The Jewish Festival Of The Creation Of Light

Occasionally TheEye retreats into parochial mood and observes life on the doorstep. If you aren't interested then move on the the next post.

According to the celestial calculations of a Talmudic sage named Shmuel, at the outset of spring every 28 years, Jews believe that the sun moves into the same place in the sky at the same time and on the same day of the week as it did when God made it. They hold this moment sacred and this rare occasion, which of course most Jews will only see once or twice in their lives, leads to great gathering and the recitation of a one-line blessing of God, “who makes the work of creation.”

The astronomical metrics of Shmuel are by now considered inexact, but close enough so that the religious tradition persists. In Gibraltar, members of the Jewish community marked the occasion yesterday and the picture shows hundreds gathered in Catalan Bay.

TheEye is certainly not Jewish but hopes that our readers might win a pub quiz by a single point by knowing about "Shmuel" and therefore will owe us a beer. This is an educational blog.