What Calendars Are Used In The World?
There are more calendars in the world that can be dealt with in the framework of a single article but here are some of the famous calendars:
(1) The Georgian calendar:
The most famous of all and, unofficially international, calendar is the Georgian calendar. The calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in the 15th century. It was adopted by some countries a year later. The calendar divides the year into twelve months and each month has either 30 or 31 days with the exception of February, which has either 28 or 29 days. The months are:
January (31), February (28/29), March (31), April (30), May (31), June (30), July (31), August (31), September (30), October (31), November (30) and December (31)
The calendar considers the birth of Jesus Christ as the base year. The subsequent years are called are accompanied by an abbreviation AD, which stands for Anno Domini (after Christ) years. The years before the birth of Christ take the abbreviation BC (before Christ). A Georgian Calendar has 365 days with 366 days in every fourth year. The year with 366 days is known as a leap year. The Georgian calendar is a solar calendar.
(2) The Islamic Calendar or al-Taqwim al-hijri
As the name suggests it is a moon-based calendar and the each lunar year is divided into 12 months. A lunar year has 354-355 days and it shorter than the Georgian calendar. This calendar takes the year, when prophet Mohammed (PBUH) emigrated from Mecca to Medina. That event is occurred in the first year of Islamic calendar and this year is called ‘Hijri”. The years before this are known as Anno Hijari (after the year of Hijra) and Before Hijri (before the year of Hijra) is the first year. Thus the prophet (PBUH) was born in 53 BH. A lot of Muslim countries in the Arab world use this calendar. The months of the Islamic calendar are:
Muharram, Safar, Rabiul-Awwal, Rabi-uthani, Jumadi-ul-Awwal, Jumadi-uthani, Rajab, Sha’ban, Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhil-Q’ada, Dhil-Hijja
The Ramadan is the holiest of all months and true Muslims are required to fast in this month.
(3) The Indian calendar or the Saka Calendar:
It is used alongside the Georgian calendar in the Indian Republic. It is again divided into twelve months. A month may have 30 or 31 days. The Indian New Year begins on March 21 or 22 in the Georgian calendar and the months are:
Chaitra (30/31), Veshakh (31), Jyashtha (31), Ashadhya (31), Shravana (31), Bhadrapad (31), Ashwin (30), Kartik (30), Agarhayana (30), Paush (30), Magh (30), Falgun (30)
It takes 78 AD as the base year.
(4) The Chinese calendar or Shi’ai Li
An ordinary year in the Chinese calendar has 12 months and there are 13 months in a leap year. An ordinary year has 353, 354 or 355 days but the number of days in a leap year is 383, 384 or 385. Unlike the Georgian calendar, not every fourth year is a leap year. They have got their own way to determining if a particular year is a leap year or not. If there are 13 new moons from the beginning of the 11th month in the current year to the start of the 11th month in the second year, a leap month is added. The years again have a 60 year cycle and the current cycle began on 2 February, 1984.
