ADAR. - Twelfth month, of 29 days (from mid-February to mid-March approximately), of the Hebrew calendar. The name is Babylonian (addaru, in Babylonia a month sacred to the 7 great gods [planets]) and appears in the Bible in the post-exilic period (Ezra 6:15; 11 times in Esth.; 3 times in the two Macc.). In Flavius Josephus it corresponds to the Macedonian Δάστρος. The construction of the second Temple was completed on the 3rd of Adar of the 6th year of Darius I (March 11, 515 B.C.).
In commemoration of the victory of Judas Maccabeus (161 B.C.) over Nicanor (1 Macc. 7:43, 49; 2 Macc. 15:37), the 13th of Adar is celebrated as "the day of Nicanor." On the two days 14 and 15 falls, still today very popular in Judaism, the noisy solemnity of Purim (v.). On the 12th is celebrated "the day of Trajan" (Ta'anith, 186), although Trajan died on the 8th or 9th of August (117). On the 7th is commemorated the birth and death of Moses. From the 15th to the 25th of Adar the half-shekel (or didrachma) per head was collected for the Temple (Milānah, Šēgalim, I, 1-III, 1); this is of interest for the chronology of the public life of Jesus (cf. Mt. 17:23-26).
In order to reconcile the lunar year, shorter by 11 days, with the solar year, approximately every three years a second adar or we'adar, of 29 days, is added at the end of the Hebrew year, which is never mentioned in the Bible.
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Antonino Romeo