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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 30, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 47.

1681.—Day of Atonement in 1844.

When did the Day of Atonement occur in 1844?

The author of The Universal Standard Calendar, H. H. Perry, has furnished the following:

The Day of Atonement, or the tenth day of the seventh month, Jewish time in 1844: Elder James White, in “Life of William Miller,” says, “On that year, following the reckoning of the Caraite (Karaite) Jews, it fell on the 22nd day of October.”

The Karaites are a sect of the Jews principally living in Southern Russia, Armenia, Turkey, and vicinity of Jerusalem, who reject the modern Rabbinical calendar and follow more strictly the earlier usage of the Jews as to the time of the observance of their various feasts and holy days and the arrangement of their calendar. Most Jews in the United States have adopted the Rabbinical calendar, which places the beginning of their year and all their feasts or fasts a month earlier in the season, compared with our calendar, than did the Jews of the time of Christ, or do the Karaites of to-day. So in 1844, according to one of the best lunar tables computed by astronomers, published by Dr. Guinness, of London, England, the moon was new October 12, 1:48 A.M., Jerusalem civil time; therefore the evening following and next day, the 13th, would be New Year’s day, and therefore October 22 was the 10th, or Atonement day. For this year, 1904, we do not have a calendar of the Karaite Jews, but, by the same tables, the new moon occurred at Jerusalem October 9, 7:21 A.M.; the evening following and next day, October 10, would be New Year’s day, and October 19 the Day of Atonement.