In the name of Allah, Most Beneficent, Most Merciful

by S. Khalid Shaukat

Ancient Calendars: All ancient calendars were lunar calendars. The practice of starting a month at the first sighting of a new moon was observed not only by Romans but by Celts and Germans in Europe and by Babylonians and Hebrews in the Lavant. The new moons were sighted after either 29 or 30 days. If clouds obscured vision on the 29th day, that month was declared to have 30 days. This is still done for the Islamic Calendar.

When human civilization excelled in agriculture, there was a need for having a calendar that repeats the seasons so that it would help sowing and harvesting on repeated calendar dates. This calendar was established based on rotation of the earth around the sun. Early estimates of this rotation was 360 days, so the first solar calendar was invented having 12 months of 30 days each. Some civilizations invented a lunisolar calendar which basically had lunar months based on new crescent moons but were adding days or a month to be decided by priests/rabiis wherever and whenever they felt to satisfy social and religious needs to keep their calendar in phase with seasons. This practice of adding days or a 13th month was called "Intercalation".

Babylonian Calendar: Around 1800 B.C. Babylonians were using strictly lunar calendar based on the visible new crescent but somewhere between 1100 B.C and 800 B.C. a lunisolar calendar was adopted using intercalation which was haphazard. Some sources report that during the reign of the Babylonian king Nebuchadenezzar II (630 B.C. - 562 B.C.) priest/experts discontinued their practice of looking for the new moon and adopted a 365 day calendar of 12 months of 30 days each, with five days added at the end of the year.

Hindu Calendar: Hindus have both solar and lunisolar calendars. In the Hindu solar calendar month is 30 or 31 days and begins on the day of first sunrise after the calculated time of the mean sun's entry into the next zodiacal sign. If the calculated time is after midnight but before (or at) sunrise, then the day of entry is the first day of the new month; otherwise it is the last day of the previous month. In the Hindu lunisolar system months follow the lunar cycle and are synchronized with the solar year by introducing occasional leap months. In south-India months begin at new moon while in north-India months begin at full moon.

Chinese Calendar: Chinese also started using a lunisolar calendar with months beginning on the day of the new moon. Years contain 12 or 13 such months , with the number of months determined by the number of new moons between successive winter solstices. There have been more than 50 calendar reforms since its inception in the 14th century B.C.

Egyptian Calendar: In order to device a solar calendar in ancient times experts observed that Sirius, brightest of all the fixed stars, appeared in summer, rising above horizon just before sunrise. They also noticed that Sirius would return to its position after 365 days. Thus, Egyptians deviced a solar calendar built around 365 days. They gave up their practice of looking for the new moon in favor of the solar calendar.

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