Shared and Contested Time: Jews and the Christian Ritual Calendar in the Late Thirteenth Century

This article examines what Jews in medieval northern Europe knew of the customs and rituals of their Christian neighbors in urban environments and questions how this permeated Jewish awareness and rhythms of living. The article presents two calendar-related case studies: a late thirteenth-century Christian calendar written in Hebrew, the earliest known calendar of this type and several Hebrew texts that refer to St. John the Baptist Day, which provide a lens into this occasion, one of the central social celebrations of the Christian year. The final section of the article discusses what these sources reveal about fluency and engagement with the Christian ritual cycle among Jews who lived in close proximity to Christians who observed these rites in their shared urban setting.