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[QUOTE="Peo Sjoblom, post: 3641453"] Here is a post from Ron Rosenfeld and it certainly looks pretty impossible due to the calendar used for Jewish holidays: Norman, It is NOT a simple algorithm. The year is both lunar based and solar based. In addition, there are a number of "special" rules which can delay the start of the year for either astronomical or ceremonial reasons. For example, Tishri 1 must never be a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday. Good luck on translating this to an Excel formula! Here is a discussion by Scott Lee who wrote a C routine. Original Copyright info: ' $selId: jewish.c,v 2.0 1995/10/24 01:13:06 lees Exp $ ' Copyright 1993-1995, Scott E. Lee, all rights reserved. ' Permission granted to use, copy, modify, distribute and sell so long as ' the above copyright and this permission statement are retained in all ' copies. THERE IS NO WARRANTY - USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. ' CALENDAR OVERVIEW ' ' The Jewish calendar is based on lunar as well as solar cycles. A ' month always starts on or near a new moon and has either 29 or 30 ' days (a lunar cycle is about 29 1/2 days). Twelve of these ' alternating 29-30 day months gives a year of 354 days, which is ' about 11 1/4 days short of a solar year. ' ' Since a month is defined to be a lunar cycle (new moon to new moon), ' this 11 1/4 day difference cannot be overcome by adding days to a ' month as with the Gregorian calendar, so an entire month is ' periodically added to the year, making some years 13 months long. ' ' For astronomical as well as ceremonial reasons, the start of a new ' year may be delayed until a day or two after the new moon causing ' years to vary in length. Leap years can be from 383 to 385 days and ' common years can be from 353 to 355 days. These are the months of ' the year and their possible lengths: ' ' COMMON YEAR LEAP YEAR ' 1 Tishri 30 30 30 30 30 30 ' 2 Heshvan 29 29 30 29 29 30 (variable) ' 3 Kislev 29 30 30 29 30 30 (variable) ' 4 Tevet 29 29 29 29 29 29 ' 5 Shevat 30 30 30 30 30 30 ' 6 Adar I 29 29 29 30 30 30 (variable) ' 7 Adar II -- -- -- 29 29 29 (optional) ' 8 Nisan 30 30 30 30 30 30 ' 9 Iyyar 29 29 29 29 29 29 ' 10 Sivan 30 30 30 30 30 30 ' 11 Tammuz 29 29 29 29 29 29 ' 12 Av 30 30 30 30 30 30 ' 13 Elul 29 29 29 29 29 29 ' --- --- --- --- --- --- ' 353 354 355 383 384 385 ' ' Note that the month names and other words that appear in this file ' have multiple possible spellings in the Roman character set. I have ' chosen to use the spellings found in the Encyclopedia Judaica. ' ' Adar II, the month added for leap years, is sometimes referred to as ' the 13th month, but I have chosen to assign it the number 7 to keep ' the months in chronological order. This may not be consistent with ' other numbering schemes. ' ' Leap years occur in a fixed pattern of 19 years called the metonic ' cycle. The 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years of this ' cycle are leap years. The first metonic cycle starts with Jewish ' year 1, or 3761/60 B.C. This is believed to be the year of ' creation. ' ' To construct the calendar for a year, you must first find the length ' of the year by determining the first day of the year (Tishri 1, or ' Rosh Ha-Shanah) and the first day of the following year. This ' selects one of the six possible month length configurations listed ' above. ' ' Finding the first day of the year is the most difficult part. ' Finding the date and time of the new moon (or molad) is the first ' step. For this purpose, the lunar cycle is assumed to be 29 days 12 ' hours and 793 halakim. A halakim is 1/1080th of an hour or 3 1/3 ' seconds. (This assumed value is only about 1/2 second less than the ' value used by modern astronomers -- not bad for a number that was ' determined so long ago.) The first molad of year 1 occurred on ' Sunday at 11:20:11 P.M. This would actually be Monday, because the ' Jewish day is considered to begin at sunset. ' ' Since sunset varies, the day is assumed to begin at 6:00 P.M. for ' calendar calculation purposes. So, the first molad was 5 hours 793 ' halakim after the start of Tishri 1, 0001 (which was Monday ' September 7, 4761 B.C. by the Gregorian calendar). All subsequent ' molads can be calculated from this starting point by adding the ' length of a lunar cycle. ' ' Once the molad that starts a year is determined the actual start of ' the year (Tishri 1) can be determined. Tishri 1 will be the day of ' the molad unless it is delayed by one of the following four rules ' (called dehiyyot). Each rule can delay the start of the year by one ' day, and since rule #1 can combine with one of the other rules, it ' can be delayed as much as two days. ' ' 1. Tishri 1 must never be Sunday, Wednesday or Friday. (This ' is largely to prevent certain holidays from occurring on the ' day before or after the Sabbath.) ' ' 2. If the molad occurs on or after noon, Tishri 1 must be ' delayed. ' ' 3. If it is a common (not leap) year and the molad occurs on ' Tuesday at or after 3:11:20 A.M., Tishri 1 must be delayed. ' ' 4. If it is the year following a leap year and the molad occurs ' on Monday at or after 9:32:43 and 1/3 sec, Tishri 1 must be ' delayed. ' ' GLOSSARY ' ' dehiyyot The set of 4 rules that determine when the new year ' starts relative to the molad. ' ' halakim 1/1080th of an hour or 3 1/3 seconds. ' ' lunar cycle The period of time between mean conjunctions of the ' sun and moon (new moon to new moon). This is ' assumed to be 29 days 12 hours and 793 halakim for ' calendar purposes. ' ' metonic cycle A 19 year cycle which determines which years are ' leap years and which are common years. The 3rd, ' 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years of this ' cycle are leap years. ' ' molad The date and time of the mean conjunction of the ' sun and moon (new moon). This is the approximate ' beginning of a month. ' ' Rosh Ha-Shanah The first day of the Jewish year (Tishri 1). ' ' Tishri The first month of the Jewish year. ' ' ALGORITHMS ' ' SERIAL DAY NUMBER TO JEWISH DATE ' ' The simplest approach would be to use the rules stated above to find ' the molad of Tishri before and after the given day number. Then use ' the molads to find Tishri 1 of the current and following years. ' From this the length of the year can be determined and thus the ' length of each month. But this method is used as a last resort. ' ' The first 59 days of the year are the same regardless of the length ' of the year. As a result, only the day number of the start of the ' year is required. ' ' Similarly, the last 6 months do not change from year to year. And ' since it can be determined whether the year is a leap year by simple ' division, the lengths of Adar I and II can be easily calculated. In ' fact, all dates after the 3rd month are consistent from year to year ' (once it is known whether it is a leap year). ' ' This means that if the given day number falls in the 3rd month or on ' the 30th day of the 2nd month the length of the year must be found, ' but in no other case. ' ' So, the approach used is to take the given day number and round it ' to the closest molad of Tishri (first new moon of the year). The ' rounding is not really to the'closest* molad, but is such that if ' the day number is before the middle of the 3rd month the molad at ' the start of the year is found, otherwise the molad at the end of ' the year is found. ' ' Only if the day number is actually found to be in the ambiguous ' period of 29 to 31 days is the other molad calculated. ' ' JEWISH DATE TO SERIAL DAY NUMBER ' ' The year number is used to find which 19 year metonic cycle contains ' the date and which year within the cycle (this is a division and ' modulus). This also determines whether it is a leap year. ' ' If the month is 1 or 2, the calculation is simple addition to the ' first of the year. ' ' If the month is 8 (Nisan) or greater, the calculation is simple ' subtraction from beginning of the following year. ' ' If the month is 4 to 7, it is considered whether it is a leap year ' and then simple subtraction from the beginning of the following year ' is used. ' ' Only if it is the 3rd month is both the start and end of the year ' required. ' ' TESTING ' ' This algorithm has been tested in two ways. First, 510 dates from a ' table in "Jewish Calendar Mystery Dispelled" were calculated and ' compared to the table. Second, the calculation algorithm described ' in "Jewish Calendar Mystery Dispelled" was coded and used to verify ' all dates from the year 1 (3761 B.C.) to the year 13760 (10000 ' A.D.). ' ' The source code of the verification program is included in this ' package. ' ' REFERENCES ' ' The Encyclopedia Judaica, the entry for "Calendar" ' ' The Jewish Encyclopedia ' ' Jewish Calendar Mystery Dispelled by George Zinberg, Vantage Press, ' 1963 ' ' The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar by Arthur Spier, Behrman House ' ' The Book of Calendars [note that this work contains many typos] --ron " -- Regards, Peo Sjoblom Excel 95 - Excel 2007 Northwest Excel Solutions [URL="http://www.nwexcelsolutions.com"]www.nwexcelsolutions.com[/URL] "It is a good thing to follow the first law of holes; if you are in one stop digging." Lord Healey [/QUOTE]
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