Re: "In the third hour"

Hi, I'm the author of the (currentenly vaporware) Calendar::Hebrew module.
(The project I wrote it for was cancelled and I lost access to the source.
I've been slowly and intermitently doing a rewrite.)

I've been computerless for a few months and just got back up and
running.  I found the following in the archives and wanted to reply:

On 20 May 2001 15:59:59 EDT, Rich Bowen wrote:
> 
> I was speaking with a Bible scholar recently, and the topic of dates and times
> came up. I've been interested in the Hebrew calendar for a while, but as yet
> have not understood it well enough to reduce it to an algorithm.
> 
> One of the things that came up in the conversation was what the phrase "in the
> third hour" means. This is usually given the easy answer that counting starts
> at what we call 6am, so the third hour is 9am. But, really, counting starts a
> sunrise, so the third hour can fluctuate a huge amount, depending on your
> latitude.

That is actually a matter of dispute.  The 12 hour day either goes from
sunrise to sunset (according to one opinion) or from dawn to nightfall
(according to the other opinion).  And then there is seemingly endless
variation in what one considers dawn or nightfall (though for purposes of 
calculating hours, 72 min before sunrise and 72 min after sunset seem to
be most common).

> I grew up just a few miles from the equator, and sunrise and sunset were
> reliably at 6am and 6pm. However, as far north as Israel, it would fluctuate
> with the seasons.

Even more so as far north as Gateshead.

> Has anyone considered this sort of fluctuation in a Perl date module?

Fortunately, this isn't necessary for purposes of calculating the fixed
Hebrew calendar.  While the day on which the calculated molad (the first
moment of the new moon) falls principally determines when the year starts,
a molad after 12pm is treated as if it were the next day.

• Re: "In the third hour" by Yitzchak Scott-Thoennes