Like Rosh Hashanah in August August 2001 1 | 2 | 3 | NEXT The Jewish calendar follows a lunar cycle, and therefore the dates of holidays in the secular calendar will vary. Each year since its birth as a nation in 1948, Israel has issued a set of stamps to commemorate the Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashana (New Year's Day) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Although these holidays never fall in August (they are usually in September), a majority of the sets to for these holidays have been issued in August. For the statisticians among you, of the 53 sets issued from 1948 through 2000, 32 were issued in August, 21 in September and one in July.   Links You Might Find Useful Online Rosh Hashanah Greeting Cards, Blue Mountain Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Jewish Virtual Library Society for Israel Philatelists The themes of these August issues have varied over the years. Only one of them seems not to have a religious theme either on the stamp or its tab. In 1964, the stamps depicted ancient glass vases (Scott #264-6). Ironically, both Christianity and Mohammedanism appeared on one of Israel's August New Year sets. In 1968 the stamps featured sites in Jerusalem, including the Church of the Resurrection and the Dome of the Rock mosque as parts of the "skyline." All of the tabs on the stamps in the set, however, had quotes from the Bible -- either from the Book of Psalms or Isaiah (Scott #370-4). Several other sets have relied on Biblical quotes on the tabs to clarify the religious connection of the stamps' themes. For instance, in 1955 and 1956 the stamps featured ancient musical instruments (including a shofar or ram's horn) on the stamps, but the tabs used Biblical quotes referring to them from the Books of Psalms, Numbers, Isaiah, and 11 Samuel (Scott #100-3, 121-3). In 1958 the stamps depicted agricultural products, but included a passage from Deuteronomy on the tabs (Scott #145-8). From Bible Pages to Stamp Album Pages 1 | 2 | 3 | NEXT © 2001, J-Stamps/Murray Frost. All Rights Reserved. froststamps@yahoo.com