Why Do Some Countries Use Different Calendars?

▶ 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

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[General.Knowledge]

*Are there any other interesting calendars I didn't mention?*

[BBand]

These lunar calendars are pretty popular in places where it's always hot. You don't really need to keep track of the seasons in a repeating pattern if winter never happens.

[Tathagatchat]

You mentioned initially Diwali as new year - but it is more or less the day traders in North & Western part of India change their ledgers. As you mentioned later, Saka calendar has new year in March. There are some other calendars used across India as well - but most harvest festivals fall on similar dates (for obvious reasons)..

[bapparawal]

In India - apart from Indian national calender based on Shaka Samvat we have Vikram Samvat CURRENT YEAR- 2079.
Our NEW YEAR starts around April from UGADI FESTIVAL
Also Indian calenders don't have exact mapping to Gregorian calender. Dates keep changing every year

[Urfavigbo]

I’m so happy you mentioned the Igbo calendar. Many creators don’t mention native African calendars except the Ethiopian calendar. The calendar begins from the year of Nri which if I’m not mistaken is 900AD on the Gregorian calendar. There are four market days: Eke, Orie, Afro, Nkwo.

[danielmalinen]

Some time ago, the Finnic peoples used a calendar system whose time calculation was tied to and based on the cycle of nature. For example, the year changed at the end of the harvest season and winter began when snow fell on the ground and summer began when the snow melted and etc. There are still signs of that agriculture-centered system in Finnic tradition and culture, even though the Gregorian calendar is used in Finland and Estonia today.

[Moroccan_Dude]

We have 3 calendars here in Morocco 🇲🇦 The amazigh (2973) The gregorian (2023) and The Lunar/Islamic (1444)

[josueveguilla]

Fun Fact: June was named after Juno (Hera's Latin name), goddess of marriage, pregnancies, etc.

[thboy]

Many countries with Buddhist majority also have the Buddhist Calendar with the different beginnings of the Era. Some countries like Myanmar and Sri Lanka regard the Nirvana of Lord Buddha as the beginning of the Buddhist Calendar which is more 544 years than the Gregorian Calendar. In this case, year 2023 is 2567 BE. Some countries like Thailand, Laos and Cambodia regard that the Buddhist Calendar began 1 year after the Nirvana of Lord Buddha. In this case, the Buddhist Calendar is more 543 years than the Gregorian Calendar, so the year 2023 is 2566 BE. Today, many countries use the Gregorian Calendar as the official calendar and use the Buddhist Calendar for the Buddhist religious purposes. In some countries like Myanmar ans Sri Lanka, the new Buddhist Calendar year begins on the Vesak Day. Only Thailand still uses the Buddhist Calendar as the official calendar. Thailand also has many calendars, such as Rattanakosin Era which began with the establishment of Rattanakosin Kingdom with Bangkok as the capital in 1782 (2325 BE). Year 2023 is 241 RE. Thailand also have the Lunar Calendar which is now being used mostly for religious and astrological purposes.

[walangchayelingden]

A few calendars from Nepal. 🇳🇵
*(Bikram Sambat) 2079 B.S.
*(Kirat year) 5082 Yele Tangbe/Dong/Thoche.
*(Newa year) 1142 Nepala Sambat.

[grizwoldphantasia]

The Japanese also use an era calendar, generally named for the emperor, and starting with year 1. Thus Showa 1 was 1926 when the Emperor known as Hirohito was enthroned; I remember it as just adding or subtracting 1925. Some emperors also would come up with a new era name after a string of calamities, such as famine or earthquakes. The details of choosing it over the Gregorian are beyond my experience.

[tranchedecake]

8:19 That makes me think of the romanian system, there is the gregorian for civil stuff, then for religion there's the orthodox one (like Easter & other holidays are generally 1 week behind the catholic one), and finally, there is a traditional calendar that is no longer much used, with the same months but they have different names
( *and I love this one, because for example July is called "Furnace", "Cuptor" in Romanian because it is hot* 😂😂)

Actually the 3 calendars have the same dates, it's just the celebrations & names that change.

PS: In Romanian a month is litterally called a "moon", "lună", even tho all 3 calendars are solar.

[callmereiki]

1. byzantine calendar is still used in east orthodox churches, here in Romania we celebrate every new religious year on the first of September, even tho recently its more of a formal event
2. Julian Calendar is still used in Moldova and i believe Russia, Ukraine and a lot of est slavic nations, for instance they celebrate Christmas 2 weeks after the Gregorian Calendar

[Zappy_]

I am from Australia and it is actually 2 am Dec 31 when this came out for me. Great idea for a video btw! Loved it!❤

[bruhsam]

Actually the Indian national calender is not the only local calender used by Indians. Different states have different customs. Like the Bengali calender which is also used in Bangladesh is also used in India by Indian Bengalis with some minor differences like how they have 14th April as the new year and us Indians as 15th. There is also a Marathi calender which begins on a new year of gudi padwa, to be occurring this year on 13th April and many more calenders for different states. calenders

[alexanderkelsey]

The Maya/Aztec calendar is particularly fun because the 260 year cycle means it’s never remotely in sync with solar calendars. It also means you “age” faster because birthdays occur more often. It has a “zodiac” of 20 animals/natural forces that takes 20 days to cycle through, plus a number for each day that resets after 13. My birthday in this system for example is Two-Dog. There are exactly 260 combinations of numbers and symbols because the two cycles won’t arrive at the same combo until 260 days later.

[Arnol]

The Julian calendar is still used in the Orthodox church countries for religious purposes (Easter calculation) with the small exception that the majority of Greeks, Romanians, Bulgarians celebrate Christmas on December 25th instead of Jan 7th.

[Shi_Donglai]

Taiwan (formally ROC) is also officially using a different numbering for the years, the year 1 being the foundation year of the Republic of China in 1912. So 2023 would be Republic Year 111. This number is used in school for exam years, on government documents and IDs, and other official circumstances

[johanconrad]

Thank you for a very fine introduction to the different calendar systems. I work with the very niche topic of holidays in terms of laytime computing. While ceremonial calendars are fundamental in this context, laytime holidays are arbitrary constructions, which may easily be fully detached from our perception of events.

Your videos are always of top quality

[RayQiaoTW]

Here in Taiwan, we use a another calendar in addition to the Gregorian. It’s called the Minguo Calendar, and numbers the years starting from the founding of our country. Right now it’s year 112.