Jewish holidays: dates and countdown
Dates are computed from your device’s Hebrew calendar, following diaspora practice. A Hebrew day begins at sunset, so each holiday starts on the previous evening.
The next date
Festival
Yom Kippur
In 6 days
Upcoming holidays
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- Festival Yom Kippur The Day of Atonement: roughly 25 hours of fasting, prayer and reconciliation. The most solemn day of the year. In 6 days
- Festival · 7 days Sukkot The Festival of Booths. For seven days meals, and sometimes sleep, happen in a sukkah — a temporary hut open to the sky. In 11 days
- Festival · 2 days Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah The close of the autumn festivals. On the second day the annual Torah cycle is finished and immediately restarted, with dancing around the scrolls. In 18 days
- Festival · 8 days Hanukkah Eight days of light marking the rededication of the Temple. One more candle each evening, and everything fried in oil. In 81 days
- Minor date Tu BiShvat The New Year of the Trees. Dried fruit is eaten and saplings are planted — a calendar technicality that grew into an ecological holiday. In 130 days
- Festival Purim The rescue recounted in the Book of Esther. The scroll is read, costumes are worn, food parcels are sent and charity is given. In 189 days
- Festival · 8 days Passover (Pesach) The exodus from Egypt. It opens with the seder meal; for eight days nothing leavened is eaten, and matzah replaces bread. In 219 days
- Day of remembrance Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day. This date is not part of the project’s humour or game mechanics. In 231 days
- Minor date Lag BaOmer The thirty-third day of the Omer count, a break in the spring mourning period. Bonfires, weddings and first haircuts. In 252 days
- Festival · 2 days Shavuot The giving of the Torah at Sinai, seven weeks after Passover. A night of study and a suspicious amount of dairy. In 269 days
- Day of remembrance Tisha B’Av A fast marking the destruction of both Temples and later tragedies. A day of mourning, not celebration. In 331 days
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The exact candle-lighting time depends on sunset where you are. Check with your local community.