luminary

A Clojure library designed to provide date calculations based on the Bible and the 1st Book of Enoch.

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

Genesis 1:14-15

Background

The Bible instructs believers to keep several Feasts, or Moedim. There are several methods for determining what date it is according to the model described in the Bible. The most common would be the Rabbinic Calendar which is a mathematical calendar based on a lunar month and a solar year, but there are others, such as the Karaite Calendar, which is also has a lunar month and a solar year, but where observation of the new moon is the basis for a new month and the status of the Barley in Israel is the basis for a new year.

This library is based both on The Bible and the 1st Book of Enoch and adheres the following conventions:

• A new year will start at the first sunset after the first lunar conjunction following the March Equinox.
• A new month will start at the first sunset following lunar conjunction.
• A new day starts at the sunset.
• The week starts on the evening of what is commonly known as Saturday.
• The Sabbath falls on the last day of the 7 day week.
• For locations outside of Israel, the new year and the new month will fall on the same Gregorian date as they did in Israel. For example, if the next month will start on the eve of March 3rd in Israel, the same will be true for locations where the sunset will come before the lunar conjunction. This is so that everyone will keep the feast days together which would be impossible if one would not base the new year and the new month on the one in Israel.
• For locations where the sun would not rise or set on a particular date, the latitude is incrementally adjusted toward 65.7/-65.7 until a nearby latitude is found where the sun did rise, making sure that there is always a sunset to start the new day. This is how I imagine keeping the day count if moving to such a location. It's not perfect and I'm open to suggestions. For days when there is a sunset at the actual coordinates, that sunset will be used.
• The location used to calculate the timing of the new year and the new month is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
• The feast of First Fruits falls on the day following the weekly Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
• On leap years Purim falls on Adar I following the Karaite convention.

Applications using luminary

• bibcal is a command line application available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
• bibcal.org is a website which will automatically calculate the current biblical time based on your IP (or provided coordinates).

Usage

Note that Luminary is still in active development and things are changing with every release. Consider it unstable until a 1.0.0 release has been tagged.

Require:

(:require [xyz.thoren.luminary :as l])

Documentation

See the full API documentation.

Examples

date is the main function that constructs a map containing details about a day according to biblical timekeeping. The most simple use is without any arguments, which will give you the current biblical day in Jerusalem, Israel. However, you can provide a range of arguments to fully customize when and where to calculate the day.

(l/date)
;; => 
{:hebrew
 {:days-in-month 30,
  :traditional-year 5781,
  :day-of-week 5,
  :month-of-year 5,
  :minor-feast-day false,
  :day-of-month 18,
  :year 6021,
  :major-feast-day false,
  :sabbath false,
  :names
  {:month-of-year "5th",
   :traditional-month-of-year "Av",
   :day-of-month "18th",
   :day-of-week "5th day of the week"},
  :months-in-year 12},
 :time
 {:year
  {:start #time/zoned-date-time "2021-04-12T19:06+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :end #time/zoned-date-time "2022-04-01T18:57:59+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :start-adjusted-for-polar-region false,
   :end-adjusted-for-polar-region false},
  :month
  {:start #time/zoned-date-time "2021-08-08T19:29+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :end #time/zoned-date-time "2021-09-07T18:54:59+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :start-adjusted-for-polar-region false,
   :end-adjusted-for-polar-region false},
  :week
  {:start #time/zoned-date-time "2021-08-21T19:16+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :end #time/zoned-date-time "2021-08-28T19:07:59+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :start-adjusted-for-polar-region false,
   :end-adjusted-for-polar-region false},
  :day
  {:start #time/zoned-date-time "2021-08-25T19:11+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :end #time/zoned-date-time "2021-08-26T19:09:59+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :start-adjusted-for-polar-region false,
   :end-adjusted-for-polar-region false}}}

lookup-date allows you to do a reverse lookup of a date in the biblical year. It too can be provided with a range of arguments which it passes on to date.

(l/lookup-date 5 11)
;; => 
{:hebrew
 {:days-in-month 30,
  :traditional-year 5781,
  :day-of-week 5,
  :month-of-year 5,
  :minor-feast-day false,
  :day-of-month 11,
  :year 6021,
  :major-feast-day false,
  :sabbath false,
  :names
  {:month-of-year "5th",
   :traditional-month-of-year "Av",
   :day-of-month "11th",
   :day-of-week "5th day of the week"},
  :months-in-year 12},
 :time
 {:year
  {:start #time/zoned-date-time "2021-04-12T19:06+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :end #time/zoned-date-time "2022-04-01T18:57:59+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :start-adjusted-for-polar-region false,
   :end-adjusted-for-polar-region false},
  :month
  {:start #time/zoned-date-time "2021-08-08T19:29+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :end #time/zoned-date-time "2021-09-07T18:54:59+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :start-adjusted-for-polar-region false,
   :end-adjusted-for-polar-region false},
  :week
  {:start #time/zoned-date-time "2021-08-14T19:23+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :end #time/zoned-date-time "2021-08-21T19:15:59+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :start-adjusted-for-polar-region false,
   :end-adjusted-for-polar-region false},
  :day
  {:start #time/zoned-date-time "2021-08-18T19:19+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :end #time/zoned-date-time "2021-08-19T19:17:59+03:00[Asia/Jerusalem]",
   :start-adjusted-for-polar-region false,
   :end-adjusted-for-polar-region false}}}

lookup-date-in-year is similar to lookup-date but allows you to provide a gregorian year, in which the hebrew year would have started that you are trying to find a date in.

(l/lookup-date-in-year 78.2253587 15.4878901 "Europe/Oslo" 2025 1 14)
;; => 
{:hebrew
 {:days-in-month 30,
  :traditional-year 5785,
  :day-of-week 7,
  :month-of-year 1,
  :minor-feast-day false,
  :day-of-month 14,
  :year 6025,
  :major-feast-day
  {:name "Passover", :hebrew-name "Pesach", :day-of-feast 1, :days-in-feast 1},
  :sabbath true,
  :names
  {:month-of-year "1st",
   :traditional-month-of-year "Nisan",
   :day-of-month "14th",
   :day-of-week "Sabbath"},
  :months-in-year 13},
 :time
 {:year
  {:start #time/zoned-date-time "2025-03-29T19:32+01:00[Europe/Oslo]",
   :end #time/zoned-date-time "2026-04-18T00:13:59+02:00[Europe/Oslo]",
   :start-adjusted-for-polar-region false,
   :end-adjusted-for-polar-region false},
  :month
  {:start #time/zoned-date-time "2025-03-29T19:32+01:00[Europe/Oslo]",
   :end #time/zoned-date-time "2025-04-28T23:56:59+02:00[Europe/Oslo]",
   :start-adjusted-for-polar-region false,
   :end-adjusted-for-polar-region true},
  :week
  {:start #time/zoned-date-time "2025-04-05T21:31+02:00[Europe/Oslo]",
   :end #time/zoned-date-time "2025-04-12T22:43:59+02:00[Europe/Oslo]",
   :start-adjusted-for-polar-region false,
   :end-adjusted-for-polar-region false},
  :day
  {:start #time/zoned-date-time "2025-04-11T22:32+02:00[Europe/Oslo]",
   :end #time/zoned-date-time "2025-04-12T22:43:59+02:00[Europe/Oslo]",
   :start-adjusted-for-polar-region false,
   :end-adjusted-for-polar-region false}}}

list-of-feast-days-in-year will list the dates on which holidays start at the sunset:

(l/list-of-feast-days-in-year 2021)
;; => 
("2021-01-13 1st day of the 11th month"
 "2021-02-12 1st day of the 12th month"
 "2021-02-25 Purim"
 "2021-02-26 Shushan Purim"
 "2021-03-13 1st day of the 13th month"
 "2021-04-12 1st day of the 1st month"
 "2021-04-25 Passover"
 "2021-04-26 1st day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread"
 "2021-04-27 2nd day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread"
 "2021-04-28 3rd day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread"
 "2021-04-29 4th day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread"
 "2021-04-30 5th day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread"
 "2021-05-01 Feast of First Fruits"
 "2021-05-02 7th day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread"
 "2021-05-12 1st day of the 2nd month"
 "2021-06-10 1st day of the 3rd month"
 "2021-06-19 Feast of Weeks"
 "2021-07-10 1st day of the 4th month"
 "2021-08-08 1st day of the 5th month"
 "2021-09-07 1st day of the 6th month"
 "2021-10-06 1st day of the 7th month"
 "2021-10-06 Feast of Trumpets"
 "2021-10-15 Day of Atonement"
 "2021-10-20 1st day of the Feast of Tabernacles"
 "2021-10-21 2nd day of the Feast of Tabernacles"
 "2021-10-22 3rd day of the Feast of Tabernacles"
 "2021-10-23 4th day of the Feast of Tabernacles"
 "2021-10-24 5th day of the Feast of Tabernacles"
 "2021-10-25 6th day of the Feast of Tabernacles"
 "2021-10-26 7th day of the Feast of Tabernacles"
 "2021-10-27 The Last Great Day"
 "2021-11-05 1st day of the 8th month"
 "2021-12-04 1st day of the 9th month"
 "2021-12-28 1st day of Hanukkah"
 "2021-12-29 2nd day of Hanukkah"
 "2021-12-30 3rd day of Hanukkah"
 "2021-12-31 4th day of Hanukkah")

Contribution

Contributions are welcome, especially those related to performance improvements and bug fixes. Please don't open an issue or a pull request to change the calendar system itself. There are many calendar systems out there and I absolutely respect that no one can know with 100% assurance how to calculate these matters until Messiah comes back.

Acknowledgements

• Sun and Moon calculations are provided by shred's commons-suncalc.
• Equinox calculations are provided by xyz.thoren.equinox.
• All time operations are utilizing tick.core.

License

Copyright © 2021-2024 Johan Thorén

This project is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0.

Contributor Code of Conduct

This project adheres to No Code of Conduct. We are all adults. We accept anyone's contributions. Nothing else matters.

For more information please visit the No Code of Conduct homepage.