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The walled Old City of Jerusalem covers only about 0.9 square kilometres, yet it holds some of the most visited holy sites of three religions. That compression of meaning into a small space is a useful way into a much bigger subject: how different traditions keep time, teach ethics, and gather their followers.
The facts below are descriptive, not comparative. They cover calendars, a moral principle that shows up in many cultures, a single city, a few symbols with long histories, and the scale of modern pilgrimage. Where figures are estimates, the text says so.
1. Several religious calendars are still in active use today
The Islamic calendar has twelve lunar months of 29 or 30 days, giving a year of 354 or 355 days, and counts from 622 CE, the year Muhammad and his followers moved from Mecca to Medina. Traditionally a month begins when the crescent moon is sighted, so start dates can differ by a day or so between countries. Some countries use calculated versions instead, such as Saudi Arabia’s Umm al-Qura calendar, and most Muslim-majority countries use the Gregorian calendar for everyday affairs while keeping the Hijri one for religious purposes. Four months are considered sacred: Rajab, Dhu al-Qa’da, Dhu al-Hijja and Muharram.
The Hebrew calendar is lunisolar: its months follow the new moon, and an extra month is added in 7 of every 19 years to keep the festivals in step with the seasons. Its months now follow fixed rules rather than observation, and Rosh Hashanah is sometimes postponed by a day or two so that certain holidays avoid specific weekdays. Because its average year runs slightly longer than the solar year, the calendar gains about a day every 216 years. Buddhist calendars, by contrast, vary by tradition and country, and each country schedules its extra months and days differently.
2. A version of the “Golden Rule” appears in nearly every tradition
Scholars describe the principle in positive form (“do to others what you would have them do to you”) and in negative form, sometimes called the Silver Rule, which says not to do what you would not want done to you. Confucius’s Analects gives a prohibitive version, Hillel in Judaism offered a negative one, and Leviticus 19:18 is a positive statement. Jesus states the positive form in the Sermon on the Mount. The Mahabharata contains a version, and Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism each link the idea to avoiding harm.
The idea is not limited to scriptures. An Egyptian text from the Middle Kingdom, The Eloquent Peasant, reflects reciprocity, and Greek writers such as Isocrates and Epicurus expressed it as well. “Nearly every tradition” is a generalisation, and the wording differs, but the pattern is wide enough that the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions declared it a common principle across faiths.
3. Jerusalem is sacred to three of the world’s major religions
Within the Old City, the Temple Mount and the Western Wall are central to Judaism, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to Christianity, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, including the Dome of the Rock, to Islam. The area is divided into four quarters (Muslim, Christian, Armenian and Jewish), and UNESCO added the Old City and its walls to the World Heritage List in 1981.
The present walls were built between 1535 and 1542 under Suleiman the Magnificent. They stretch about 4.5 km, with 35 towers and originally six gates; a seventh, the New Gate, was added in 1887.
4. Many religious symbols predate the religions themselves
The clearest example is the swastika. Its name comes from Sanskrit and roughly means “conducive to well-being”. The oldest examples are dated to roughly 10,000–17,000 BCE, on an ivory figurine from Mezine in Ukraine, and the symbol appears in the Indus Valley Civilisation around 3000 BCE. It is sacred in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, where it can represent good fortune, the Sun or the Buddha’s footprints, and it appears on the Jain flag.
It has also carried other meanings for peoples such as the Akan, Hopi, Navajo and Tlingit. The Nazi Party adopted it between 1920 and 1945, which is why many Western societies today associate it with Nazism and antisemitism, and several countries restrict its display with exceptions for religious use.
5. Pilgrimages remain among the largest human gatherings on the planet
The Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, is a once-in-a-lifetime duty for Muslims who are physically and financially able to go. Its rites run from the 8th to the 12th or 13th of Dhu al-Hijjah and take place at the Kaaba, Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah. Recorded attendance was 2,489,406 in 2019 and 1,845,045 in 2023.
The rites are physical and sequenced. Pilgrims walk seven circuits around the Kaaba in Mecca, spend the 9th day in vigil at Arafat, where the afternoon is required, and camp overnight at Muzdalifah, where they collect pebbles for the throwing rites at Mina. Numbers can swing: access was restricted in 2013 because of expansion work at the Masjid al-Haram, and Saudi authorities have used country quotas to keep crowds manageable.
Why Hajj Dates Move About Ten Days Earlier Each Year
Because the Hajj is tied to the lunar Islamic calendar, which is about 11 days shorter than the solar year, its Gregorian dates keep shifting earlier. The 9th of Dhu al-Hijjah, the Day of Arafah, fell on 15 June in 2024 and on 5 June in 2025.
The pilgrimage therefore falls in a different season from one decade to the next.
The Platinum Rule and Other Objections to the Golden Rule
The Golden Rule has its critics. Kant objected that it ignores differences between situations, and used the case of a convicted prisoner to make the point. George Bernard Shaw pointed out that people’s tastes differ, and Linus Pauling proposed adjusting for self-bias.
One response is the “Platinum Rule”, which asks people to treat others as they would like to be treated. John Stuart Mill, meanwhile, described the principle as the spirit of utilitarian ethics.
If this topic interests you, it’s worth checking out our piece on inca empire, on knights templar, on the Silk Road and on the Maya empire.
Curious to learn more about world religions?
“The World’s Religions” — by Huston Smith, an accessible introduction to the world’s major religions and spiritual traditions.
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A city under one square kilometre, a calendar that runs ahead of the seasons, and one short rule of conduct repeated in many languages: the details show what communities choose to preserve.