I have been writing a series of serious articles lately and thought I will just be a little more light hearted on a Friday. Especially with all the crazies that run countries all over the world.
We are now in that part of the year on the christian calendar where people starts thinking about holidays and festivities. I always find it interesting that when you grow up as part of a particular society, you sort of believe that is how everyone does it. I mean we all love December, go on leave and have New Year. And that a Monday is the first day of the week and the weekend starts on Saturday. Imagine my shock when I found out this is not so. That MANY people does things differently.
Now you may think I am a presumptuous ass, but I grew up (through no fault of my own) in a very isolated time for our country and we did not have much exposure or opportunity of exposure to the rest of the world. Since then I have travelled extensively, have family and friends all over the world, and a brother in Dubai. Getting to talk to each other on the weekend is hard ... it does not match. So you got to stay on your toes. Also with friends in the USA and Australia, I will admit that there has been an innocent 2am call just to chat a few times, from both sides.
So I grew up believing we all use the calendar. Now I know that these differ. What I learnt about is the Gregorian Calendar. There are six more that today is in active use. They are the Chinese, Hebrew, Islamic, Persian, Ethiopian and Balinese Pawukon. Now I will be honest, before writing this I new of the first 4. No 5 makes sense given their ancient dominant status but the last two ... WHAT.
So I decided to do a quick synopsis of each.
Gregorian Calendar
This is the most commonly used today. We can thank the Roman Catholic Church for this. A papal bull in February 1582 decreed that 10 days be dropped, and that 15 October immediately will follow 4 October, to help correct the Julian Calendar that was used in Rome and until that time. It was first observed in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain. Protestant countries however were reluctant and Greek countries only actually adopted it around 1900.
For the record it has 365 days in a year and to account for the fractional day every four years is a leap year with an extra day.
The Chinese Calendar
The Chinese must have had lots of time, as the calendar is really hard to understand (at least for me) it essentially uses the positions of the Sun and Moon to calculate months. Months are roughly 29 or thirty days, but the actual specificness of the calculations depends on the accuracy of the astronomical theories and calculations.
In China the Gregorian calendar is used officially but the Chinese calendar is still used for setting traditional festivals and even for timing agricultural activities in the countryside.
The Hebrew Calendar
Used mainly for Jewish religious observances, and like the Chinese calendar is lunisolar (using the moon and sun). It evolved over time and includes influences from the Babylonian calendar. While it still is used a little for official purposes, the Gregorian calendar has steadily taken these application over.
The Islamic Calendar
This lunar calendar has 12 months in a year, of 354 or 355 days. For the record we are currently in 1439 AH according to this calendar, as opposed to the Gregorian 2017 AD. It is actively used in Muslim religion to determine religious activities and alongside the Gregorian calendar in official events in many Muslim countries
The Persian Calendar
Still used in Iran and Afghanistan, it is a solar calendar similar to the Gregorian calendar, with months and 365 or 366 days. New year is determined by the sun crossing the vernal equinox as observed in Tehran. This is normally around the 21st or 22 March on the Gregorian calendar.
The Ethiopian Calendar
Roughly similar to the Julian and Gregorian calendar, there was however a disagreement between the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Vatican on when Christ was born. They believe Christ was born 5500 years after the creation of the earth making that around 7BC. It has 365 or 366 days and 12 months of 30 days and one intercalary month of 5 or 6 days.
I will be honest, I am glad I did this article as I never knew about this calendar.
Balinese Pawukon
The Pawukon is the second of tyo Balinese calendars, the other being the Sashi based on the moon. It is in official use on Bali next to the Gregorian calendar, and has a 210 day year. There are ten cycles running concurrently of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and ten days. I am not going to try and explain more as I may butcher it but let it suffice to say that visitors to the country will be confused at the start.
In conclusion, while the Gregorian it is fair to say is the standard, there are a number of other regional or religious calendars in use today. There will be more I am sure, but it does show the splendor of our diversity.
Have a great weekend if yours starts today.