New & Full Moon Celebrations vs. Weekly Celebrations in Heathenry and the ANE

While I became a Heathen over 20 years ago, I was raised christian. I was searching for truth spiritually, and before I became a Heathen, I did get a Master Degree in Biblical Archaeology and I converted to Judaism. I studied at 59 digs in Israel between Ancient Ekron and Tel Dan. Biblical and Germanic archaeology are different, due to climate differences, but finally, my "Abrahamic past" is benefitting me in understanding Heathenry. Today, Bible scholars, have dissected the biblical text, and have come to the conclusion that the earliest holidays in the Northern Kingdom of Israel (and the Southern Kingdom of Judah) were New Moons, and Full Moons. What is most interesting is that the "sabbath" of the Israelites was originally on the full moon of every month, not the last day of a seven-day period. You read that correctly, the original Sabbath, was not on the 7th day of a "week." Nor did the earliest Israelite Creation myth even have a seven-day creation story (see Genesis chapter 2, starting in verse 5, for part of an "older" creation story that contradicts a later creation story recorded in Genesis 1:1-2:4. (Yes, you read that correct, Genesis chapters 1-2 contains two creation myths that contradict one another, and the second one is older. The original "Sabbath" was the full moon according to biblical scholars, and I will leave a list of who these scholars are and what their sources are below.) Modern Asatru (in the United States anyways) has focused on an 8 spoke solar calendar, that completely ignores the moon. This is called "The Wiccan Wheel of the Year." About 8 years ago, I started posting blogs showing that the Germanic Peoples in pre-Christian times did not have a seven day week, and they followed a lunisolar calendar based on the moons. I provided mostly literary evidence, but I did also quote scholars who came to these conclusions, as well as archaeological conclusions, like Rune Staffs. Modern Asatru does use a solar (solar only) calendar. This practice is quite new, and is completely foreign to not only Germanic Heathens, but all Proto-Indo-European peoples, as well as people in the ANE (Ancient Near East). The Germanic Names for the Days of the Week Nonetheless, Bible scholars believe that later the southern Kingdom of Judah, invented the seven day week, and this invention came after the Judean exile to Babylon in 586 BCE. This of course has tremendous importance to pre-Christian Heathen reconstruction. Contrary to popular opinion, the names "Thor's day" "Frigge's Day", "Woden's Day" and "Tiu's Day" do not prove that Germanic and Scandinavian Peoples kept a seven day week. These names were adopted AFTER christianization, and in Christian England first. [E. G. Richards, Mapping Time, the Calendar and History, Oxford 1999. p. 269.] Let me give a full history. First, the Roman world started to adopt Christian ideas, especially as it became more and more Christian. The days of the week were named for the classical planets in Latin first. This naming system persisted alongside an "ecclesiastical" tradition of numbering the days in ecclesiastical Latin beginning with Dominica (the Lord's Day) as the first day. The Greco-Roman gods associated with the classical planets were rendered in their interpretatio germanica at some point during the late Roman Empire, yielding the Germanic tradition of names based on indigenous deities. [E. G. Richards, Mapping Time, the Calendar and History, Oxford 1999. p. 269.] Hence, in Christian England, Mars and Ares Day was equated with Tiu (Norse Tyr), and Mercury for the fourth day of the week was equated with Woden or Odin. Jupiter/Zeus was that of the fifth day of the week, and the Germanic cognate was "Thor.'" Same with the sixth day of Venus being equated with Frigge, wife of Odin. (Please note, modern eclectic neo-pagans often argue Friday was named after Freyja, but this is not the case.) Please also note, that Sunday and Monday are for the sun and moon, and Saturday was for Saturn.

The REAL story (per scholars) as to when and how the seventh day week came to be The seven-day weekly cycle has zero connection to nature. Yet, it became central not only to Judaism, but also to Christianity and Islam, and it now is the main structure for time across the globe. There is no denying this. Christianity adopted the Shabbat (Sabbath) week, the six days followed by a seventh day "sabbath" structure of Judaism. Constantine was the Roman emperor who not only converted to Christianity, but Constantine declared Christianity was the religion of the Roman Empire, and established the seven-day week in Europe. This has stood the test of time, even when Revolutionary France and the Soviet Union tried to abolish it. [Eviatar Zerubavel, The Seven Day Cycle: The History and Meaning of the Week (Chicago, 1989).]

Bible scholars (*see my list of scholars and sources below), do not believe that Genesis has the oldest texts of the bible. Passages like Judges ch5, 2Kings ch4, Hosea ch2, Amos ch8 are amongst the oldest Hebrew recorded. Passages from these sections of the Bible, mention the Sabbath after a New Moon. Let us look at some of these passages.

2 Kings 4:23

וַיֹּאמֶר מַדּוּעַ אתי הלכתי [אַתְּ הֹלֶכֶת] אֵלָיו הַיּוֹם לֹא חֹדֶשׁ וְלֹא שַׁבָּת וַתֹּאמֶר שָׁלוֹם.

Why would you go to him today? It is not a New Moon nor a Shabbat. She answered "it is ok." (In this passage, a husband was asking his wife why she was going to the seer when it was not a New or Full Moon/Sabbath).

Hosea 2:13

וְהִשְׁבַּתִּי כָּל מְשׂוֹשָׂהּ חַגָּהּ חָדְשָׁהּ וְשַׁבַּתָּהּ וְכֹל מוֹעֲדָהּ

I will put an end to her joy, to her New Moon and her Shabbat, and all her festivals. Amos 8:4-6

שִׁמְעוּ זֹאת הַשֹּׁאֲפִים אֶבְיוֹן וְלַשְׁבִּית ענוי [עֲנִיֵּי] אָרֶץ. ח:ה לֵאמֹר מָתַי יַעֲבֹר הַחֹדֶשׁ וְנַשְׁבִּירָה שֶּׁבֶר וְהַשַּׁבָּת וְנִפְתְּחָה בָּר לְהַקְטִין אֵיפָה וּלְהַגְדִּיל שֶׁקֶל וּלְעַוֵּת מֹאזְנֵי מִרְמָה. ח:ו לִקְנוֹת בַּכֶּסֶף דַּלִּים וְאֶבְיוֹן בַּעֲבוּר נַעֲלָיִם וּמַפַּל בַּר נַשְׁבִּיר.

Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land, 8:5 saying, “When will the New Moon be over, So that we may sell grain, And Shabbat, that we may open the wheat market, To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales, 8:6 So as to buy the helpless for money And the needy for a pair of sandals.

If in these cases (and I could post many more biblical passages), that the Shabbat (Sabbath) refers to the seventh day of the week, the order of Shabbat after the New Moon would be "odd." Biblical authors usually begin with what occurs more frequently, which is why we see texts like Nehemiah 10:34 "… for the Shabbats, and for the New Moons, and for the Appointed Festivals.” In these later texts, Shabbat refers to the seventh day of the week, so it comes before the New Moon, which occurs every month, and then is followed by Festivals that happen once annually. In the earlier biblical texts, the Shabbat appears to refer not to a day of the week but rather to a lunar phase, i.e. a Full Moon. Just as the Hebrew word for New Moon (Chodesh) refers to a new moon (compare to "Chadash" meaning "new"), the word "Shabbat" in these texts, which follows "Chodesh", designates a Full Moon. This is precisely why Bible scholars such as Joel Baden, Israel Finkelstein, Daniel Fleming, Jacob Wright, and Andrew Tobolosky believe that originally, Israel's Sabbath was originally on a Full Moon, and later, after the Babylonian exile, moved to a weekly system. The Full Moon is an important time in many cultures. The major Hindu festivals began at the Full Moon. Throughout the ancient Near East, the fifteenth of month/moon was the time for ritual celebrations. A number of Jewish festivals (Sukkot, Pesach, Purim, Tu BiShvat, Tu B’Av) begin fifteen days after New Moon, on the full moon. Why the Number Seven was important in the ANE, and how the Sabbath moved from the full moon to a "seventh day?" The ANE (Ancient Near East) has many texts older than the Bible. The southern Mesoptamian ruler Gudea built a temple, and dedicated it for seven days. In the Gigamesh Epic, the number seven is often repeated. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh mourns for six days and seven nights. Similarly, when the royal mother of Neo-Babylonian ruler Nabonidus dies, she is mourned for seven days and nights, parallel to seven-day periods of mourning known after the death of King Shulgi of Ur and after the Guteans invade Nippur. In the Ugarit writings, many rituals last seven days, such as mourning and fasting. Even feasts last seven days. [see Fleming, Time at Emar: The Cultic Calendar and the Rituals from the Diviner’s Archive (Winona Lake, Indiana, 2000).] In Egypt, the number seven has symbolic significance linked to creation and regeneration. [see Fleming, Time at Emar: The Cultic Calendar and the Rituals from the Diviner’s Archive (Winona Lake, Indiana, 2000).] In Homer's Odyssey 12:397 and 14:249-252, we see that feasts were also celebrated for seven days.

In the Hebrew Bible, there are many seven day periods, seven month periods, and seven year periods, such as mourning (shiva), chaggot (feasts), weddings, and temple dedications.

According to Bible scholars, the earliest sign of a period of a "week" started in Ancient Egypt, where the "week" lasted for ten days and not seven. [Richard Parker, The Calendars of Ancient Egypt (Chicago, 1950).] Passages like Exodus 23:12 and Exodus 34:21 "six days you will work, and on the seventh day you will cease" (שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּעֲשֶׂה מַעֲשֶׂיךָ וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי תִּשְׁבֹּת) concerns farming activities, when farm animals and natives rest, but foreign born slaves perform the arduous fieldwork. What scholars see, is that the earliest sabbath passages (with the oldest Hebrew) in the bible required rest one day out of every seven days, but each home can start their seven day period on a different day. It was later in Israelite history, that the starting period of work and rest became standardized for all Israelites. The same is true with the annual sabbaths like Exodus 23:10-11 "Six years you shall sow your land and gather its yield, but the seventh year you let it rest and lie still so that the poor of your people may eat; what they leave, the beasts of the field shall eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and olive grove." (שמות כג:י וְשֵׁשׁ שָׁנִים תִּזְרַע אֶת אַרְצֶךָ וְאָסַפְתָּ אֶת תְּבוּאָתָהּ. כג:יא וְהַשְּׁבִיעִת תִּשְׁמְטֶנָּה וּנְטַשְׁתָּהּ וְאָכְלוּ אֶבְיֹנֵי עַמֶּךָ וְיִתְרָם תֹּאכַל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה כֵּן תַּעֲשֶׂה לְכַרְמְךָ לְזֵיתֶךָ.) These passages in Israelite society, was about productivity and rest for the agrarian world of the Levant. But importantly, scholars point out that here the seventh day and the seventh year were not called "Shabbat" (Shabbat is a Hebrew noun meaning "rest"). Therefore, scholars are clear that these were agrarian laws in Israel, distinct from the Full Moon Shabbat (Sabbath). To quote Dr. Jacob Wright "Another observation is equally important: These laws do not require communities to cease from particular activities on the same seventh day—in other words, they need not agree on a common fixed point in time from which all members of society collectively count the same seven days."

Mesopotamian Sapattu and the Hebrew Shabbat (Sabbath): Full Moon Holidays Bible scholars feel that the Hebrew word "Shabbat" derives as a loan word from the Akkadian sapattu or sabattu. [Grund, Entstehung, pp. 106-110.] The Akkadian sabattu, attested from Old-Babylonian to Neo-Babylonian times, refers to the Full Moon holiday celebrated on the 15th of the month. A text from the library of Ashurbanipal (685-627 BCE) calls this a “day for the resting of the heart” (ūm nuḫ libbi). Enuma Elish, a Babylonian creation epic, describes how Marduk appointed the moon-god Nannar as the jewel of the night to fix the days. [Enuma Elish, Tablet 5] I will paste this text here: "Shine over the land at the beginning of the month (arḫu),

Resplendent with horns to fix six days.

On the 7th day (sebutu) the crown will be half size,

On the 15th day (šap/battu), halfway through each month, stand in opposition."

To quote Dr. Jacob Wright: "This same sequence—with first day or new moon (arḫu, cognate to Hebrew yareach), seventh day (sebutu, cf. Hebrew sheviʿi), and fifteenth day (šapattu)—is found in a number of other Mesopotamian contexts, ranging from the Atraḫasis Epic (I 206-207 and 221-222) to economic documents. The celebration of these three days can be traced back as far as the Sargonic period (22nd cent. BCE). This offers a close parallel to the holiday cycle as it was celebrated in ancient Israel. The arḫu parallels Israelite Chodesh, and šapattu the Israelite Shabbat. Moreover, the fact that the seventh day (sebutu) was also celebrated serves as a tantalizing parallel to what I suggested above, namely that the seven-day counting may have begun as a count from the new moon celebration."

Reinvention of Shabbat by Judah (Judaism) after its exile to Babylon Bible scholars believe that Judean scribes reinvented the Jewish sabbath after Babylon exiled Judah/Israel from her homeland in 586 BCE. To once again quote bible scholar Dr. Jacob Wright: "The shift from the monthly to the weekly Shabbat was done under the influence of Mesopotamian culture. This influence began with the incursions of the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian armies in the southern Levant (in the seventh and sixth centuries), though more direct and sustained contact with Mesopotamian culture began after the conquest of Judah in 587. The synergies produced by Judean interactions with these Mesopotamian cultures reverberate throughout the late biblical writings they authored and redacted." I will not go into a long discourse here on how this process happened when Israel was in Babylon. When Persia conquered Babylon, and sent the Jews back to their homeland of Israel, Israel had fully redacted her texts, created a "Hebrew Bible", and created a seven day period of time. Little did she know how she as a little tiny tribe would impact the entire world's concept of time, mainly due to the creation of two Abrahamic religions out of Judaism: the rise of Christianity and Islam, and their acceptance of a seven day period of time we call "a week." Now I will get to my last two sections of this blog, the list of Bible scholars and their sources, and of course, the relevance to Heathenry.

Relevance to Germanic Heathenry

Germanic pre-christian Heathen Tribes kept a lunisolar calendar. They had two seasons: Winter and Summer. Their day began with the moon (sundown). Sacred Grove ritual is well attested in the sources, and many scholars feel that this was most prominent on new and full moons. Modern Heathens should venerate the Germanic Gods and Goddesses in Sacred Groves at this time. New and Full Moons are just so well attested in the ANE and in PIE, that these times need some revival for modern Heathens. Roman historian Tacitus writes in his Germania (Chapter 11) 98CE/AD that the Germanic peoples observed the lunar months. “The community gathers, if nothing unusual or sudden happens, at certain times when the moon is new or full, because they consider this the luckiest beginning to discuss matters. Also, they do not calculate the number of days, but the number of nights. In this way they state purpose and commitment. Night does precede the day.” [Translation by Dr. Andreas E. Zautner] Vafþrúðnismál, a poem in the Poetic Edda show us that the moon and the sun were created to tell time for men: "Othin spoke: Next answer me well, if your wisdom avails, And you know well, Vafthruthnir, now: Whence came the moon, o'er the world of men, That fares, and the flaming sun?" Vafthruthnir spoke: "Mundilferi is he who created the moon, and fathered the flaming sun; The round of the sky each day they run, to tell the time for men." Othin spoke: "Third answer me well, if wise thou art called, If thou knowest it, Vafthruthnir, now: Whence came the day, o'er mankind that fares, Or night with the waning moon?" Vafthruthnir spoke: "The father of day is Delling called, And the night was begotten by Nor; Full moon and New Moon by the gods were fashioned, To tell the time for men." 

The poem Alvísmál in stanza 14 states that "The Alfar call the moon 'year counter.'"

Dr. Andreas Nordberg states that "[heathen religious] festivals were held at the time of a

new or full moon,” [Nordberg, Andreas (2006). Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning. Uppsala. p. 153.] Dr. Andreas Nordberg, the world’s foremost scholar on Norse Holidays, makes clear in his book on the dating of Yule that “The pre-Christian Yule feast occurs at the first full moon after the first new moon following the winter solstice, while the disting took place at the third full moon according to the same method of calculation.” [Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning Kalendrar och kalendariska riter i det förkristna Norden Uppsala 2006, P.4]  Ynglinga Saga ch.8 from circa 1225 CE: “Odin established the same law in his land that had been in force in Asaland… On winter day (first day of winter) there should be blot for a good year, and in the middle of winter for a good crop; and the third blot should be on summer day, a Victory-blot.” PS- Snorri consistently uses "winters old" throughout Heimskringla when giving a person's age: The Heimskingrla's Ynglinga Saga (chapter 34), “There a great blot was held and many kings came as it was midwinter. And one winter when many folks were gathered in Upsala, King Yngvar was there with his sons, who were six winters old.”  Dr. Andreas E. Zautner: “If we browse the internet for holidays of the Germanic people, we mainly find pages presenting an octopartite year circle, the so-called ‘eight-spoked wheel of the year’ based on the solstices, the equinoxes, and four moon feasts in between. This year circle has absolutely no historical basis. Although it is very popular in neopagan circles, especially within Wicca and eclectic Asatru, there is no verified evidence for such a year circle as basis for the seasonal festivities. The same is true for the Celtic feasts within the year circle, because the Gauls too, used a lunisolar calendar as we know for the examples of Coligny and Villards d’Heria (Olmstedt, 1992). If one has internalized such ideas, one should get rid of them immediately!” [Dr. Andreas E Zautner, “The Lunisolar Calendar of the Germanic Peoples”, P.83]  PS-I am tempted to delete a sentence of this quote. But I should not change the words of Dr. Zautner. The quote is not intended to slam Asatru or any neo-pagan group. New ways are not for everyone either. The quote was intended to state that scholars (almost all of whom are not theists) are well aware of the fact that many movements are just far different from the Heathenry practiced historically.

List of Bible Scholars: *Baden, Joel S. (2012). The Composition of the Pentateuch: Reviewing the Documentary Hypotheses. Yale University Press.

*Finkelstein, Israel & Neil A. Silberman (2002).  The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. Free Press.

*Fleming, Daniel E. (2020). Yahweh before Israel: Glimpses of History in a Divine Name. Cambridge University Press.

*Friedman, Richard E. (2017). The Exodus: How It Happened and Why it Matters. Harper One.

*Tobolowsky, Andrew (2017). The Sons of Jacob and the Sons of Herakles. Mohr Siebeck.

*Tobolowsky, Andrew (2022). The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Cambridge University Press.

*Wright, Jacob L. (2023). Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of the Scripture and its Origins. Cambridge University Press.

*Wright, Jacob L. (2023). How and When the Seventh Day Became Shabbat retrieved from https://thetorah.co.il/

Proto-Indo-European Homelands 7000 BCE

A map of Proto-Indo-European peoples between the 35th and 25th centuries BCE