List of Calendars - Wikipedia
List of Calendars - Wikipedia
List of Calendars - Wikipedia
This is a list of calendars. Included are historical calendars as well as proposed ones. Historical calendars are
often grouped into larger categories by cultural sphere or historical period; thus O'Neil (1976) distinguishes the
groupings Egyptian calendars (Ancient Egypt), Babylonian calendars (Ancient Mesopotamia), Indian calendars
(Hindu and Buddhist traditions of the Indian subcontinent), Chinese calendars and Mesoamerican calendars.
These are not specific calendars but series of historical calendars undergoing reforms or regional
diversification.
In Classical Antiquity, the Hellenic calendars inspired the Roman calendar, including the solar Julian calendar
introduced in 45 BC. Many modern calendar proposals, including the Gregorian calendar introduced in 1582 AD,
contains modifications from that of the Julian calendar.
List of calendars
In the list below, specific calendars are given, listed by calendar type (solar, lunisolar or lunar), time of
introduction (if known), and the context of use and cultural or historical grouping (if applicable). Where
appropriate, the regional or historical group (Jewish calendar, Hijri calendar, Sikh, Mayan, Aztecan, Egyptian,
Mesopotamian, Iranian, Hindu, Buddhist, Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican, Hellenic, Julian or Gregorian-derived)
is noted.
Calendars fall into four types: lunisolar, solar, lunar and seasonal. Most pre-modern calendars are lunisolar. The
seasonal calendars rely on changes in the environment (e.g., "wet season", "dry season") rather than lunar or
solar observations. The Islamic and some Buddhist calendars are lunar, while most modern calendars are solar,
based on either the Julian or the Gregorian calendars.
Some calendars listed are identical to the Gregorian calendar except for substituting regional month names or
using a different calendar epoch. For example, the Thai solar calendar (introduced 1888) is the Gregorian
calendar using a different epoch (543 BC) and different names for the Gregorian months (Thai names based on
the signs of the zodiac).
Name Type Group Introduction Usage Comments
It is based on lunar
months with the
intercalation of an
additional month every 2
to 3 years to bring the
cycle closer to the solar
cycle. It is used to
determine the dates for
Hebrew/Jewish
lunisolar Canaan/Mesopotamian Circa 3761 BC Western World Jewish holidays and the
Calendar
appropriate public reading
of Torah portions,
yahrzeits (dates that
commemorate the death
of a relative), daily Psalm
readings, and many other
holidays, festivals and
ceremonial uses.
Recorded in Neo-Sumerian
Umma records (21st century BC),
lunisolar Mesopotamian Bronze Age Sumer/Mesopotamia
calendar presumably based on older
(Ur III) sources.
fixed (365
Xiuhpohualli Pre-Columbian (Aztec) Aztecs
days)
fixed (260
Tonalpohualli Pre-Columbian (Aztec) Aztecs
days)
Based on earlier
Old Persian 4th century
lunisolar(?) Iranian Persian Empire Babylonian/Mesopotamian
calendar BC(?)
models
Combination of the
Babylonian calendar,
Seleucid
lunisolar Hellenic/Babylonian 4th century BC Seleucid Empire ancient Macedonian
calendar
(Hellenic) month names
and the Seleucid era.
Ptolemaic solar Egyptian 238 BC Ptolemaic Egypt The Canopic reform of 238
calendar BC introduced the leap
year every fourth year later
adopted in the Julian
calendar. The reform
eventually went into effect
Name Type Group Introduction Usage Comments
with the introduction of the
"Alexandrian calendar" (or
Julian calendar) by
Augustus in 26/25 BC,
which included a 6th
epagomenal day for the
first time in 22 BC.
Description of a division of
the year into 364 days,
Qumran
fixed (364 Second Temple also mentioned in the
calendrical — c. 1st century
days) Judaism pseudepigraphical Book of
texts
Enoch (the "Enoch
calendar").
Chinese
First Chinese calendar to
Calendar, lunisolar Chinese 619 China
use the true moon motion
Wùyín origin
Based on the
observational lunisolar
Islamic calendars used in Pre-
calendar (Lunar lunar Muslim 632 Islam Islamic Arabia. Remains in
Hijri calendar) use for religious purposes
in most of the Islamic
world.
Name Type Group Introduction Usage Comments
Traditional calendar of
Southeast Asia, in use until
the 19th century.
mainland Southeast Traditionally said to
Pyu calendar lunisolar Hindu/Buddhist-derived 640
Asia originate in 640 (the
calendar era) in Sri Ksetra
Kingdom, one of the
Burmese Pyu city-states.
A reconstruction based on
a short 15th-century
transcript in Church
Bulgar calendar solar Bulgarian Bronze Age Volga Bulgaria Slavonic called Nominalia
of the Bulgarian Khans,
which contains 10 pairs of
calendar terms.
Kollam Era sidereal Hindu 825 Kerala It is believed that the era
solar was started by the Syrian
Christian saints Mar Sabor
and Mar Proth who arrived
in Kollam in the 9th
century CE. This event is
recorded in the Kollam
Tarisappalli copper plates
issued to them.[8][9][10] The
news of the physical
disappearance of Sri Adi
Shankaracharya in 820 CE
at Kedarnath reached the
Malabar coast only a few
years later. It is believed
that Kerala began the
Malayalam era in 825 CE in
his memory.[11][12][13]
According to Hermann
Gundert, Kollam era
started as part of erecting
a new Shiva Temple in
Kollam and because of the
strictly local and religious
background, the other
regions did not follow this
system at first. Once
Kollam port emerged as an
important trade center,
however, the other
principalities also started
following the new system
of calendar. This theory
backs the remarks of Ibn
Battuta as well.[8][14] The
Kollam era may also be
attributed to the legend of
Name Type Group Introduction Usage Comments
Paraśurāma, an
incarnation of Vishnu. It is
sometimes divided into
cycles of 1,000 years
reckoned from 1176 BCE.
Thus, 825 CE would have
been the first year of the
era's third millennium.[15]
A lunisolar Buddhist
calendar traditional to
Nepal Sambat lunisolar Buddhist/ Hindu 9th century Nepal
Nepal, recognition in Nepal
in 2008.
Bengali
lunisolar Bengali Medieval Bengal Revised in 1987.
calendar
Thai lunar
lunisolar Hindu/Buddhist Medieval Thailand A Buddhist calendar
calendar
A calendar reform
Jalali calendar solar Iranian 1079 Seljuk Sultanate commissioned by Sultan
Jalal al-Din Malik Shah I
Recorded by Maimonides
in the Mishneh Torah,
resulting from various
reforms and traditions
Hebrew Babylonian/Seleucid- 11th/12th developing since Late
lunisolar Judaism
calendar derived century Antiquity. The Anno Mundi
era gradually replaced the
Seleucid era in Rabbinical
literature in the 11th
century.
A written representation of
the Metonic cycle used in
medieval and early modern
Sweden, allowing to
calculate the dates of the
full moons relative to the
Runic calendar solar Julian 13th century Sweden
Julian date. The
introduction of the
Gregorian calendar in
Sweden in 1753 rendered
the runic calendars
unusable.
Six Imperial
solar Chinese Ming dynasty China In use 1368-1644
Calendars (ß)
Complex lunisolar
calendar with three
different years, composed
of months divided into
thirty days. After the
Muisca Spanish conquest of the
lunisolar Pre-Columbian 15th century Muisca
calendar Muisca Confederation in
present-day central
Colombia in 1537 first
replaced by the European
Julian and as of 1582 the
Gregorian calendar.
Introduced as a reform of
the Julian calendar in the
Gregorian
solar Julian-derived 1582 worldwide Roman Catholic church,
calendar
since the 20th century in
de facto use worldwide.
French
In use in revolutionary
Republican solar Gregorian 1793 First French Republic
France 1793 to 1805.
Calendar
Universal Georgian
Pancronometer solar Gregorian 1745 — Calendar proposed by
Hugh Jones
currently synchronized
with the Gregorian
calendar, but different leap
rule and cycle (900 years),
Revised Julian some Orthodox also called Meletian
solar Julian-derived 1923
calendar churches calendar or Milanković
calendar, after Serbian
scientist Milutin
Milanković who developed
it.
Indian national solar Gregorian-derived 1957 Republic of India Gregorian calendar with
calendar months based in
Name Type Group Introduction Usage Comments
traditional Hindu calendars
and numbering years
based on the Saka era
(AD 78).
13 months of 28 days
each, synchronized with
Dreamspell solar Mayan 1990 esotericism the Maya 260-day Tzolkin,
calibrated to the Chilam
Balam timing systems
Modification of the
International Fixed
Tranquility
solar Gregorian 1989 — Calendar, starting with
Calendar
Apollo 11 Moon landing on
20 July 1969[16]
Germanic Medieval records of Germanic names of lunar months later equated with
Germanic
calendar the Julian months.
Lithuanian Lithuanian names for the Gregorian months and days of the week, officially
Lithuania
calendar recognized in 1918.
Rapa Nui
Easter Islands Thirteen names of lunar months recorded in the 19th century.
calendar
Xhosa
Xhosa people
calendar
Hellenic Hellenistic A great variety of regional month names in Ancient Greece, mostly attested
calendars Greece in the 2nd century BC.
Romanian Romania and Traditional names for the twelve months of the Gregorian calendar, which
calendar Moldova are usually used by the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Non-standard weeks
week
Tradition comments
length
Bali various
The traditional Igbo week consists of four market days: eke, orie, afor, and
Igbo 4 days
nkwo.
For traditional markets in Korea, for example, the market is open every five
Korea 5 days
days.
Discordian 5 days
Burmese 8 days
Chinese 10 days
Egyptian Calendar 10 days The 10-day period was known as decans or decades
French Republican
10 days
Calendar
See also
History of calendars
Epoch
Horology
Perpetual calendar
Liturgical year
Calendar of saints
Advent calendar
Wall calendar
Geologic Calendar
Cosmic Calendar
Lunar calendar
World calendar
References
Sources