- 1). On your e-mail account, subscribe to the Karaite Korner "New Moon Report" by sending a blank e-mail to karaite_korner_news-subscribe@yahoogroups.com It is best to subscribe to this free service at least a month before the spring equinox.
- 2). Wait for an e-mail from the Karaite Jews at the beginning of the year, when the "Aviv Search" mission is announced. This is when the Karaites travel through the areas surrounding Jerusalem to see what stage the barley is in. Th search continues until several barley seeds have been found to be in the Aviv stage. Mark the day that Aviv barley is announced on your calendar as "Aviv Barley Found." Since you are using a blank calendar, enter Aviv day 1 in the first block on the left of the top row. Thereafter, enter each day sequentially, block by block.
- 3). Check your e-mail daily after the Aviv barley announcement for an announcement that the first sliver of the moon has been witnessed from Jerusalem after the Aviv announcement. Mark this day on the calendar as the first day of the year and enter Aviv in the month section of the calendar. If the barley isn't found to be Aviv before the first sliver of the new moon after the equinox, the first month is still called Aviv, but a month, Adar II, is added at the end of the year immediately after Adar I. This Hebrew leap year has 13 months.
- 4). Hebrew tradition has always counted the day from the time when the sun is no longer visible above the horizon at sunset to the time when the sun sets again the following evening. This is based on the way a day is counted in Genesis 1:5, in which evening came, then morning came, and this was counted as the first day. Because a 24-hour period is counted from sundown to sundown in the Bible, enter a new day on your blank calendar when the sun sets.
- 5). Mark days and months sequentially on the blank calendar. The days of months aren't named in the Bible but are numbered. So enter "1" for day one in the top left block of the calendar, "2" in the next block to the right for day two, "3" in the next block to the right for day three and continue until the Karaite Jews announce the next sliver of the next new moon. Then start a new month page on your calendar. This calendar system is called the biblical lunar calendar because it counts months based on the moon.
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