New Moon, first day of the month

For those who follow a conjunction based calendar, we generally use the day in which conjunction happens in Jerusalem as the first day of the month.

This means that if the conjunction happens in Jerusalem at 30 minutes prior to sunset, we are declaring the whole day previous as part of the new month. We do this in spite of the technical fact that the 23hrs and 30 minutes were actually part of the old month.

For many this has not been a problem, as we have generally taken an "X" (conjunction) 'marks the day' approach. If we applied this paradigm to how we calculate the beginning of the year - we would be taking the month in which the Equinox happens.

It recently became an issue for me when Pete Dreste pointed out that we were not using the same method for determining the beginning of the year as we were for determining the beginning of the month. Pete thought we should more diligently examine how we start the beginning of the year. So we did. The conclusion we came to was that taking the month (conjunction) on or after the Vernal Equinox was the appropriate method. We reached this conclusion in part because the alternative of taking the conjunction closest to the Vernal Equinox could have resulted in Sukkoth occuring in the summer.

For me, this still left the issue that Pete had originally brought up, which was the differing methods of determining the start of the year, and start of the month.

It is important that we use just weights and measures, and that we do not modify our methods to support our own ideas or customs.

With this in mind, I saw that we were using the Vernal Equinox as a delineator event in a time line. At or after the event occurs, we then take the next full month as the starting of the year.

If we were to apply the same weights and measures we just used to determine the beginning of the year. We would use the conjunction as our delineator event in the timeline to determine the first day of the new month. At or after the event occurs, we then take the next sunset (next full day) as the starting (first day) of the new month.

This reckoning brings consistency in the way we understand and apply YHWH's calendar.

To summarize, we have two paradigms:

1: On or After a significant event.

2: Significant event occurs within time period (X marks the time period).

A third paradigm could be:

3: Proximity - taking the delineator event closest to a significant event.

Currently, my understanding is that we should be using #1 only.

Two very relative questions:

Should we wait for the next Conjunction after the VE to declare First Month of year?

Should we wait for the next Sunset after the conjunction to declare the First Day of the Month?

Myself and several others would like any feedback/input as to why we should use ONE, or the OTHER - or Two, or Three?

Thanks,
Brian