One thing to notice....
Hindu Festival - Diwali:
2008 : October 28
2009 : October 17
2010 : November 5
2011 : October 26
Observation : Diwali always occurs in the month of October or November
Islam Festival - Ramadan:
2007: 12/13 Sep to 12 Oct.
2008: 1/2 Sep to 1 Oct.
2009: 21/22 Aug to 20 Sep.
2010: 10/11 Aug to 9 Sep.
Observation : Ramadan season has a 11-day difference every year.
Question:
Why these dates are not consistent every year. And why there is no uniformity in this inconsistency among Hindu and Islam Calendars..
Reason:
There are two calendars which we follow: Solar Calendar and Lunar Calendar.
A solar calendar is based on the the position of the earth on its revolution around the sun. While, a Lunar Calendar is based on the cycles of the moon around the Earth. In simple terms, the English calendar which comprises of twelve months and 365.25 days is Solar Calendar.
Our Indian calendar whether it is Islam one or Hindu one, is based on a lunar calendar. A lunar month is 29.5 days long. Thus, a lunar year consists of 354 solar days and of-course, a solar year consists of 365 days. Hence, we can see that, each lunar month starts earlier to the corresponding solar month. There is a difference of eleven days between the lunar and solar year.
For every two or three solar years, this difference between the two calendars sums up to a full month. Hindu calendar compensates this to get the two calendars similar by adding an extra month., while the Islam calendar doesn't do that.
This compensation in-order to get an extra month is termed as 'Adhika Masa' (Extra Month) which occurs almost for every two years. It must be noted here that there is no Adhika Masam in the calendars followed in Assam, Bengal, Kerala, Orissa and Tamil Nadu as it is based on Solar Calendar.
Concern:
From 2017 to 2020, our Muslim friends have to do their fast in the Summer season as Ramadan falls during the months of May - April - March., which will be a tough task (as far as I see) as it will be a hot summer ..
Hindu Festival - Diwali:
2008 : October 28
2009 : October 17
2010 : November 5
2011 : October 26
Observation : Diwali always occurs in the month of October or November
Islam Festival - Ramadan:
2007: 12/13 Sep to 12 Oct.
2008: 1/2 Sep to 1 Oct.
2009: 21/22 Aug to 20 Sep.
2010: 10/11 Aug to 9 Sep.
Observation : Ramadan season has a 11-day difference every year.
Question:
Why these dates are not consistent every year. And why there is no uniformity in this inconsistency among Hindu and Islam Calendars..
Reason:
There are two calendars which we follow: Solar Calendar and Lunar Calendar.
A solar calendar is based on the the position of the earth on its revolution around the sun. While, a Lunar Calendar is based on the cycles of the moon around the Earth. In simple terms, the English calendar which comprises of twelve months and 365.25 days is Solar Calendar.
Our Indian calendar whether it is Islam one or Hindu one, is based on a lunar calendar. A lunar month is 29.5 days long. Thus, a lunar year consists of 354 solar days and of-course, a solar year consists of 365 days. Hence, we can see that, each lunar month starts earlier to the corresponding solar month. There is a difference of eleven days between the lunar and solar year.
For every two or three solar years, this difference between the two calendars sums up to a full month. Hindu calendar compensates this to get the two calendars similar by adding an extra month., while the Islam calendar doesn't do that.
This compensation in-order to get an extra month is termed as 'Adhika Masa' (Extra Month) which occurs almost for every two years. It must be noted here that there is no Adhika Masam in the calendars followed in Assam, Bengal, Kerala, Orissa and Tamil Nadu as it is based on Solar Calendar.
Concern:
From 2017 to 2020, our Muslim friends have to do their fast in the Summer season as Ramadan falls during the months of May - April - March., which will be a tough task (as far as I see) as it will be a hot summer ..
Hi Badri Can you explain the difference between Tamil and Telugu calendars; The difference in the day Ugadi and tamil new year is celebrated and also .. if tamilians follow solar calendar why is their new year (tamil ugadi) also inconsistent
ReplyDeleteHello Bindu,
ReplyDeleteTamil Calendar is Solar based. If you notice.. Tamil New year always falls on either 13th or 14th of April. it is the first day of their year.. their festivals (say Diwali) and Lunar festivals always coincide.. but, the Sanskrit (lunar) months would start one month ahead of Tamil months.. for example.. our Shravana masa is their Aashada masa (they call it 'Aadi') and based on the position of Sun.. they decide these months.. like some months have 32 days while some have 29 days... so again, if we see... a total of 11 days gap is covered uniformly...and towards the end of their year, April 14 will be the first day again.. for us it is not the case.. every month has 29 days based on moon.. and the 11 months of this year and 11 months of next year we add together and compensate to form an additional month.
Hope you got me :-)
Thanks Badri for the 11days concept.
ReplyDeleteI was really unaware of it.
Yes Maruthi... we really don't know the reason behind such things... we simply follow the rules laid down by our elders like that :)
ReplyDelete