Rosh Hashanah will be a bit later this year. Here's why

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and a celebration of the creation of the world and making a fresh start, will be observed a month later this year.

Why? Because the Jewish and Gregorian calendars don't jive.

While neither calendar is perfectly attuned to a solar year, the Jewish calendar is based on the lunar cycle. A typical Jewish year lasts for 354 days, plus or minus a day. A 354-day year is 11 days shy of the Gregorian 365-day solar year.

More: Route 46 is a 2-hour long drive, and each mile is steeped in NJ history. How it came to be

When is Rosh Hashanah 2024?

To keep its holidays within the seasons associated with them, every few years the Jewish calendar adds a leap month, which is determined by a 19-year rotation called the Metonic cycle.

It keeps Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and other holidays aligned with the solar year. It also means that Rosh Hashanah can fall as early as Sept. 5 and as late as Oct. 5. This year it falls on Oct. 2 and ends Oct. 4.

Within the Metonic cycle, seven of the 19 are leap years, occurring in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years. The current Jewish year is 5784, the 8th year in the cycle. It began on Sept. 15, 2023 and will end on Oct. 2, 2024.

DST: When does daylight saving time end permanently? The latest on efforts to end the practice

When is Yom Kippur 2024 ?

Accordingly Yom Kippur is celebrated on the 10th day of Tishri, the first month of the Jewish year. According to rabbinical tradition, the holiday commemorates the day Moses came down from Mount Sinai after praying for forgiveness for the Israelites, who had worshipped a golden calf. This year it falls on Oct. 11.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Rosh Hashanah will be a bit later this year. Here's why