The Famous Calendars around the World

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Calendars play an important role in the life of every human being living on this planet earth. There are different varieties of calendar which we explore throughout the globe. Some of them are working since centuries and are still valid. Today, we are going to discuss 3 of the major calendars briefly.

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GREGORIAN CALENDAR (Solar Calendar)

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The Gregorian Calendar generally known as Solar Calendar, is one of the most common and international standard for representing dates of the month throughout the world. It is easily understandable for everyone. This calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII back in October 1582 as the replacement of older version of calendar namely Julian Calendar (Proposed by Julius Caesar).

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Gregorian calendar has 365 ¹/₄ Days a year and to maintain it, there is a leap year every four years in order to maintain the accuracy. To be more precise earth completes its year in 365 days, 5 hours and 48 minutes and 45seconds which causes one day difference in the dates of season after every century.

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HIJRI CALENDAR: (Lunar Calendar)

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Hijri Calendar, commonly known as Lunar Calendar or Islamic Calendar. This calendar begins with the historical migration of Holy Prophet ﷺ (Peace be Upon Him) from Makkah to Medinah in in AD 622. During the journey, The famous Mosque of Quba was built by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (Peace Be Upon Him) accompanied by the Companion Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddique (رضي الله عنه)

6 kilometres (3.7 miles) from Medinah. In this way, this beautiful and historical Mosque of Quba is just a few days older than Hijri Calendar.

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Islamic calendar is based on 12 lunar months around 354 days a year. Each month begins when a new moon is sighted. Usually lunar months have 29 or 30 days which makes its 11 days shorter than the Solar Calendar (Gregorian calendar). Following the names of Lunar months.

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1. Muharram (Beginning month of the year)
2. Safar
3. Rabi Al-Awwal
4. Rabi Al-Thani
5. Jamada Al-Awwal
6. Jamada Al-Thani
7. Rajab
8. Sha’ban
9. Ramadan (Holy Month of Fasting)
10. Shawwal (Begins with celebration of Eid-ul-fitr)
11. Dhul Qadah
12. Dhul Hajjah (month of Hajj/Pilgrimage along with celebration of Eid-ul-Adha)

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PERSIAN CALENDAR (Solar + Lunar Calendar)

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Persian Calendar, also known as Jalili Calendar or Solar Hijri calendar is followed in Iran and Afghanistan. When we look at the traces of the beginning of Persian calendar, it takes us back to the traces of ancient time of human history. This calendar faced several dynasties and empires over the millenniums.

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In 1079AD, on the orders of Jalal-ud-din Seljuqi, Old Persian Calendar was replaced by the Jalili Calendar proposed by one of the famous astronomers and Persian Scientist Omar Khayyam. In this calendar, beginning of the New Year comes with the first day of spring season called “Norooz or Nowruz”.

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When we talk about the present day modern Persian Calendar, it was adopted in March 1925 AD. According to this calendar, there are 12 months in a calendar year with first six months have 31 days while next 5 months have 30 days followed by last month with 29 days (30 days only in case of leap year). First day of the year begins with celebration of Nowruz on 1 Farvadin (in the month of March). List of Persian months and their details are given below:

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According to the citizen and the author from Iran, Raziah Taheri, Annual festivals, National Holidays and Religious Holidays are observed in Iran according to the Persian Calendar are given below:

1. Farvardin (21^st March) – First day of the year with celebration of Nowrus
2. Nowrus (22^nd-25^thMarch)
3. Islamic Republic Day (1^st April)
4. Nature Day (2^nd April)
5. Doctor’s Day in commemoration of Bu Ali Sina (23^rd August)
6. Pharmacist Day in commemoration of Zakaria Razi (27^th August)
7. Student’s Day (4th November)
8. University Student Day (7th December)
9. General Ghasem Solemani Memorial Day (3^rd January)
10. Nationalization of the Oil Industry (20^th March)

Apart from that, all the Islamic festivals and religious holidays are observed according to the Hijri Calendar every year. (Hijri calendar differs around 11 days each year)

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ACCORDING TO THE AUTHOR ALEXANDRA BERGHOFER FROM GERMANY:

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Calendars are an indispensable part of our daily life.  The same calendar is used in the business world.  In some countries there are one or more other options.  We sometimes notice it when we see different reports or with friends from other countries and exchange ideas.

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Different cultures have produced their own calendars.I was aware of it again when I congratulated my friends in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia on the New Year on January 12th and read the year 2972 ​​on the website.  Where does this year difference come from?

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Basically there were different calendars in earlier times.Solar and lunar calendars were one of the first forms.  The solar calendar already had the 12 months and was pretty accurate.  The oldest European solar calendar was found in the cave of Magura in the northwestern Balkan Mountains (Bulgaria) and it shows 366 days and dates from the Neolithic.  (Source Wikipedia).

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The Egyptian, Iranian, Maya, Julian and Coptic calendars are and were solar calendars. The fiscal calendar included the annual taxes that had to be paid. The Islamic calendar is a purely lunar calendar and has been an integral part of religious life to this day.  In it, twelve lunar months are combined into a lunar year, which is about 11 days shorter than a solar year in a solar calendar. (Source Wikipedia)

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Most calendars are a bridge between the cosmos and humans.  Born from the idea of ​​giving structure to life.  Today, as in the past, calendars are an important part of our lives.  To fix the festive days in religion and also enable business all over the world.  The reasons for using a calendar are the same worldwide. It simplifies co-existence. We would like to introduce you to a few models of calendars in this article.

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 We take a short journey through time to look at the history of the calendars. The first solar calendar was created at the time of the population of the Nile region and the construction of the pyramids.  The Egyptian astronomers and mathematicians had estimated the tropical year to be 365 days and divided it into 12 months of 30 days each and added 5 days.  The calendar had very little miscalculation; it was regularly adapted to the heliacal rise of the star Sirius.  This calendar was a success because it was used for 4,500 years. It was the predecessor of our current solar calendar, which was to gradually replace the lunar calendar.  (Source www.cartland.de)

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The Maya had also created a solar calendar to organize time.  They connected two different ones at the same time.  Calendar forms in one.  The ritual Tzolkin calendar, which was mainly used for the art of divination, and the civil Haab calendar, which played an important role in agriculture.  The Haab calendar already contains the number zero, which astonishes science to this day, since the West only knew zero in the 16th century through the Arabs.

Note: We are thinking to write a sequel of this article and would like inform you about some of the other major calendars of the world. Kindly give us your feedback.

Note: We are thankful to the following for guide in our research.

(Source www.cartland.de)

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gregorian-calendar

https://www.islamic-relief.org.uk/islamic-calendar/

https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/gregorian-calendar.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_calendar

https://keisan.casio.com/exec/system/1346137333

https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/persian-calendar.html