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Why Do Some Countries Use Different Calendars?
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Mar 31, 2025
In this video I talk about the different calendars that exist throughout the world. I explain how, in general, calendars are categorized as either being Solar, Lunar, or Lunisolar; with the first being related to the position of the sun, the second related to the position of the moon, and the third related to both. I list some of the more well known calendars in each of these categories - such as the Chinese calendar, the Hebrew, the Islamic, or the Indian National Calendar - explaining in which circumstances they are used and understanding how most of the world, save a few exceptions, has adopted the Gregorian Calendar as its main civil calendar, using local ones for cultural and religious purposes only. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Intro 01:40 The Different Types of Calendars (Solar, Lunar, Lunisolar) 03:13 Features of Lunar Calendars 04:01 The Global Adoption of the Gregorian Calendar 04:57 Historical Examples of Solar Calendars 06:01 Current Solar Calendars 06:46 Ethiopian Calendar 07:41 Current Lunar Calendars 07:44 Islamic Calendar 08:26 Chinese Calendar 09:43 Other Civil Calendars other than the Gregorian 10:10 Indian National Calendar 10:45 Hebrew Calendar 12:31 Summary Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GKonYoutube
View Video Transcript
0:00
Calendars. Today, when I'm uploading this video, it is the 30th of December of the year 2022. Well
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at least in the calendar that I use. The odds are that you, watching this video, also use it
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and that the date is exactly the same for you. Well, you're likely not watching it on the day
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of the upload itself, but you know what I mean. However, for some people throughout the world
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days, months, and even years are different than for most. Last year, around this time
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I made a video about how each month of the Gregorian calendar got its name. You can check
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the description for the link to it. And we get to learn how August was named after Augustus
0:36
the Roman emperor, how October was named after being the eighth month when the Roman calendar
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only had 10 months, among other names. But these months and their names are only valid for the
0:46
Julian and then the Gregorian calendars. And other calendars throughout the world use a different
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amount of months, as well as different names for each of them. For instance, the upload date
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year of this video is also 2022, but for some people it might be the year 2015. Now obviously
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these people aren't in some other dimension where time moves slower, neither did they travel back in
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time, and these differences are simply due to the fact that time is organized differently depending
1:13
on where you are in the world, which is why the day, month, or even the year might vary. The year
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issue is simple, the Gregorian calendar dates our current age to the birth of Jesus Christ, any other
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cultures that don't will have a different year as the origin point for their calendar. In this video
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we're going to quickly learn about which different calendars exist, why and how they are different
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and by which countries and in which ways they are used. First, let's define the different types of calendars that exist. Calendars are usually
1:45
one of three types, solar, lunar, or lunisolar. The names are somewhat self-explanatory. Solar
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calendars are calendars whose dates indicate the apparent position of the sun relative to the stars
1:57
The Egyptians appear to have been the first to develop a solar calendar, using it as a fixed
2:01
point for the annual sunrise reappearance of the dark star Sirius or Sotis in the eastern sky
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which coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile River. They constructed a calendar of 365 days
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consisting of 12 months of 30 days each, with 5 days added at the year's end
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It was tremendously similar to the calendar we use today. The global Gregorian calendar, successor to the Julian
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introduced by the Romans which divides the year into 12 months, some with 30 days and others with 31
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Another type of calendar is a lunar calendar, whose months correspond to the cycles of the moon phases instead
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The Islamic calendar is for instance a lunar calendar and the Maori calendar as well
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But there are very few calendars worldwide, especially in modern times, that are exclusively lunar, most of the ones that aren't exclusively solar are lunisolar
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which is the third category of calendars, precisely a mix of the two. The biggest examples of which
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are the Chinese calendar, the Hebrew calendar, or the Hindu calendar. Their dates indicate both the
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moon phase and the time of the solar year that is the position of the sun in the earth sky As with all calendars they divide the year into months but they have an additional requirement Ordinary years consist of 12 months but every second or third year is what they called an embolismic year which adds a 13th month
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The logic is kind of the same as regular calendars having a leap year where you have an extra day
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except they have an extra month. They also differ between themselves in some details
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and while they take the moon phases into consideration, they also differ as to which
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day is the first day of the month. For the Chinese, a month begins with the new moon
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for some Hindu calendars, it begins with the day after the full moon, and some begin with the first sighting of a lunar crescent. But these details aren't really
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relevant right now, they just serve to show you why calendars differ and why many exist
4:00
even within the same type. It's important to note though that almost every country in the world
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has legally adopted and accepted the Gregorian calendar for convenience sake. A globalized world
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kind of required everyone to be on the same date. I think worldwide, only Afghanistan, Iran
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Ethiopia, and Nepal haven't legally accepted it. But a lot of other places throughout the world
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continue to use their lunar or lunisolar calendars simultaneously to determine religious
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festivals and national holidays, like the Rosh Hashanah from the Hebrew calendar
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the Chinese New Year, Buddha's Birthday, Diwali in the Hindu calendar, Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha in the Islamic calendar, among others
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So now that we've understood which types of calendars exist, let's take a look at specific ways in which they differ
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We already saw the lunar and lunisolar calendars differ between them depending on which phase of the moon they choose to start their months
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When it comes to solar calendars, there is a very large number of them throughout history, roughly around 40
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The vast majority of them have fallen out of use, or like I mentioned before
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they're used simultaneously with the Gregorian calendar just for religious purposes. An example of a no longer used calendar is the Byzantine calendar used by the Byzantine Empire from 988 to 1453
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Its year started on the 1st of September, for instance. Or the Bulgar calendar used by the First Bulgar Empire, which actually had a similarity with the current Chinese calendar
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It used a 12-year cycle that then repeated itself, and each year of each cycle was named after different animals
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After the French Revolution, they also tried to implement a new calendar beginning on year 1 with the revolution as the starting point
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This ended with the coronation of Napoleon. and the most famous no longer used solar calendar was the Julian calendar of the Roman Empire
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which eventually became the Gregorian we have today. After slight adjustments were made to it
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the Julian calendar was 13 days behind the current Gregorian calendar. So besides this calendar we all know today, which other solar calendars are still used in modern
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times? The Berber calendar is still used by some people in North Africa. They are Arabic. However
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However, their lunar Islamic calendar is not suitable for agriculture because it doesn't
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relate to seasonal cycles, so they started using this one, which is ultimately a derivation
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from the Julian calendar. The Coptic calendar is also still used by some
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It was actually official in Egypt until 1875 being based on the ancient Egyptian calendar It has 13 months 12 of 30 days each and one at the end of the year with 5 days or 6 in leap years
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Their celebration of Christmas, for instance, takes place only on the 7th of January of our
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calendar. This one is used by the Coptic Orthodox Church. One of the most well-known solar calendars
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still used today is also the Ethiopian calendar, which has 12 months of 30 days, plus 5 or 6
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epigominal days, which also make a 13-month, and their years begin on the 11th of September of our
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calendar. In addition, they are seven years behind. According to a BBC article, this is because they
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calculate the birth year of Jesus Christ differently. In opposition, the Thai solar calendar, adopted by
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King Rama V in 1888, as the Siamese version of the Gregorian calendar, is 543 years ahead, because
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they date back the first year to the birth of Buddha instead of Jesus. Also, in Iran
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they use their own calendar with a 33-year cycle and they are currently in the year 1401. It
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specifies the origin of the calendar to be the journey of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in the
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Gregorian year of 622. Similar examples exist with lunar calendars. The Islamic calendar itself is in
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the year 1444, they have 12 lunar months and are used in most Muslim countries to determine
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religious holidays and rituals, while the Gregorian calendar is used for civil purposes
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They also only have 354 days per year. In Nigeria, the native Igbo people traditionally use their
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own calendar with 13 months a year, 7 weeks per month, and 4 days per week. The Javanese people
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in Indonesia use three calendars, the Gregorian for civil purposes, the Islamic for Muslim holidays
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and then their own as well. The time in which they begin counting is also different. For instance
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2011 for us was 1944 for them. And finally, the most well-known calendars used in parallel
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with the Gregorian calendar are many of the lunisolar ones. The Chinese is probably the
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best known used for traditional Chinese holidays, such as their New Year and the Lantern Festival
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It also provides the traditional Chinese nomenclature of dates within a year, which people use to select lucky days for weddings, funerals, moving or starting a business
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Days begin and end at midnight like us, and months begin on the day of the new moon
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Years start on the second or third new moon after the winter solstice
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The length of a month is also annotated as either just being long or short for 30 or 29 days respectively
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Their years are organized in cycles of 12, I believe corresponding to their zodiac signs
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Each of the 12 years has an animal associated with it. These animals are the dog, the pig
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rat, ox, tiger, the year for 2022, rabbit, the year for 2023, dragon, snake, horse, goat
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monkey, and rooster. The year cycle, so if 2022 was the year of the tiger, then it will be again
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in 2034. There's also historical examples of widely used lunisolar calendars that fell out of
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use in modern times like the Babylonian calendar but I not getting into those here Some countries 18 to be precise also use their own civil calendars simultaneously with the Gregorian one Algeria Bangladesh Egypt India Iraq Israel Jordan
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Libya and Mauritania, Morocco, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. We can't go into all of them so let's look at two to understand
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some of the differences. First, the Indian National Calendar. This is a solar calendar
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I believe it's also called Shaka Samvat, and it is 78 years behind the Gregorian calendar
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They have 12 months, which also follow the signs of the tropical zodiac, and their weeks also have
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seven days. Each are named after a celestial body. Starting on Sunday, it goes Sun, Moon, Mars
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Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. It seems all calendars end up being very similar in days
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and months for each year, just desynchronized from each regarding when each month starts
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And also the Hebrew calendar used in Israel, it's a lunisolar one, currently in the year
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5782, used for religious purposes for Jewish people worldwide, but also the official calendar
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of the state of Israel. It apparently also provides timeframes for agriculture, as that
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may have been one of the purposes for which it was created. Its year is about 11 days shorter
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than the solar year and it uses the 19-year metonic cycle to bring it into line with the
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solar year with the addition of an intercalary month every two or three years. Even with this
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intercalation, the average Hebrew calendar year is longer by about 6 minutes and 40 seconds than
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the current tropical year, so every 216 years they fall a day behind. The era used for the
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calendar since the Middle Ages is Anomundi, meaning from the creation of the world. The epoch
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or origin point of this era is the movement when, according to the Genesis creation narrative
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the world was created. Like I mentioned, while the Gregorian calendar uses Jesus' birth as the
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origin, the Hebrew use the date they believe the world was created, just like other religious
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calendars use other landmarks of their own. In addition, throughout history and throughout the
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world, there have been many different calendars by different civilizations. The most well-known
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outside the solar lunar reality is probably the Mayan calendar with a 260-day count and various
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cycles and sequences being much harder to comprehend than the ones we have today. But then again
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that might be one of the reasons, among various others, that these old calendars fell into this
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use and the Julian and then Gregorian calendar became common worldwide. With the old, local
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calendars simply being used for religious or ceremonial aspects, save a few exceptions
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So, that is a quick overview of the types of calendars that exist, how they differ
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and who uses them. I didn't get into the history and origin of each of them
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or many specific cases. That would take a longer video, but let me know in the comments if you're
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interested in a video about a specific calendar more in-depth, like how the Chinese calendar works
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or why did we switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar? Thanks so much for watching
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this video, subscribe if you want, and I will see you next time for more general knowledge
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