This small, paper pocket calendar provides a monthly overview across the two open pages. The days are listed opposite each other in both Jewish and Gregorian calendar format. Important holidays, presumably Jewish as well as Christian, are depicted in Hebraic script.
This pocket calendar from 1843 was most likely used by a Jewish merchant who would have oriented his yearly activities around both the Jewish and the Christian holidays. The markets in towns like Kastellaun, Simmern, Kirchberg or Sohren were significantly influenced by Jewish cattle traders. At the same time, cattle trading represented one of the few possible professions afforded the Jews. Market days were arranged around the Jewish holidays so merchants would not be subject to potential religious conflicts.
In Judaism, the counting of years began with the creation of the world, which, according to the rabbinic tradition, was 3761 years before the Christian calendar was established. The Jewish calendar is a Lunisolar or lunar-solar calendar (in contrast, the Gregorian is a solar calendar). Calculation of the months is oriented on the moon, so that a month is 29 or 30 days. Overall, however, the year follows a solar rhythm, so that holidays do not shift freely, but move within a season. Therefore , a leap year occurs at regular intervals, onto which a 13th month is added.
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