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This zodiac plaque represents the celebration of the Jewish lunar calendar. The Hebraic script for the months (center ring) is transliterated into phonetic English (outer ring). Like many calendars before Roman times the Hebrew calendar was a lunar calendar. It was based on the moon as well as the sun. It was a wonderful calendar in that the phase of the moon gave an indication of the the day of the month. Anyone looking up into the night sky could get some idea of the day of the month. If they had recorded when they first saw the new moon then they had a celestial calendar they could use with some good accuracy. And amongst the populace at large they knew the month of the year in which the moon above them was shining. The first day of any given month was determined by the first sighting of the new moon.
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