Alternative Calendars - Equity & Diversity
(from Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs 2004 calendar)
The Aboriginal Calendar
Traditionally, Aborigines throughout Australia have measured time according to a local calendar based on the passing of the seasons. Depending on the region of Australia, the major division is between the wet and dry seasons, or the hot and cold seasons. Each of these major divisions might be subdivided and named according to seasonal activities such as burning off, the collection of certain foods or climatic features.
In the Aboriginal calendar, religious ceremonies are not necessarily bound to the seasons or to a fixed time of a season. Some ceremonies, such as those to mark the passage of a human life or to control social behaviour through reinforcing religious law, are performed only when there is a need for them. Some religious ceremonies may, however, be conditional on the availability of a good supply of essential or preferred seasonal foods.
The Coptic Calendar
While the exact date of the origin of the Coptic calendar is unknown, it is considered to be the oldest in history and to have originated three millennia before Christ. It is believed that Imhotep, the supreme official of King Djoser (c.2670 BC) had a great impact on the construction of the calendar.
The Coptic calendar has 13 months, 12 of 30 days each and an intercalary month at the end of the year of 5 or 6 days depending on whether the year is a leap year or not. The year starts on 11 September in the Gregorian Calendar or on the 12th in the year before (Gregorian) Leap Years. The Coptic Leap Year follows the same rules as the Gregorian so that the extra month always has 6 days in the year before a Gregorian Leap Year.
The Gregorian and Julian Calendars
The Julian Calendar was based on the premise that the solar year lasted for exactly 365.24 days. In fact, the real year was eleven minutes and fourteen seconds shorter. As a result, the calendar year gradually drifted away from the seasons. By 1582 there was a discrepancy of ten days, making it very difficult for church authorities to set the date of Easter, which was a seasonal festival.
Pope Gregory XIII decided to solve the problem by making an adjustment to the calendar. He decreed that February would have 29 days in century years which could be divided by 400, but only 28 in other century years. In the meantime, an immediate correction was made by dropping ten days from the calendar commencing in October 1582.
The new version of the calendar, which came to be known as the Gregorian Calendar, was adopted almost immediately by the Roman Catholic countries of Europe. However, the Pope had no authority over the Eastern Orthodox Churches, most of which have continued to use the Julian Calendar - now thirteen days behind the Gregorian Calendar.
The Antiochian, Bulgarian and Greek Orthodox Churches use the Old Calendar to calculate Easter and the other moveable feasts, and the New Calendar for all the fixed religious feasts.
The Jewish Calendar
The Jewish calendar is lunar-solar. Most years consist of 354 days. There is provision for an extra month to be added at certain intervals to make up the 'slippage'. The years in the Jewish calendar are calculated from the Era of Creation (3760 BC); hence the current Jewish year can be calculated by adding 3760 to each Western (Gregorian) year. This year is 5764 in the Jewish calendar (2004 + 3760).
The Islamic Calendar
The Islamic calendar is purely lunar. It consists of twelve months of 29 or 30 days (rarely 28), making a year of 354 days. Unlike the Jewish calendar, it is not adjusted to bring it into line with the solar year; therefore each new year starts 10 or 11 days earlier than the preceding (solar) year. As a result, all dates fall at a different time each year compared with the Western (Gregorian) calendar.
Note: The Islamic feast days shown in the present calendar may vary by a day or so due to differing interpretations of when particular months commence (based on observations of the moon).
The Hindu Calendar
In the Hindu calendar, the solar year is divided into twelve lunar months which vary in length from 29 to 32 days. An intercalary month is inserted after every month in which two new moons occur - once in every three years - and takes the name of the month which precedes it.
The Bahá'í Calendar
The Bahá'í year 160 BE (Bahá'í Era) begins on 21 March 2004, according to the Gregorian calendar. The Bahá'í Era was inaugurated in 1844 with the declaration of the Báb, regarded by Bahá'ís as the messenger of God who proclaimed the closing of the age of prophecy and the opening of the age of fulfilment through the coming of Bahá'u'lláh, the Prophet of God for this age.
Bahá'ís follow a solar calendar containing 19 months of 19 days each. The required four days (five in leap years) to complete the 365 or 366 day solar year are called intercalary days and are added between the 18th and 19th months. Both months and days are given Arabic names for attributes of God.
On the first day of each month, the Bahá'í community gathers for a spiritual feast of fellowship, unity and peace. Work is suspended on 21 March (Bahá'í New Year), 23 May (Declaration of the Báb), 29 May (Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh), 9 July (Martyrdom of the Báb), 20 October (Birth of the Báb), and 12 November (Birth of Bahá'u'lláh).
The Jalali Calendar
The official calendar used in Iran, Afghanistan, Kurdish Mesopotamia and the surrounding Central Asian Republics is called the Jalali Calendar, so named by the Iranian poet/mathematician Omar Khayyam, who reworked it in the 12th century AD.
The length of the year is more or less the same in both the Jalali and Gregorian calendars, but the calendars differ in both structure and the way they deal with leap years. The Jalali calendar spans a cycle of four full seasons of the year and usually starts on 21 March, the first day of spring for the Northern Hemisphere. It has a regular (but not uniform) distribution of days per month. The first six months all have 31 days and the second six months all have 30 days, except in non-leap years, when the last month has 29 days.
The Jalali year begins at the vernal equinox - the point when the sun appears to cross the equator from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere as viewed from the centre of the earth. Then, for the purpose of the calendar, if the exact moment of the equinox is before midday Tehran time, the same day is regarded as the New Year's day (1st day of Farvardin); otherwise the New Year begins on the following day. The convention results in 8 leap years in every cycle of 33 years, or 97 leap years in every 400 years (as does the Gregorian calendar).
The Asian lunar Calendar
The dates of the Chinese and Vietnamese festivals are calculated according to the traditional Chinese calendar the yinyang li (lunarsolar calendar), which has a twelve month year based on the lunar cycle. The months are 29 or 30 days in length. Every thirty months an extra month is inserted to realign the calendar with the solar year.
The origins of what is sometimes called the Chinese Zodiac are in Chinese folklore. Each of the animals is the hero of an old legend and all are auspicious.
The Chinese New Year festival, known as Yuan Tan, is the most important festival in the Chinese year. It is celebrated not only in China itself but by Chinese communities all over the world. Because the coming of the New Year signifies the end of winter, the festival is also known as the Spring Festival.
"Tet" Vietnamese New Year (Tet Nguyen Dan) is regarded as one of the most important Vietnamese holidays. It is celebrated for three days, but often stretches to seven. Before celebrations begin, houses are cleaned and decorated with yellow Hoa Mai flowers. At midnight on New Year's Eve, traditional food and drink is consumed and families pray for good fortune in the coming year. Family members then wish each other good luck and hand out lucky money bags and gifts. The next day is spent visiting relatives. Deceased relatives are also remembered during Tet.
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