Sylvester

In Israel, New Years is not celebrated as it is celebrated around other parts of the world.  The Jewish “New Year” is generally celebrated at the high holiday of Rosh Hashanah – literally- the head of the year.  It is at this time of the year that we begin rereading the five books of Moses- the Old Testament.- the Torah. 

 I found the following information at the website:  http://www.jewfaq.org/calendr2.htm

The Jewish calendar is based on three astronomical phenomena: the rotation of the Earth about its axis (a day); the revolution of the moon about the Earth (a month); and the revolution of the Earth about the sun (a year). These three phenomena are independent of each other, so there is no direct correlation between them. On average, the moon revolves around the Earth in about 29½ days. The Earth revolves around the sun in about 365¼ days, that is, about 12 lunar months and 11 days.

So that means that New Years as we celebrate in the U.S. and other parts of the globe is based on the Gregorian calendar.  In Israel some people were getting ready for New Years- many visiting Americans, and many Russian immigrants who were also celebrating Christmas, as well as many Israelis.

Some Israeli’s refer to new years eve – December 31 – as “Sylvester”.  This was confusing and we kept asking what Sylvester meant, but, no one could seem to answer it. Even some young people said:  "it is the cat".  So, I finally looked up Sylvester.

Sylvester is the name of a sainted Pope who lived during the time of Constantine  (about 300 C.E.).  In fact, he is credited with influencing Constantine to convert to Christianity.  Sylvester’s saint’s day is December 31/January 1- which is the 8^th day after Jesus was born.  This would be the day of Jesus’ brit.  – the day he was circumcised.   Sylvester was also anti-Semitic, recommending to Constantine that he prohibit the Jewish people from living in Jerusalem. 

Sylvester was important to the eastern Europeans.  In Jewish villages (shtetls) in eastern Europe, on the night of Sylvester, the people kept their homes dark.  This was because Sylvester was commonly known as a night of progroms in eastern Europe; the people kept their homes dark in the hope that the marauding gangs would not find them and burn their homes, etc. 

The thought is that when many immigrants came from Europe, they brought with them the name of this night.  Somber though this may sound, on our new years eve,  there was an air of festivity- but- kind of funny; some people just ignore the night- after all- it is a Wednesday night- and the weekend begins Thursday night.  But, other places were getting ready for the spirit of the “New Year”. 

And we didn’t miss out on a lovely dinner, welcoming 2015.