NEOMENIA (Neomnēsía). - From Gk. νέος = new and μήνη = moon. It is the new moon (Heb. hōdheš, translated in the Latin Bible as kalendae). The observation of the new moon is of fundamental importance for the fixing of the calendar (v.), which among all peoples is originally determined by the phases of the moon (v.).
Among the ancient Hebrews the beginning of the month was established not by astronomical calculations but by the appearance of the first crescent of the moon, and it was greeted with the sound of trumpets (Num. 10:10), during the celebration of particular sacrifices, more abundant than those of the Sabbath, equal to those for Passover and for the feast of weeks (Pentecost), that is, two young bulls, one ram, seven lambs of one year and one he-goat for sin (Num. 28:11-15; Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Jud., III, 10, 1). There was no abstention from work, but the day was felt to be festive (merriment, Hos. 2:13; banquets, 1 Sam. 20:5, 24; devotional gatherings, Is. 1:13). It lasted, at first, two days (1 Sam. 20:27-34), the last of the preceding month and the first of the following month; the phrase tricesimo sabbata of Horace (Sat., I, 9, 60) refers precisely to the new moon. The feast of the n. remained always alive in Israel even after the exile and after the cultural reform that placed the Sabbath before it in importance (Ez. 46:1), also in order to avoid the allusion to pagan practices in use among neighboring peoples. Ezekiel always receives the word of Yahweh on the recurrence of the n. (Ez. 26:1; 29:17; 31:1; 33:1).
The most solemn of the n. was and is that of the month of tishri (beginning of the civil year, rôš hōš-šēnōh), which was announced by a fire lit on the summit of the Mount of Olives and proclaimed throughout the country by the sound of the horn (šōphōr) and was characterized by a solemn sabbatical rest. Even for present-day Judaism the new moon is a day both of expiation and of praise and is, within the family, considered festive. On the eighth day of the month, in places where the cultural tradition persists, the blessing of the moon is sung in the open air, with torches, gazing at it and making three leaps toward it.
The prayer recited on that day expresses the devotional meaning of the n.: in it Yahweh is asked to grant for the new month blessing, gladness, joy, salvation and consolation, forgiveness of sins and expiation of faults; end of all misfortunes, beginning and principle of the redemption of souls, since from all nations he chose his people Israel, for which he established the statutes of the heads of the months.