Memorial Calendar

This memorial calendar was either made by Joseph Fried to memorialize his deceased parents or commissioned from the artist by someone else to commemorate the anniversary of the death of his of her parents Itzhak, son of Meir, who died on the 14th of Adar, 1880 (=February 26th, 1880) and Hannah, daughter of David who died on the 13th of Tishre, 1860 (=September 29th, 1860). Rendered both in Hebrew and German, this calendar features an inscription inspired by Ecclesiastes: "The world is vain; life, a dream."

Judaism prescribes that children remember their parents by reciting the mourner's prayer or kaddish on the anniversary of death, known in Ashkenazi tradition as the yahrzeit or "year's time." Out of a sense of piety, individuals have created pictorial and written reminders of these dates such as this rare example. Few hand-painted calendars have survived from the late 19th century, when memorial calendars were produced commercially, largely by Jewish printing houses.