the upper solar limb is seen to rise before it
reaches the direction observed at the equator (Jean Meeus, Mathematical Astronomy Morsels V,
chapter 63, "Where does the Sun rise at the equinoxes?", pages 343-4), and for the same reasons
the upper solar limb remains visible as Sun sets until after it passes the direction observed at the
equator. The range of variation of sunrise and sunset directions are least at the equator, where they
are equal to the Earth equatorial obliquity (axial tilt relative to the plane of Earth's orbit around
Sun). At higher latitudes the variations are progressively greater, as shown in the following charts:

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At sunrise or sunset only, the solar parallactic angle is given by:

solar parallactic angle at sunrise or sunset = arccosine[ sine( geographic latitude )

/ cosine( solar declination ) ]

Daytime and Nighttime Lengths are NOT Equal at Astronomical Equinoxes

The English word "equinox" comes from the Latin for "equal night", because the duration of
daytime and nighttime are approximately equal on the date of the equinox. At both equinoxes the
daytime length is actually slightly longer than the length of night, due to atmospheric refraction
making Sun appear higher at sunrise and sunset, and due to the approximately 1/2° diameter of the
solar disk. Nevertheless, a properly set up sundial will show sunrise at 6 am and sunset at 6 pm on
equinox days at equatorial latitudes, which explains why prior to the invention of mechanical
clocks the length of day and night were believed to be equal on those days.

At the north solstice the daytime length is maximal in the northern hemisphere, and minimal in the
southern hemisphere, and the converse applies to the south solstice.

Saying that the day and night are equal is the same as saying that the daytime temporal hour
(sha'ah zmanit) is exactly 60 minutes, when calculated by the method of the Vilna Gaon as (sunset
– sunrise) / 12.

Due to atmospheric refraction, when near either horizon Sun always appears to be at a higher
apparent altitude than its true geocentric altitude, so daytime at the astronomical equinox is always
longer than nighttime (measured on a mechanical, electric, electronic, or atomic clock).

For example, at Jerusalem on the autumnal equinox in the Hebrew year 5765 the daytime was 12
hours and 17 minutes, whereas the night time was 11 hours and 42 minutes (this doesn't add up to
exactly 24 hours because the seconds were rounded as they are insignificant and because it is
already changing for the next day). That day was 35 minutes longer than the following night. For
Jerusalem the day that actually has equal day and night in the autumn is 8 days later than the
autumnal equinox, and in the spring, it is 8 days earlier than the vernal equinox.

The number of days that separate the equinoxes from the day of equal day and night varies with
latitude, with the least separation at higher latitudes where the length of the day changes more
rapidly in the vicinity of the equinoxes. For example, in Toronto the equal day and night occurs 4
to 5 days after the autumnal equinox and about 5 days before the vernal equinox.

The number of days that separate the equinoxes from the day of equal day and night varies with
latitude, with the least separation at higher latitudes where the length of the day changes more
rapidly in the vicinity of the equinoxes. For example, in Toronto the equal day and night occurs
4 to 5 days after the autumnal equinox and about 5 days before the vernal equinox.

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There are some of the Sages of Israel that say a solar year is three hundred and sixty-five
days and a quarter – which is six hours. And there are some of them that say that it is less
than a quarter of a day. And likewise, is there a disagreement about this among the Sages of
Greece and Persia.

Hil Kiddush Hachodesh 9:1

Method #1: Tekufat Shmuel (‫)תקופת שמואל‬

In chapter 9 Rambam discussed Tekufat Shmuel or Samuel (‫)תקופת שמואל‬, attributed (by others)
to Amora Shmuel of Nehardea ("Shmuel the Astronomer"), who assumed that the
four Tekufot (seasons) are equal in length, each of 91+5/16 days = 91 days 7+1/2 hours, based
on 1/4 of the length of an assumed solar year of 365 days + 6 hours = 365+1/4 days, which is the
same as the mean length of the Julian Calendar year. (This year length was, extrapolated
backwards, actually the length of the Northward Equinoctial year at around 100,000 BC when the
Earth was rotating slightly faster. Currently the Mean Northward Equinoctial year is around 365
day 5 hours 49 minutes 0 seconds, which is 12 seconds shorter than the mean Gregorian Calendar
year length of 365+97/400 = 365 days 49 minutes 12 seconds, and continuing to get shorter as Earth's
rotation slows due to the tides. The mean year of Tekufat Shmuel or the Julian Calendar is currently
11 minutes too long.)

This method is also partially discussed in Talmud Bavli tractate Eruvin near the bottom of page
56a, quoting Shmuel, but the details given there are insufficient to reproduce the calculation.

The moment of any equinox or solstice according to this method is calculated by starting with the
traditional moment of the spring equinox of Creation, taken in this case as the sunset 7 days, 9
hours and 642 parts prior to molad of Nisan of year 1 at rata die –1373257.25 = Julian day
number 348167.25, then adding the number of seasons of length 91+5/16 days that have elapsed
since that epoch.6

6
If Tekufat Shmuel is so obviously inaccurate then why does it have a place in our tradition? Rambam wrote that it was because its
calculations are simpler than the more accurate method, Tekufat Adda, discussed below, but I don't think that was the real reason,
because the calculations are nearly identical, only differing in the assumed epoch (one-week difference) and the assumed mean
year. I think that the real reason is disclosed by the following chart, which shows the back-calculated difference between Tekufat
Shmuel and the molad of Nisan in the era of the Revelation at Mount Sinai.

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According to the one of the Sages that says that [the surfeit of the days of] a solar year is less than
a quarter – there is someone that says that [the year] is three hundred and sixty-five days, five
hours, nine hundred and ninety-seven parts and forty-eight instants. And an instant is one seventy-
sixth of a part. And according to this calculation, the surplus of a solar year over a lunar year is ten
days, twenty-one hours and one hundred and twenty-one parts and forty-eight instants. Its symbol
is 10.21.121.48. And you will not find a surplus in the cycle of nineteen years at all. Rather in each
cycle, the solar years will end [together] with the simple and leap lunar years.

Hil Kiddush Hachodesh 11:1

Method #2: Tekufat Adda (‫)תקופת אדא‬

In chapter 10, Rambam described as a "slightly more accurate calculation", attributed (by others)
to Rav Adda bar Ahavah (‫ )רב אדא בר אהבה‬and known as Tekufat Adda (‫)תקופת אדא‬, based on a solar
year length of 365 days + 5 hours + 997 parts + 48 regaim (a part is 1/18 of a minute, a rega is 1/76 of
a part), which was derived from the length of an assumed solar year based on the molad interval ×
235 lunar months per 19 solar years = 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 1 part × 235/19 = 365 days 5
hours 55 minutes and 25+25/57 seconds ≈ 365.2468222 days. This year length is identical to the
mean length of the Hebrew Calendar year, and is currently about 6 minutes and 25 seconds longer
than the mean Northward Equinoctial year length (and corresponds, extrapolated backwards, to
the Mean Northward Equinoctial year length of around 60,000 BC).

The moment of any equinox or solstice according to this method can be calculated by starting with
the traditional moment of the Vernal Equinox of Creation, taken in this case as the sunset 9 hours
and 642 parts prior to molad of Nisan of year 1 at rata die –1373250.25 = Julian day
number 348174.25 (note that this epoch was exactly 7 days after epoch used for Tekufat Shmuel,
above), then adding the number of equal-length seasons elapsed since the epoch, where the length
of each season is exactly 1/4 of the assumed solar year length = 91 days 7 hours 519 parts and

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31 regaim = 91 days 7 hours 28 minutes and 51+41/114 seconds per season. On average, this method
has less than half the rate of seasonal drift compared to method #1 above.7

As is the case for Tekufat Shmuel, many modern authorities likewise assume, claim, or assert that
the moments of Tekufat Adda refer to the meridian of Jerusalem, as if to say that they are in terms
of the local mean time in Jerusalem. Rambam made no such claim, however, and I am aware of
no primary traditional source for such a claim. The point is moot anyhow, given the grossly
erroneous drift of Tekufat Adda with respect to the actual astronomical seasons, calculated
for any meridian.

And once you know the place of the sun at any time you want, you will know the day of the true
season [of] any season you want – whether the seasons that come after the base time from which
we started, or the seasons that passed from earlier years.

Hilchot Kiddush Hachodesh 13:11

Method #3: Solar Longitude

At the end of chapter 13 in point #11 Rambam gave, almost as a footnote or an afterthought,
a third method which turns out to be quite accurate and may have been ignored or
misunderstood by most of his readers.

After describing his method for calculating the true solar longitude (using the longitude of the
solar apogee, which today we call aphelion, to adjust the mean solar longitude), Rambam finished
the chapter by explaining that the moment of an equinox or solstice can be determined by
searching for the moment which has the appropriate true solar longitude (0°=spring equinox
or Tekufat Nisan, 90°=summer solstice or Tekufat Tammuz, 180°=autumn equinox or Tekufat
Tishrei, 270°=winter solstice or Tekufat Tevet).

7
Many people mistakenly believe that Tekufat Nisan of Rav Adda is actually used for traditional Hebrew calendar arithmetic, but
the truth is that the calendar employs a fixed 19-year leap cycle together with a fixed molad interval. It is nevertheless possible to
employ Tekufat Nisan of Rav Adda instead of the fixed leap cycle, but that method can only reproduce traditional Hebrew calendar
dates if the correct equinox cutoff time is employed. It may surprise you to learn that the necessary rule has to be "insert a leap
month before Adar if otherwise Tekufat Nisan of Rav Adda will land later than one hour before noon on the 16th of Nisan". Any
alternative cutoff moment will sometimes fail to reproduce traditional Hebrew calendar dates. Equivalently, the calendar could be
regulated relative to the molad of Nisan: "insert a leap month before Adar if otherwise Tekufat Nisan of Rav Adda will land more
than 16 days after the molad of Nisan"

20
In conclusion:
Compared to the actual numericaly integrated astronomical equinoxes and solstices (referred to
mean solar time at the meridian that is halfway between the Nile River and the end of the Euphrates
River), Tekufat Shmuel was most accurate in year 3408 for spring (353 BC), 3752 for summer (9
BC), 3905 for autumn (144 AD), and 3539 for winter (223 BC), whereas Tekufat Adda was most
accurate in year 4249 for spring (489 AD), 4726 for summer (966 AD), 5127 for autumn (1366
AD), and 4645 for winter (884 AD).

Based on these years, my guesses are that Tekufat Shmuel originated in the Second Temple period
when it was close to its best accuracy for Tekufat Tishrei (autumn), possibly as an initial attempt
to regulate the calendar from the beginning of the civil year (Rosh HaShanah), and that Tekufat
Adda originated near the era of Hillel ben Yehudah when it was close to its best accuracy
for Tekufat Nisan (spring) [by then the inaccuracy of Tekufat Shmuel for the spring equinox would
have been obvious].

This conjecture suits the debate in Talmud Bavli tractate Sanhedrin 13a-b, most of which is
concerned with basing the leap year decision on the timing of Tekufat Tishrei with respect
to Sukkot and Hoshana Rabbah, but the abrupt bottom-line ruling at the end of that debate was
for Tekufat Nisan — no reason was given, other than "don't worry" [about any other
considerations].

Amorah Shmuel lived in the century before Hillel ben Yehudah, suggesting that he did not
originate the Tekufat Shmuel calculation that is traditionally attributed to him. Rav Adda bar
Ahavah lived in the same era as Hillel ben Yehudah.

A Word about definitions: Astrology vs Astronomy8

What we refer to is known as the precession of the equinoxes. Because of a "wobble" of the earth's
axis, the equinox continues to shift "backwards" through the Zodiac constellations.

Today, the months are off by one entire Mazal from the time of the Churban. (The Ibn Ezra
discusses this phenomenon in Amos 5:8.)

The Rambam (Hilchos Kidush Hachodesh 9:3) indeed defines the Tekufos of Nisan and Tishrei as
when the sun "enters Mazal Taleh". Astronomers define them as the time of year when the sun
reaches the point in its path (i.e. in the ecliptic) which crosses the celestial equator, causing the
day and night to be of equal length.

8
Rav Alexander Schutz of Kiryat Sefer, pamphlet "Di Shmaya".

21
However, it is clear from the words of the Rambam that he is indeed using the astronomic definition
for the equinoxes. He is simply redefining Mazal Taleh as the section of the ecliptic which the sun
enters at the astronomical equinox.

That is, Mazal Taleh of today, as per the Rambam's usage, has nothing to do with the stars that
make up the constellation Aries! Rather, it is somewhere back in what we call Pisces (Dagim).
Using this definition, both ways of describing the Tekufah are actually one and the same.

Seasons and the Julian Calendar

Motivation
The ordinary year in the previous Roman calendar consisted of 12 months, for a total of 355 days.
In addition, a 27- or 28-day intercalary month, the Mensis Intercalaris, was sometimes inserted
between February and March. This intercalary month was formed by inserting 22 or 23 days after
the first 23 days of February; the last five days of February, which counted down toward the start
of March, became the last five days of Intercalaris. The net effect was to add 22 or 23 days to the
year, forming an intercalary year of 377 or 378 days. Some say the mensis intercalaris always had
27 days and began on either the first or the second day after the Terminalia (23 February).

22
According to the later writers Censorinus and Macrobius, the ideal intercalary cycle consisted
of ordinary years of 355 days alternating with intercalary years, alternately 377 and 378 days long.
In this system, the average Roman year would have had 366 1⁄4 days over four years, giving it an
average drift of one day per year relative to any solstice or equinox. Macrobius describes a further
refinement whereby, in one 8-year period within a 24-year cycle, there were only three intercalary
years, each of 377 days (thus 11 intercalary years out of 24). This refinement averages the length
of the year to 365.25 days over 24 years.
In practice, intercalations did not occur systematically according to any of these ideal systems, but
were determined by the pontifices. So far as can be determined from the historical evidence, they
were much less regular than these ideal schemes suggest. They usually occurred every second or
third year, but were sometimes omitted for much longer, and occasionally occurred in two
consecutive years.
If managed correctly this system could have allowed the Roman year to stay roughly aligned to a
tropical year. However, since the pontifices were often politicians, and because a Roman
magistrate's term of office corresponded with a calendar year, this power was prone to abuse: a
pontifex could lengthen a year in which he or one of his political allies was in office, or refuse to
lengthen one in which his opponents were in power.
If too many intercalations were omitted, as happened after the Second Punic War and during
the Civil Wars, the calendar would drift out of alignment with the tropical year. Moreover, because
intercalations were often determined quite late, the average Roman citizen often did not know the
date, particularly if he were some distance from the city. For these reasons, the last years of the
pre-Julian calendar were later known as "years of confusion". The problems became particularly
acute during the years of Julius Caesar's pontificate before the reform, 63–46 BC, when there were
only five intercalary months (instead of eight), none of which were during the five Roman years
before 46 BC.
Caesar's reform was intended to solve this problem permanently, by creating a calendar that
remained aligned to the sun without any human intervention. This proved useful very soon after
the new calendar came into effect. Varro used it in 37 BC to fix calendar dates for the start of the
four seasons, which would have been impossible only 8 years earlier. A century later,
when Pliny dated the winter solstice to 25 December because the sun entered the 8th degree of
Capricorn on that date, this stability had become an ordinary fact of life.9

Julian’s reform

Realignment of the year

The first step of the reform was to realign the start of the calendar year (1 January) to the tropical
year by making AUC 708 (46 BC) 445 days long, compensating for the intercalations which had
been missed during Caesar's pontificate. This year had already been extended from 355 to 378
days by the insertion of a regular intercalary month in February. When Caesar decreed the

9
Stern, Sacha. Calendars in antiquity: Empires, states, and societies. Oxford University Press, 2012., p. 178.

23
reform, probably shortly after his return from the African campaign in late Quintilis (July), he
added 67 more days by inserting two extraordinary intercalary months between November and
December.
These months are called Intercalaris Prior and Intercalaris Posterior in letters of Cicero written
at the time; there is no basis for the statement sometimes seen that they were called "Undecimber"
and "Duodecimber", terms that arose in the 18th century over a millennium after the Roman
Empire's collapse. Their individual lengths are unknown, as is the position of
the Nones and Ides within them.
Because 46 BC was the last of a series of irregular years, this extra-long year was, and is, referred
to as the "last year of confusion". The new calendar began operation after the realignment had
been completed, in 45 BC.

Ethan Tucker writes:10

Seasons are not as simple as they seem, and there was some dispute in the ancient world about the
length of the seasons and the precise times of the equinoxes and solstices. On our daf we find a
method for computing the tekufot that is ascribed to Shmuel (an early Babylonian post-Mishnaic
sage): “The time between one tekufah and the next is 91 days and seven and a half hours.”

This adds up to a solar year of 365.25 days, the figure used by the ancient Egyptians and already
adopted by the Romans under the Julian calendar in Shmuel’s time.

Babylonian Jews, who followed Hananiah’s ruling,11 used Shmuel’s standard for computing the
autumnal equinox. With a few interesting exceptions (see below), the Babylonian system has
prevailed in all Diaspora communities until the current day: we begin requesting rain on the night
of the 60th day of the autumnal tekufah, computed by Shmuel’s reckoning, and we cease asking
for rain on Pesaḥ.

We know that under the Julian calendar, Shmuel’s computation of the autumnal equinox reckoned
it to fall on September 24th, occurring in successive years at 3 am, 9 am, 3 pm and 9 pm. In the
first three cases, the 60-day count into Tekufat Tishrei would begin from the start of the Jewish
day, the night of September 23rd.

In Jewish years divisible by four, when the equinox was reckoned to fall at 9 pm, already after
nightfall, the 60-day count would begin with the Jewish day commencing on the night of
September 24th. The 60th day would thus begin the night of November 22nd, or the night of
10
https://opensiddur.org/prayers/solilunar/solar-cycles/wet-season/the-gregorian-calendar-in-jewish-liturgy-on-december-4th-
and-the-birkat-hashanim/
11
Tanna named Hananiah, mentioned on Bavli Ta’anit 10a, rules that “Bagolah” (a term that refers to Babylonia) rain should not
be requested until the 60th day of the “tekufah“. “Tekufah” is a term that refers to one of the quarterly divisions of the year between
solstices and equinoxes, what we call seasons. In this context, Hananiah is ruling that Babylonians should start asking for rain on
the night of the 60th day of the period that begins with the Jewish day in which the autumnal equinox falls (known as Tekufat
Tishrei).

24
November 23rd, in Jewish years divisible by four. Shmuel’s solar year, identical with the Julian
solar year, would thus remain in synchronization with these secular dates.

Shmuel’s computation was identical to that of the Julian calendar, which reckoned a 365.25 day
solar year, inserted a leap day in February every 4 years, and was established by Julius Caesar in
45 BCE. (see above). When Caesar fixed the calendar, he established March 25th as the date of
the vernal equinox. In 325 CE, at the Council of Nicea, the calendar was recalibrated to tie the
equinox to March 21st.

Pope Gregory XIII reformed the Julian calendar that year, suppressing 10 days (he decreed that
October 5th would be October 15th) and decreeing that from there on leap years would occur 97
times every 400 years (instead of 100 every 400 under the Julian), with century years being non-
leap years, unless they were divisible by 400 (like 2000). Most Catholic countries accepted the
reform immediately, and others gradually after that, with England and the American colonies not
signing on until 1752. (Some countries under the influence of the Eastern Churches did not change
over until the 20th century.) Were the Julian calendar still in effect today, it would be 13 days
ahead of the Gregorian calendar.

The switch to the Gregorian calendar revealed how the Julian system had been slipping forward,
and Jews continued to compute the tekufot according to Shmuel and his Julian-length year
(much like the other nations and regions mentioned above, who stuck with the Julian calendar).

The date for she’elat geshamim in 1582 was thus shifted 10 days to December 1st. In 1700, a leap
year on the Julian calendar, but not on the Gregorian, the date slipped to December 2nd, and by
1900 it had slipped to December 4th (December 5th in Jewish years divisible by four). It did not
slip in 2000, since that year is a leap year according to both the Gregorian and Julian calendars.12

Shmuel’s reckoning of the equinoxes and solstices continues to slip and no serious effort has ever
been made to address it. This is true for two reasons:

First, the reckoning is only important for two extremely minor rituals, she’eilat geshamim, and the
blessing over the sun that is said once every 28 years.

Second, even in the case of she’eilat geshamim, where the calendrical absurdity is somewhat
alarming, the Julian slippage is dwarfed by the discrepancy between the Babylonian schedule and
local needs.

As long as she’eilat geshamim is completely detached from any local reality, it is hard to get
worked up about the additional 13 days that this ritual has advanced over time.

12
And that is why we in the Diaspora today begin saying v’tein tal umatar on the night of December 4th (or of December 5th in
Jewish years divisible by four).

25
Perhaps when the date gets into January, in the year 5700 CE (!), people won’t be able to take it
anymore and something will be done.

The Identity of the Constellation ‫עגלה‬

In order to set the boundaries of a city with regards to where it may be permissible to carry, the
Talmud states that one should “square” it, meaning an imaginary square is drawn to include within
it the entire city.13

This is a simple enough instruction, but we are not done. The sides of this imaginary square are to
be aligned with the four cardinal directions, North, East, South and West. We are not told why this
must be done. Instead the Talmud explains how this squaring is done. Here is one suggestion.

‫ א‬,‫עירובין נו‬

ƒ‫ ְוִסיָמָני‬,‫ נוֵֹתן ְצפוָֹנהּ ִלְצפוֹן עוָֹלם וְּדרוָֹמהּ ִלְדרוֹם עוָֹלם‬,‫ ָבּא ְל ַרְבָּﬠהּ — ְמ ַרְבָּﬠהּ ְבּ ִריבּוַּﬠ עוָֹלם‬:‫ָתּנוּ ַרָבַּנן‬: ‫ֲﬠָגָלה‬
‫ ְוַﬠְק ָרב ַבָּדּרוֹם‬,‫ַבָּצּפוֹן‬.

With regard to the measurements of a city’s boundaries, the Sages taught the following baraita:
If, in order to measure the Shabbat limit, one comes to square a city, i.e., to extend the city’s
boundaries to include all of its protrusions within an imaginary square, he squares it so that the
sides of the square align with the four directions of the world. He sets the northern side of the
square to align with the north of the world, and its southern side to align with the south of the
world. And your sign by which you can recognize the directions of the world is as follows: The
constellation of “eglah” is in the north and Scorpio is in the south. The directions of the city are
determined by these constellations.

THE BULL VS THE BEAR

These two constellations should be easy to identify. Let’s start with the second one mentioned.
The word ‫ ַﬠְקָרב‬means a scorpion, and Scorpio is one of the twelve signs of the zodiac. Good. But
what about the first constellation eglah or agalah (there is a big difference as we will see). To what
constellation might this refer? Agalah - ‫ ֲﬠָגָלה‬means either a “wagon” or, when the same letters are
vocalized as eglah, a “calf.” And then things really get interesting.

Eglah is Taurus

TheArtScroll English Talmud indeed identifies ‫ ֲﬠָגָלה‬with Taurus, (as does the ArtScroll Hebrew
translation). This would depend on vocalizing the word as “eglah” meaning a calf. This would
most likely identify it as the bovine constellation we know as Taurus, the “Bull.” This was also the
opinion of the great medieval commentator Rashi. He doesn’t explain the word’s meaning on this

13
http://www.talmudology.com/

26
page of Talmud, but he does elsewhere. In the tractate Berachot (58b) he explains the meaning of
the phrase ‫ רישא דעגלא‬- “the head of the eglah” as the constellation Bull, or Taurus:

‫ב‬,‫רשי ברכות נח‬

‫רישא דעגלא – ראשו של עגל והיינו מזל שור‬

But we are not done. When these two constellations are mentioned in Pesachim (94b), the medieval
commentary known as Tosafot remarks that eglah cannot be Taurus, (and Scorpio cannot be
Scorpio). It is all to do with a description of the universe that we cannot get into now, but will do
so on February 23rd next year, when we study that page in the Daf Yom cycle. Here is that Tosafot:

‫ ב‬,‫תוס׳ פסחים צד‬

‫ צ"ל דעגלה לאו היינו מזל שור כדפי' בקו‬- ‫ועקרב נמי אינו עקרב 'מעולם לא מצינו עגלה בדרום ועקרב בצפון‬
‫( קאמר די"ב מזלות לעולם ששה למטה מן הארץ וששה למעלה‬:‫די"ב מזלות דבפ"ק דראש השנה )דף יא‬
‫וכשהא' עולה שכנגדו שוקע והכא אמר שאינן זזים ממקומן ושניהם לעולם למעלה אלא אחרים הם‬

So, to sum, Rashi believed that eglah is Taurus - and that is the ArtScroll understanding. Tosafot
claimed it cannot be Taurus, though he does not offer an alternative. Now let’s consider some more
contemporary translations and explanations.

Eglah is Ursa Major

The Koren (Steinzaltz) English Talmud identifies eglah as another constellation entirely, and one
that is not part of the twelve signs of the zodiac.

It is called Ursa Major, “The Great Bear.” Ursa Major was called Ἄρκτος μεγάλη Arktos Megale
- The Great Bear - by the second century astronomer Ptolemy, and was long associated with things
north. (That’s where we derive the word arctic.)

So, this description could certainly have been known to the rabbis of the Talmud.

The classic Soncino English Talmud translates ‫ ֲﬠָגָלה‬as “The Great Rear.” And it’s not a typo in
which an “R” replaced a “B.” But why the Great Rear?

Well as you can see from the image below, there are seven stars within the Ursa Major that are
known as the Big Dipper. And where are they located? At the very rear of the bear.

27
Of course, that only works if you imagine the stars forming a bear in a particular way. Here for
example is how H.A. Rey - the creator of the Curious George series - depicted the The Great Bear
in his wonderful book The Stars: A New Way to See Them.

28
 H.A Rey. The Stars: A New Way to See Them. Houghton Mifflin 1980. 35.

As you can see, the Great Bear is now made up by a very different set of lines, and the Big Dipper
is no longer at its “Great Rear” but is instead part of the head of the bear.

So not everyone looks at a constellation and draws the same images. Here is another example,
from Goldshmidt’s German translation of the Talmud which reads the word not as eglah but as
agalah: “der Wagen.” Actually, Ursa Major or more precisely seven of its stars that are called
the Big Dipper was once called Charles’ Wain, a name that came from the

…Middle English Charlewayn, from Old English carles wǣn, apparently from a common Proto-
Germanic *karlas wagnaz (cognate with forms in other Germanic languages). It seems that this
common Germanic name originally meant the ‘peasant's wagon’ (the churls' wagon) in contrast
to the ‘woman's wagon’ (Ursa Minor). Later it was interpreted as ‘Charles's wagon’ and
associated with Charlemagne.

So, in another culture the seven stars of the Big Dipper were seen as a wagon. Which is precisely
how you could vocalize the Hebrew word in question: agalah. If you take a look at the stars, it is
easy to see why. But in Holland the stars are popularly known as the "Saucepan" (Steelpannetje).
Which you can also make out. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.

29
Here is a summary of what we found:

30
Which of these possibilities, Taurus, Ursa Major, or the Big Dipper, is the most likely? To find out
let’s do some astronomy.

Taurus is a large constellation that is best seen (in the Northern Hemisphere) from November to
February. In late November and December, it can be seen the entire night. However, by late March
it appears for only a short time before sunrise and then almost completely disappears in the summer
months. Although Taurus is always found in the northern sky moving from northeast to northwest,
because it is sometimes only barely visible for an hour or so right before sunrise it could not always
be used to find North.

Taurus. Image from the excellent app StarWalk 2.

Ursa Major “The Great Bear” is the third largest constellation in the sky, and is visible for the
entire year. This constellation is circumpolar, meaning it never sets below the horizon. And

31
because it is always near the north celestial pole, it is always in the northern part of the sky. So, it
could reliably be used year-round to identify north.

As part of Ursa Major, the Big Dipper is also circumpolar. In fact, it can be used to identify Polaris,
the Pole star, around which the stars seem to revolve each night. And the Pole Star is also known
as the North Star, because it is always in the north.

Ursa Major. Image from StarWalk2.

32
SO, WHICH IS THE MOST LIKELY?

While Taurus, Ursa Major, and the Big Dipper are all found in the northern sky, the most reliable
of them for finding which direction is north are the last two, and particularly the Big Dipper. Here
is how H.A. Rey draws its relationship to the North (Pole) star:

So, if you are ever lost in the wilderness without GPS or a compass, remember this page of Talmud,
look for the agalah (and not the eglah), and find your way back home.!!

In the history of man’s relationship to the mystery of the universe the seasonal variations, the
solstices and equinoxes form an axis of continuity and his relationship to the celestial bodies in
a recurring pattern.

I cannot leave the topic of astronomical calculations without a nod to the mythology
surrounding these auspicious times buried deep in the psyche and reflected in the rituals
associated with these times in other cultures.

33
In archeology and texts, we can sense a hint of just how important these dates were in the
ancient cultures.

More importantly for me, these mythologuems are embedded in our collective unconscious and
inform our spiritual lives in deep ways and in nonrational ways, despite millennia of orthodox
thought.

Pseudo-Scientific metrology

Rachel Greenspan writes:14

O n summer solstice 2019 at dawn, thousands from all corners of the world will descend

on Stonehenge, the rock-forged monument in Wiltshire, England. They’re all there for the
same reason: to turn northeast and catch the summer solstice sunrise glide perfectly above
the stones.

14
https://time.com/5608296/summer-solstice-stonehenge-history/

34
The view of the solstice sunrise from Stonehenge is so perfect, in fact, that visitors and
scientists have wondered for centuries: Did the people who built Stonehenge intentionally
make it a stage for the solstice? Worlds away from the ability to document the experience
on Instagram, the only information we have is the archaeology.

It’s just one of dozens of theories about the structure from who built the monument and why
Stonehenge was constructed, from alien invasions to the legend of King Arthur.

Here’s what we “know” (sic) about Stonehenge and its connection to the summer solstice.

Who built Stonehenge — and when?

Visitors take photos of the sunrise at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England.

Beginning in 3000 BC, the basis of the monument was a spiritual burial site for a
civilization which lived two miles away, according to Timothy Darvill, the director of the

35
Centre for Archaeology and Anthropology at Bournemouth University. These Neolithic
people lived within the Durrington Walls, a nearby settlement.

But it wasn’t until around 2600 BC that another group began the actual process of building
what we see at Stonehenge — rocks and all. “We’re fairly sure that those are the people
that actually built Stonehenge,” Heather Sebire, the English heritage senior curator at
Stonehenge, tells TIME.

This group that was focused on astronomical events assembled the rocks in such a way that
at the summer solstice, the sun rises above the Heel stone, a singular block, and shines onto
the center of the circle. At the winter solstice around December 21, you can experience a
similar view at sunset.

Was Stonehenge intentionally built to showcase the summer solstice?

Revelers watch the sunrise as they celebrate the summer solstice at

Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England on June 21, 2018.

36
Experts are almost certain that the builders strategically placed the rocks to showcase the
solstices twice a year. But with no writing from the era, there’s a lot left to the imagination.

“We know that the stone’s circles do respect the line of the midsummer sunrise and the
midwinter sunset. But I don’t think that was the only reason that it was built,” Sebire says.

Though the summer solstice may be a big tourist attraction for the monument, it may not
be the only show in town. At the winter solstice, the rocks are also hinged for ideal viewing
— the sun falls behind the Trilothon, two vertical stones with a horizontal one laying atop.
It’s the Trilothon’s direction towards the sun at the midwinter sunset that is actually best
aligned, Sebire explains.

Scientists agree that the monument is more directly facing the view during the winter sunset
than at the summer’s sunrise.

If the stones been assembled to align with the winter solstice, Darvill says, it would be an
“inevitable consequence” that they also function in the same way for the summer solstice.

It’s not just the direction that gives experts like Sebire and Darvill reason to believe the
monument was more closely associated with the winter solstice. Despite a dearth of
technology and resources, the Neolithic builders knew the winter solstice was the shortest
day of the year. So, as the sun set on the winter solstice, they knew that “things were going
to get better,” Sebire explains, “the days were going to get longer. Good weather would
come back so they could sow their next crops.”

But it’s more than just the solstices that align with the monument. “That structure embeds
within it some sort of calendrical reference,” Darvill says, because the number and patterns
of the stones also indicate a 365.25-day calendar.

37
Early efforts to date Stonehenge exploited changes in astronomical declinations and led to efforts
such as H. Broome’s 1864 theory that the monument was built in 977 BC, when the
star Sirius would have risen over Stonehenge's Avenue.
Sir Norman Lockyer proposed a date of 1680 BC based entirely on an incorrect
sunrise azimuth for the Avenue, aligning it on a nearby Ordnance Survey trig point, a modern
feature. Petrie preferred a later date of 730 AD. The relevant stones were leaning considerably
during his survey, and it was not considered accurate.
An archaeoastronomy debate was triggered by the 1963 publication of Stonehenge Decoded,
by Gerald Hawkins an American astronomer. Hawkins claimed to observe numerous alignments,
both lunar and solar. He argued that Stonehenge could have been used to predict eclipses.
Hawkins’ book received wide publicity, in part because he used a computer in his calculations,
then a novelty.
Archaeologists were suspicious in the face of further contributions to the debate coming from
British astronomer C. A. ‘Peter’ Newham and Sir Fred Hoyle, the famous Cambridge cosmologist,
as well as by Alexander Thom, a retired professor of engineering, who had been studying stone
circles for more than 20 years. Their theories have faced criticism in recent decades from Richard
J. C. Atkinson and others who have suggested impracticalities in the ‘Stone Age calculator’
interpretation.

Gerald Hawkins’ work on Stonehenge was first published in Nature in 1963 following analyses
he had carried out using the Harvard-Smithsonian IBM computer.

Hawkins found not one or two alignments but dozens.

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He had studied 165 significant features at the monument and used the computer to check every
alignment between them against every rising and setting point for the Sun, Moon, planets, and
bright stars in the positions they would have been in 1500 BCE.

Thirteen solar and eleven lunar correlations were very precise in relation to the early features at
the site, but precision was less for later features of the monument.

Hawkins also proposed a method for using the Aubrey holes to predict lunar eclipses by moving
markers from hole to hole.

In 1965 Hawkins and J.B. White wrote Stonehenge Decoded, which detailed his findings and
proposed that the monument was a ‘Neolithic computer’.

Atkinson replied with his article “Moonshine on Stonehenge” in Antiquity in 1966, pointing out
that some of the pits which Hawkins had used for his sight lines were more likely to have been
natural depressions, and that he had allowed a margin of error of up to 2 degrees in his alignments.

Atkinson found that the probability of so many alignments being visible from 165 points to be
close to 0.5 (or rather 50:50) rather that the “one in a million” possibility which Hawkins had
claimed. That the Station Stones stood on top of the earlier Aubrey Holes meant that many of
Hawkins’ alignments between the two features were illusory.

The same article by Atkinson contains further criticisms of the interpretation of Aubrey Holes as
astronomical markers, and of Fred Hoyle's work.

Sunset Over the Sphinx Claimed to Prove Equinox Alignment

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An image of the Egyptian Sphinx at Giza on the Spring equinox could revolutionize our
understanding of the ancient structure. An eminent archaeologist and former Egyptian Minister of
Antiquities believes that the image demonstrates that the figure was constructed to be aligned with
the sun on the equinox. This, in turn, was probably related to Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs.

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities has published an image of the sun setting just over the right
shoulder of the Sphinx. It was taken on the Spring Equinox, the 20th of March. The Sphinx is a
massive sculpture of a mythical creature which is believed to resemble the likeness of one of
Ancient Egypt’s first pharaohs. The image shows the carved figure ‘with the Giza
pyramids of Khafra directly behind, and Khufu—also known as the Great Pyramid of Giza —
to the left’ according to Newsweek.

Sphinx and the equinoxes

Traditionally the Sphinx position was not regarded as being especially significant. Egypt
Today reports that it had long been assumed that the Ancient Egyptians ‘found an ancient rock
and turned it into a statue with a human face and an inhuman body’.

However, Zahi Hawass, the former Minister of Antiquities, believes that the image taken on the
Spring Equinox proves that its position was deliberately selected, based on astronomical
calculations. This is contrary to orthodox thinking on the construction of the Sphinx , which
claims that the ancient Egyptians chose a rock for the statue by chance, but the rock was chosen
specifically for its position.

The scientific genius of Egypt

Hawass told Egypt Today that ‘the Sun, after falling at sunset on the right side of the Sphinx,
heads south, and during the summer it moves to the north’. He believes that this is conclusive
evidence that the Sphinx was built with reference to astronomical calculations. Egypt
Today states that the discovery of the positioning of the Sphinx shows ‘the tremendous scientific
superiority of the ancient Egyptians’. There is evidence that pyramids were aligned based on the
movement of the heavenly bodies.

Hawass is quoted as saying:

‘The sun setting between the pyramid of Khufu and Khafra suggests an astronomical link’.

Ancient Egyptians worshipped the sun and they worshipped it as the god Ra . The Sphinx is
believed by mainstream archaeology to have been constructed about 4,500 years ago during the
Old Kingdom period. It is widely believed to ‘to have been built for, and to represent, the
pharaoh Khafre, who was the son of Khufu’.

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Fall Equinox Customs and Rituals

Greek Mythology: To the ancient Greeks, the September equinox marks the return of the goddess
Persephone to the darkness of the underworld, where she is reunited with her husband Hades.

Chinese Harvest Moon Festival: The full moon that falls closest to the autumnal equinox is
sometimes called the Harvest Moon. The Chinese began celebrating the fall harvest at the Harvest
Moon centuries ago, during the Shang dynasty. Ancient Chinese celebrated the successful harvest
of rice and wheat and made offerings to the moon.

Ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese people still celebrate the Harvest Moon or Mid-Autumn Festival.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, lanterns adorn streets and family and friends gather to give
thanks, share food and watch the moon. Round pastries, called mooncakes, are often enjoyed at
this time.

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Japanese Higan: Higan is a holiday celebrated by some Japanese Buddhists. It takes place twice
a year, during the fall and spring equinoxes.

During Higan, Japanese Buddhists will return to their hometowns to pay respects to their ancestors.
Higan means “from the other shore of the Sanzu River.” In Buddhist tradition, crossing the
mythical Sanzu River meant passing into the afterlife.

Seasonal Cusps as Pagan and Religious Holidays15

In common parlance Equinoxes are when day and night are equal in length and the sun rises due
east and sets due west, assuming unobstructed and flat horizons. At the precise moment of
Equinox, the sun crosses the earth's Celestial Equatorial Plane. Religions likely discovered that by
acknowledging and even honoring ancient and mythic sun ceremonies, non-believers could more
readily be brought into the fold.

Clerics termed the Vernal Equinox Eostar and the Autumnal Equinox Mabon to salute, perhaps
even to sanctify, these special days of pagan worship. Likewise, the Church named Summer
Solstice Litha and the Winter Solstice Yule.

Old Celtic calendars observed Cross Quarters, approximately midway between each pair of
adjacent Equinox and Solstice days. Unlike modern calendars that define the start of a season on
a Solstice or Equinox, the Celts perceived Solstices and Equinoxes as events occuring mid-
season, with the seasons actually beginning and ending on the Cross Quarters.

15
https://www.archaeoastronomy.com/seasons.html

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Thus, Imbolc was the beginning of Spring. Imbolc corresponds more or less to Groundhog Day
in the USA, February 2, when tradition has it that if a sleepy groundhog creeping out of its
burrow at dawn sees its shadow, there are 6 more weeks of winter. (If not, we surmise, only 42
days remain.) Solmonath and Candlemas were Church-approved substitute names for Imbolc,
which is spelled Imbolg by some pagans. Druids prefer Oimeaig, pronounced IM-mol'g.

Beltaine was the start of Summer, just a few days beyond May Day on the modern calendar.
Fertility is at its peak as bees pollinate the flowers. Seedlings are poking through the cool soil,
seeking the warmth and energy of the sun. Early Christians preferred the
name Whitsuntide instead of Beltaine. The pronunciation of this cross quarter is BEE-awl-ten-ah

Lughnasad was the beginning of Autumn, when crops thrive in the hot sun. Lughnasad was
observed as a pre-harvest festival day and time for strength and endurance competitions among
young men. Variations on this CQ name include Lughnasadh, Lughnasada and Lugnasadh. It is
pronounced LOO-na-sah regardless of the spelling. The religious equivalent
is Lammas or Lammos.

The Celtic Winter began with Samhain. It ends one planting cycle and begins another. Seeds for
the next year were often planted at this time. Samhain comes about a week after Hallowe'en, the
eve of All Saints Day when, some folks believe, all departed souls of the preceding year are
finally freed from earthly ties. Indeed, the Christian name Hallowmas was swapped for the pagan
term, sometimes spelled as Savain. Regardless of the spelling, this CQ day is pronounced SOW-
an or SOW-in.

In Celtic tradition, the beautiful and the deadly come together in the person of the Welsh goddess
of spring, Blodeuwedd, whose name means “flower face”. She was created from oak, broom and
meadowsweet by the magicians Gwydion and Math, to be the wife of the hero Llew Llaw Gyffes.

This was one of the first acts of male dominance because by so manufacturing a bride for Llew,
they deprived his mother, Arianrhod, of her traditional matrifocal (female head of the household)
rights.

The story of Blodeuwedd shows that nature cannot be owned or tamed and that it follows its
own laws. She fell in love with a handsome hunter and they plotted to murder Llew.

After this she became an owl, forever haunting the midnight forests. In the same way, instinct
cannot be quelled by the logical mind – so the story of Blodeuwedd reminds you to find your own
wild side.

Perhaps the Celtic perception of the seasonal calendar harmonizes best with nature.

Should Summer's arrival really mark a time of year when daytime just gets shorter and shorter?
Is it logical for days to only lengthen throughout Winter?

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It seems to contradict our perception of what these seasons are, or is it just a mid-Summer's night
dream of mine?

The Celts believed major transitional days --- Solstices and Equinoxes --- should be enveloped
by the time of year they signify, not stand for mere boundary markers!

Celtic calendar keepers favored the Cross Quarters as bookends for every season under the sun.

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