[Kerrigan]

Ok, this is a thread about the calendars of different countries or different time periods.

I've always been curious, what calendar(s) did the people of Europe use before Christianity came along? For instance, how did the Romans, and other peoples like, say, Norsemen, keep track of the years?

Also, how do Islamic countries keep track of years? I know that places like Iran have different calendars from neighboring countries.

[bstone]

We Jews still use the Hebrew (Lunar) Calendar.

Friday night is our new year, Rosh HaShana. It's 5767!

[The Godfather]

Reason enough to burn my leftover fireworks

[Sayf-Allah]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

I've always been curious, what calendar(s) did the people of Europe use before Christianity came along? For instance, how did the Romans, and other peoples like, say, Norsemen, keep track of the years?

I'm kind of ashamed to admit this but I have no idea how we "vikings" kept track of time before Christianity arrived. I'll try to find it out tomorrow if no one has posted something about it by then.

Also, how do Islamic countries keep track of years? I know that places like Iran have different calendars from neighboring countries.

The Hijri calendar (Islamic calendar for you infidels ) It's a lunar calendar with 12 months consisting of 354 days. It's named after the first year in which the Hijra by Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) occured, that is his emigration from Mecca to Medina.

The months are called as follows:

1. Muharram ul Haram
2. Safar
3. Rabi' al-awwal
4. Rabi' al-akhir
5. Jumada al-awwal
6. Jumada al-akhir
7. Rajab
8. Sha'aban
9. Ramadan
10. Shawwal
11. Dhu al-Qi'dah
12. Dhu al-Hijjah

Today is 27/28th (depending on which calendar is used) of Shabaan the year 1427AH. (iirc)

[mitchell_pgh]

Our calendar has changed a number of times. It's interesting tracing it back through history.
- Gregorian calendar
- Julian Calendar
- Roman calendar
- Greek lunar calendar (Hellenic calendar[s])
- Egyptian Calendar

[Kerrigan]

Originally Posted by Sayf-Allah

Today is 27/28th (depending on which calendar is used) of Shabaan the year 1427AH. (iirc)

I understand Iran's calendar is currently in the 1380s, and that Afghanistan uses the same calendar. Is this correct?

I imagine this a Persian/Arab difference?

[monkeybrain]

In Taiwan they have the lunar calendar for religious festivals (and only celebrate lunar birthdays), and also a special Taiwan calendar that started when the country was founded, thus it is the year 95 now (this is mainly for official purposes and use-by-dates). For everything else they use the western calendar.

[turtle777]

The only non-Christian calendar I use is Outlook. At work.

-t

[yakkiebah]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

I understand Iran's calendar is currently in the 1380s, and that Afghanistan uses the same calendar. Is this correct?

I imagine this a Persian/Arab difference?

So it's true what they say about the muslim world still living in the middle ages. literally.

[Millennium]

Originally Posted by yakkiebah

So it's true what they say about the muslim world still living in the middle ages. literally.

I don't know about that, but back during the whole Y2K craze someone joked that if we converted to Islam we wouldn't have to worry about it for another 600 years. Technically, by the way, that's not the case: the bug commonly referred to as Y2K would have happened at the turn of any century. However, it would have bought us a few years, since the last two digits of the Islamic calendar are also out of sync with the Gregorian calendar.

Personally, I rather like the structure of the Thirteen Moon calendar. The mysticism they inject into it is a bit much, but the basic idea -thirteen months, all of which are exactly 28 days, plus New Years' Day- is certainly cleaner than the Gregorian mess. Not perfect, of course -there's still New Years' Day and leap years- but cleaner.

[Sky Captain]

The Mayan calendar ends in 2012.

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by Sky Captain

The Mayan calendar ends in 2012.

That's one limited calander. It's not like the world ends in 2012!

The Vikings [Norse] on the other hand didn't count the years at all. They counted the winters since their birth, the months of the year and the days of the week, but not any years 'since some event' and they weren't waiting for 'some other event'.

Live life today, that's their motto!

Their months were twelve and were divided into the winter months and the summer months:
(the names are ancient, and I can't translate them all)

Winter:

gormánuður,
ýlir, howler
mörsugur,
þorri,
góa,
einmánuður

Summer:

harpa,
skerpla,
sólmánuður, month of sun
heyannir, time of whey gathering
tvímánuður,
haustmánuður, month of harvesting

The special events were connected to the months:

- Day of bóndi (husband), being the first day of the month of þorri.
- Þorrablót, festival of winter, are celebrated in the month of þorri.
- Day of kona (wife), is the first day of the month of góa.
- Góugleði, a spring festival, is held in the month of góa.
- The first day of summer, is the first day of harpa.
- The first day of winter is the first day of gormánuður.

The months were split into weeks and each month starts on the same week-day. The Vikings counted the months in weeks, not days.

V

[Dakar]

Originally Posted by voodoo

That's one limited calander. It's not like the world ends in 2012!

Perhaps not, but I can't wait to see how many people nervously wait as the date of Mayan calendar's demise passes.

[brassplayersrock²]

^ what if it's off a day or two?

[Mithras]

Well, according the holy writ (i.e. Wikipedia), 2012 is just a "wrapping of the dials" like our year 2000. Apparently carvings exist that refer to dates well beyond 2012, like October 13, 4772. The real end of the calendar won't arrive for a long time yet.

[brassplayersrock²]

good find Mithras!

[subego]

I know the old Roman calendar was nodal. Days weren't numbered sequentially, you counted days before the next node inclusively. The Kalends (note the similarity to calendar) was the first of the month, the "Nones" was 5 or 7 days in depending, and the "Ides" was the middle of the month.

In March, "V Ides" would be the 11th, i.e. five days before the Ides, inclusive.

Apart from its needless complexity, by about 40 B.C. or so I think the whole thing was off by a couple of months, hence the need for Caesar to redo it.

[Eriamjh]

Lousy Smarch weather!