Calendar

One of the most fundamental Hindu
religious beliefs is that different times
carry different qualities. Whereas some
times are considered more auspicious
and propitious, others are more inauspicious and dangerous. These judgments
may either describe the general qualities
of specific times or determine the proper time for carrying out particular activities. Thus Hindus have given
considerable attention to organizing
time and predicting auspicious
moments. Many modern Hindus simultaneously use several different calendars, although they may use them for
different purposes. To begin with, everyday timekeeping is done with the
Gregorian calendar of the common era,
which may reflect the influence of the
British empire or, more simply, the influence of modern commerce and communications. It is notable that the only
holidays celebrated according to this
calendar are national holidays such as
Independence Day, Gandhi Jayanti,
and Republic Day—all of which are
fixed on particular days. Beyond this
there are many other methods of measuring time, some of which overlap with
each other and some of which are found
only in certain regions of the country.
Several of these systems are based on
the movement of the sun. The most
basic unit, of course, is the solar day,
which traditionally begins and ends not
by the clock but by the rising of the sun.
The week contains seven solar days. The
movement of the sun divides the year
into halves, with the uttarayana period
occurring when the sun is moving
northward and the dakshinayana period
taking place when the sun is moving
southward. There are also two separate
versions of the solar year, each of which
has twelve solar months. In northern
India these months correspond to the
twelve signs of the zodiac and mark the
sun’s passage through them. In southern
India one finds an identical calendar,
the Tamil solar year, in which the names
of the months are drawn from the
names of certain nakshatras, or signs of
the lunar zodiac.
Whereas the solar calendar is usually
used for astrological purposes, the lunar
calendar is important for religious life.
The lunar calendar is used to measure
the two eras still used for dating history:
the Vikram era (fifty-six or fifty-seven
years later than the common era) and
the Shaka era (seventy-eight years earlier
than the common era). The lunar year is
made up of twelve lunar months, each
of which has thirty lunar days. Since the
cycle of the moon is only about twentyeight solar days, a lunar day is slightly
shorter than a solar day. The lunar
month is divided into two halves of fifteen days each: the “dark” (krishna paksha) half, when the moon is waning and
that ends with the new moon; and the
“light” (shukla paksha) half when the
moon is waxing and that culminates in
the full moon. In northern India the
lunar month begins with the moon’s
dark half, and ends on the full moon,
whereas in the south the reverse is often
true. Since the solar year has about 365
days and the lunar year about 354, if left
uncorrected each lunar year would
begin eleven solar days earlier than the
previous one. To correct this discrepancy,
an intercalary month is added about
every two and a half years. This helps to
keep the lunar months falling at around
the same time every year, although the
celebration of a particular festival can
vary by several weeks from one year to
the next.
Almost all Hindu festivals are
celebrated according to the lunar
calendar. Some festivals’ celebrations
are associated with certain lunar days
and thus occur twenty-four times in a
twelve-month lunar year: The eleventh
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Calendar
day (ekadashi) of each half of the lunar
month is sacred to the god Vishnu; the
eighth day (ashtami) is devoted to the
Goddess, particularly in her form as
Durga; the evening of the thirteenth day
(trayodashi) and the fourteenth day
(chaturdashi) are sacred to the god
Shiva; and the fourth day (chaturthi) is
dedicated to the god Ganesh. The time
for celebrating annual religious festivals
is set according to the lunar month, the
half of the moon, and the particular
lunar day. For example, the god
Krishna’s birthday is celebrated on
Bhadrapada Krishna eight, the eighth
day of the dark (waning) half of the lunar
month of Bhadrapada. The birthdays of
many important historical religious figures such as Guru Nanak, the founder of
the Sikh community; the Buddha, and
the devotional poet-saints are also celebrated according to the lunar calendar.
These overlapping calendars mean
that any particular day can be designated by several different markers: the day
of the week and the day in the common
era (as in many societies), the day
according to the traditional solar calendar, and the day according to the lunar
calendar. Depending on the context—
business, astrological, or festival—any
one of these may be given preference.
See also auspiciousness, inauspiciousness, and Tamil months.