Keeping the 364-day Calendar Year On Track with the Solar Year - Part 1
We've written several articles regarding this issue, and we continue to watch for more evidence as to how the Yahad (the community at Qumran) might have dealt with the yearly difference of approximately 1.25 days. No matter how much research is done on the movement of the stars, or the rotation of the priestly courses, or the Book of 1 Enoch, etc., we keep coming to the most elemental criteria that are really quite sufficient.
In essence, we see that the year of the Zadokite Sabbath Calendar is actually self-correcting when we merely apply the most basic criteria. The majority of our modern-day confusion or disagreement appears outwardly to persist due to a general lack of understanding and an even greater reluctance to accept the simplicity of those criteria.
Part 1 - Intercalation
Let's start with defining this word that most of us never even heard of, much less knew of it, until we started learning about calendars.
intercalate: transitive verb
1.) to insert (something, such as a day) in a calendar
2.) to insert or position between or among existing elements or layers
Intercalate was formed from the Latin prefix inter-, meaning "between" or "among," and the Latin verb calāre, meaning "to proclaim" or "to announce." It was originally associated with proclaiming the addition of a day or month in a calendar.
intercalation: noun
insertion of days or months into a calendar to bring it into line with the solar year (year of the seasons). One example is the periodic inclusion of leap-year day (February 29) in the Gregorian calendar now in general use. To keep the months of a lunar calendar (e.g., the Hindu calendar) in their proper seasons, an entire month must be intercalated periodically, ...
The solar or tropical year does not have a whole number of days (it is about 365.24 days), but a calendar year must have a whole number of days. The most common way to reconcile the two is to vary the number of days in the calendar year.
We must realize that intercalation is required for any calendar, regardless of its format; any and all calendars must employ intercalation to keep the calendar year in sync with the solar year because there is a fractional part of a whole day in the total length of a solar year. The calendar year exhibits complete days whereas the solar year does not. All calendars will vary from the solar year, and they must intercalate if they are to be kept synchronized with the seasons.
The Islamic lunar calendar is a good example of a calendar that is not concerned with the solar year because it doesn't employ any intercalation, and their holy days regress through the seasons over the passage of years. This same characteristic is evident even in our 365-day Gregorian calendar; if we didn't intercalate with 1 day every 4 years, we would also be regressing through the seasons. If we try a 366-day calendar year, that won't work either.
So what's the problem with a 364-day year? Answer: nothing at all! In fact, it works better than a 365-day calendar because the 364-day system that was discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) maintains complete, whole 7-day weeks too. Holy Days and other special days are always on the same weekdays every year which is a hugely profound advantage; they don't float through the weekdays from year-to-year. The Zadokite Sabbath Calendar maintains a perfect flow of weekly and annual Sabbaths - consistently - same weekdays - every year! And yes, it must employ a deliberate method of intercalation just like any other solar-based system.
In addition, a proper calendar does NOT intercalate subjectively; this is NOT an arbitrary thing. Instead, a well-functioning calendar must have an intentionally calculated method of adjustment to synchronize with the reality of the solar year. Intercalation is not haphazardly used to "fix" a calendar because it is "broken", nor is it a sign of a faulty calendar. Intercalation is just as much a part of organizing our days on the calendar as are weeks, months, seasons and years. Whatever your system might be for adding or inserting a day or 2 days or a week or a month, whether you are lining up with the stars or the moon or the sun or a weekly rotation of priests, you will be intercalating - like it or not. Intercalation is inevitable because of a solar year that is 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, 10 seconds long (britannica.com).
Wouldn't it be great if the solar year could actually be an even 364 days, 52 complete 7-day weeks, with 00:00:00.00 hours/minutes/seconds left over? Apparently this might have been the case in the days of Enoch:
1 Enoch 72:32*
(32) On that day the night decreases and is nine parts, with a daytime of nine parts. Daytime is equal to the night, and the year is exactly 364 days.
*1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation by George W.E. Nickelsburg & James C. VanderKam, copyright 2012 Fortress Press, p.99
In this quote from the book of 1 Enoch, we see that the equinox (the context in this passage is pointing to the vernal equinox) marked a completion of a year that was an exact 364 days. This would have been before the flood of course, and it may have even existed up until the time of Joshua's long day (Joshua 10:12-14) and King Hezekiah's sundial (2 Kings 20:9-11). We can't say for sure that the year was originally 364 days, but these things all come together to give us a highly possible explanation for what we are dealing with now in the length of a year. Regardless of the questionable reliability of 1 Enoch, we can be sure that the vernal equinox is still our most stalwart and objective indicator for the end of a solar year, and a specific method of intercalation is all we need to keep our 364-day calendar year synchronized with it. HalleluYah!