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 | Most Eastern Orthodox Churches continue to use the Julian calendar. It is currently 13 days later than the Gregorian calendar. The gap continues to grow. They currently celebrate Christmas on JAN-7 and New Year's Day on January 14. Romanian and Greek Orthodox do not follow this tradition. | ||||||||||||
| The Jewish calendar is based on their belief of the date that the universe was created: 3761 BCE. The abbreviation called "AM" for Anno Mundi is used. The Jewish calendar is moon-based. An additional month is added every third or fourth year. Thus, their year is of 354 to 385 days in duration. | ||||||||||||
| The Islamic calendar is based upon 622 CE, the year of the Hegira, when the Prophet Muhammad traveled from Mecca to Medina. The abbreviation "H" or "AH" is used after the date; it stands for "Hegira" or "Anno Hejira". It is a lunar calendar that repeats itself every 30 years. Year 2, 5, 7, 10, 13, 16, 18, 21, 24, 26 and 29 are leap years and have 355 days. Common (non leap years) have 354 days. That is 11 days shorter than the solar year. About three times a century, Muslims can celebrate two new years during one Gregorian year. Each lunar month begins with the visible sighting of the crescent of the new moon. A month, and thus a holy day, is often delayed a day from the time that astronomical calculations would predict them. | ||||||||||||
| The Hindu calendar is based upon the start of the Saka Era in 78 CE. The date is often followed by the letters SE. The original base date for the calendar was at a planetary alignment involving Jupiter in 3102 BCE. | ||||||||||||
| The Sikh calendar is based on the start of the Khalsa Era three centuries ago. Their year begins on Apr-13 or 14. The date is often followed by the letters KE. | ||||||||||||
| The Baha'i calendar began when the Bab declared that a new Manifestation of God would shortly appear. The beginning of the Baha'i Era occurred in 1260 AH and 1844 CE. Their calendar has 19 months, each with 19 days, for a total of 361 days per year. The letters BE stand for "Baha'i Era." | ||||||||||||
| The traditional Zoroastrian calendar is composed of 12 months, each containing 30 days. The final month has 5 gatha days added. Initially, an additional month of 30 days was added once every 120 years. The base year for the calendar is the date of the coronation of the last Zoroastriaa Sasanian King, Yazdegird II in 631 CE. 1368 Y overlaps 1999 CE. The Iranian Zoroastrians stopped adding this additional month in 1009 CE; Their fellow believers in India stopped in 1129 CE. New Year has been gradually moving earlier (about 1 day every 4 years) from its original date in mid-March. It now occurs in the Fall. Mr. Khurshedji Cama proposed a revised calendar in 1906 CE. It follows the Gregorian leap-year system and has New Year permanently fixed on MAR-21. This calendar is used by Zoroastrians around the world, except India. 8 | ||||||||||||
| The Creativity Movement (formerly called the World Church of the Creator (W.C.O.T.C.) is a racist, anti-communist, and homophobic religious group centered in Illinois. They base their calendar on 1973 CE --the date that the first edition of thieir book "Nature's Eternal Religion" was published. This is regarded as the year in which the group was founded. They have abandoned the Gregorian calendar. 1973 is considered the Incepto de Creativitat (Inception of Creativity), or I.C. Years following are called "Anno de Creativitat." Thus, 1974 CE is called 1 A.C. The years before I.C. are called Prius Creativitat (Before Creativity). One of their main holidays is West Victory Day, held each DEC-29. It commemorates the "white" victory over the last organized native America resistance in 83 PC (1890 CE). | ||||||||||||
| The Mayan calendar expresses
a date in a complex five number format. e.g. 6.19.18.1.5 means:
J.Eric Thompson determined that the first day of the Mayan calendar (0.0.0.0.0) was on 3114-AUG-11 BCE. 9 They believed that Venus was born on that day. Another source says AUG-13 of the same year. Mayans also had a "Great Cycle of the Long Count" of 13 Baktuns or 5,125.36 years. They anticipated the end of the world at the Winter Solstice, 2012-DEC-21 or 13.0.0.0.0 in their notation. 10 |
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Relationships among religious calendars:
The first day of various religious years falls on:
| Secular Calendar Date | Start of Religious Year |
| 1996-SEP-14 | 5757 AM |
| 1997-MAR-21 ** | 153 BE |
| 1997-MAR-22 | 1919 SE |
| 1997-APR-13 * | 299 KE |
| 1997-MAY-09 | 1418 H |
| 1997-OCT-02 | 5758 AM |
| 1998-MAR-21 ** | 154 BE |
| 1998-MAR-22 | 1920 SE |
| 1998-APR-13 * | 300 KE |
| 1998-APR-28 | 1419 H |
| 1998-SEP-21 | 5759 AM |
| 1999-MAR-21 ** | 155 BE |
| 1999-MAR-22 | 1921 SE |
| 1999-APR-13 * | 301 KE |
| 1999-APR-17 | 1420 H |
| 1999-SEP-11 | 5760 AM |
| 2000-MAR-21 ** | 156 BE |
| 2000-MAR-22 | 1922 SE |
| 2000-APR-06 | 1421 H |
| 2000-APR-13 * | 302 KE |
| 2000-SEP-30 | 5761 AM |
* Approximate dates.
** Except in the Middle East
JewishGen® provides a guide to Jewish genealogical research. One service is an online calendar that converts Gregorian to Jewish dates and back. For example St. Patrick's day on 1999-MAR-17 is also 5759 Adar(I) 29. 1 Another web site, Panda Systems, offers a free calendar conversion program for the MacOS which works among Julian, Gregorian and Jewish calendar systems. 2
Related essay:
| Religious seasonal days of celebration and holy days |
References:
- JOS calendar conversion is at: http://www1.jewishgen.org/jos/josdates.htm
- Panda Systems' freeware program is at: http://www.pandacorner.com/PandaSystems/
- See FSN Calendar for other calendars, including calendars related to: Bible prophecy, Chinese, Catholic liturgical year, Judaism, Advent, Aztec, Islamic, Interfaith, and Zoroastrian.
Copyright © 1996 to 2004 by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance
Last update: 2004-NOV-12
Author: B.A. Robinson
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