Hebcal can generate Candle-lighting & Havdalah times for Shabbat and holidays, and start and end times for fast days. Over 100,000 world cities are supported.
Candle-lighting times / הַדְלָקַת נֵרוֹת
By default, candle lighting time is 18 minutes before sundown (40 minutes for Jerusalem, 30 minutes for Haifa and Zikhron Ya’akov) on Erev Shabbat (Friday) and Erev Chag (Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shmini Atzeret, Simchat Torah, Pesach, Shavuot).
Hebcal gives an option to specify a different number of minutes before sunset if you don’t follow the 18-minute minhag (for example, some light candles 20 minutes before sundown).
Chanukah candle-lighting times are at civil dusk (solar depression of 6 degrees) on weekdays. Chanukah candles are lit just before Shabbat candles on Friday, and immediately after Havdalah on Saturday night.
Havdalah / הַבְדָּלָה
Havdalah is calculated according to tzeit hakochavim / צֵאת הַכּוֹכָבִים, the point when 3 small stars are observable in the night sky with the naked eye (sun 8.5° below the horizon). This option is an excellent default for most places on the planet.
Hebcal also offers the option to use a fixed number of minutes past sundown. Typically one would enter 42 min for three medium-sized stars, 50 min for three small stars, 72 min for Rabbeinu Tam, or 0 to suppress Havdalah times.
Fast times
Minor fasts begin in the morning at alot haShachar / עֲלוֹת הַשַּׁחַר (solar depression 16.1 degrees) and conclude at tzeit for 3 medium sized stars (solar depression 7.083 degrees). Both start and end times are displayed for following minor fasts:
Tzom Gedaliah
Asara B’Tevet
Ta’anit Esther
Tzom Tammuz
Hebcal displays only a start time for Ta’anit Bechorot because customs vary about when to end the fast (often at a siyyum at the conclusion of morning services).
Major fasts (Yom Kippur and Tish’a B’Av) begin just before sunset at regular candle-lighting time and conclude at Havdalah time. On Yom Kippur, fast start and end times are indicated with the regular “Candle lighting” and “Havdalah” event titles.
If you ever have any doubts about Hebcal times, consult your local halachic authority.
If you select a location (or enter geographic coordinates) above the arctic circle or below the antarctic circle, the times are guaranteed to be wrong. The NOAA algorithm used to calculate the position of the sun is inaccurate at extreme northern and southern latitudes.
We are pleased to announce that Havdalah times can optionally be displayed on our Candle-lighting Times Year at a Glance page. This tool lets you get Shabbat and holiday candle lighting times and Parashat haShavuah (weekly Torah Portion) for the entire year on a single page. You can print it out and post it on your refrigerator.
The checkbox on the bottom of the page will show or hide the Havdalah times.
Candle-lighting and Havdalah times are derived from sunset times, which are approximated from a location (latitude, longitude) and day of year. As of August 2020, Hebcal.com calculates zmanim (halachic times) using an algorithm published by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The NOAA solar calculator is based on equations from Astronomical Algorithms by Jean Meeus.
The sunrise and sunset results are theoretically accurate to within a minute for locations between +/- 72° latitude, and within 10 minutes outside of those latitudes. However, due to variations in atmospheric composition, temperature, pressure and conditions, observed values may vary from calculations.
Differences of 1-2 minutes between Hebcal and other sources publishing candle lighting times or sunset times are expected. Remember that candle lighting times can only be approximated based on location.
Here are a few common reasons why you may see differences in candle lighting times:
1. Different minhag on when to light candles
Hebcal defaults to 18 minutes before sundown for most locations (notable exceptions include 40 minutes before sundown for Jerusalem, 30 minutes for Haifa). Other sources may use 20 minutes before sundown. Hebcal gives an option to specify a different number of minutes before sunset if you don’t follow the 18-minute minhag.
2. Different sunrise/sunset calculation engines
The sunset calculator we use on Hebcal.com as of August 2020 uses an algorithm published by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Hebcal’s NOAA algorithm is implemented in JavaScript using double-precision floating point arithmetic. Other sources may use a slightly different algorithm, for example from the United States Naval Observatory (USNO).
Even if the other source also uses the NOAA algorithm, the implementation could differ slightly; there are many constants and opportunities to round and truncate which could result in slight differences in the final calculated sunset time for a given day and location. For example, in December 2023, Hebcal switched to a different NOAA implementation that optionally supports elevation (more on this below). Even when the elevation feature is disabled, this alternate calculation engine resulted in small differences (often less than 10 seconds) versus Hebcal’s previous NOAA engine.
3. Different latitude/longitude definitions for a given city
Since 2013, Hebcal.com has been using lat/long definitions from GeoNames.org, which is available under a Creative Commons license. For the USA, we purchase a commercial ZIP code database from zip-codes.com that provides latitude and longitude for the “center” of each zipcode. For very large cities, the sunset at the east side of the city might be a minute earlier than the west side of the city.
4. Deliberate rounding down (or up)
Hebcal rounds candle lighting (Friday) times down to the nearest minute, and rounds Havdalah times up to the nearest minute. To be more precise, we use the floor minute for candle-lighting, and we use the standard mathematical rounding rule for Havdalah. The idea here is that it’s better to display candle-lighting time as much as 59 seconds earlier than strictly necessary, and for Havdalah it’s better to wait an additional 30 seconds to end Shabbat/yontiff.
For example, if the exact candle lighting time from the sunset engine (including seconds) was at 20:02:31 or even 20:02:59, Hebcal displays candle-lighting as 20:02.
On the other hand, if the Havdalah calculation is 21:17:29, Hebcal will display 21:17. If it were 21:17:30 through 21:17:59, Hebcal displays 21:18.
5. Havdalah minutes past sundown versus sun degrees below horizion
As of August 2020, options for Havdalah times have also changed. Hebcal now offers an option to use tzeit hakochavim, the point when 3 small stars are observable in the night sky with the naked eye (sun 8.5° below the horizon). This option is an excellent default for most places on the planet. We also offer the option to use a fixed number of minutes past sundown. Typically one would enter 42 min for three medium-sized stars, 50 min for three small stars, 72 min for Rabbeinu Tam, or 0 to suppress Havdalah times.
6. Elevation above sea level
As of December 2023, the Hebcal sunrise/sunset algorithm has been enhanced to optionally include the elevation of the location. If selected, Hebcal will include the city’s elevation in the calculation of all sunrise/sunset based zmanim. Elevation will affect the result only for calculations that are a fixed number of minutes before or after sunrise/sunset.
For cities at a high elevation (for example Denver Colorado or Mexico City), including elevation above sea level can change the estimated sunset time by as much as 7 minutes. If you want to learn more, our friends at KosherJava have a short article entitled How Much Earlier is Sunrise on Mount Everest Due to Elevation?
Degree-based zmanim (for example the “nightfall” option for Havdalah, or the start time of minor fasts at Alot haShachar) are driven by the amount of light in the sky and are therefore not impacted by elevation.
To enable the elevation option, select the “Include elevation in sunrise/sunset estimate” radio button as displayed in the screenshot below:
Conclusion
Lastly, remember that the NOAA algorithm can only approximate the candle-lighting times for your location. If you ever have any doubts about Hebcal’s times, consult your local halachic authority.
Due to popular demand, we’ve added support for Chanukah candle-lighting times.
If you specify a city for Shabbat and Yom Tov candle lighting times, you’ll see Chanukah candle lighting show up as a timed event. If you don’t enable candle-lighting times (and instead choose the generic Diaspora or Israel locations) you’ll see Chanukah events show up as all-day (untimed) events reminding you to light candles that evening.
Candle-lighting times should show up on all iCalendar feeds (Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, iPhone, etc) when the application refreshes Hebcal events. This could take up to a week for the refresh, depending on the app.
Hebcal offers a way to specify candle-lighting times location by latitude and longitude for remote or less-populated areas.
Hebcal supports already over 45,000 world cities. Just search for the name of any world city with population 5,000+. However, if you can’t find what you’re looking for in our location database, here’s how you could find candle-lighting times for a specific location.
Type “Ixiamas” in the Find box and click “Search” button
Click on the link that says “Ixiamas… inhabited place”
Note the latitude/longitude represented in “degrees minutes direction” (in the example of Ixiamas, La Paz, Bolivia it is Lat: 13 45 S and Long: 068 10 W) and write this information down on a sheet of paper
