Hacker News Reader

Comment by mmooss | Hacker News Reader

In Exodus 12:1-2, at the beginning of the section that decrees Passover, God also tells Moses and Aaron that the month of Passover is the first month of the year:

  The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, "This month is
  to be for you the first month, the first month of your
  year. ..."

View on HN

March coincides with the first month of the Jewish calendar.

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2164005/jewis...

It was also the first month of the Roman calendar until January and February were added.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martius_(month)

In March, the month of war, is also when Romans mustered their citizen levy of troops.

There's a weird parallel between the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars. In both cases, the historic "new year" is in spring (Hebrew Nisan, Gregorian March), perhaps to coincide with planting? And in both cases intercalation happens right before that, at the end of the year - the Hebrew calendar duplicates Adar, the month before Nisan, and the Gregorian has an extra day of February. (Historically this was February 24 happening twice, not an additional day numbered 29, which is a whole other story.) But in both cases the year number increments at a different time - Hebrew Tishri in the fall, Gregorian January in the winter - so the intercalation appears to happen at some "random" moment within the year.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com