By Emmanuel Gandu
INTRODUCTION
Man welcomes the advent, the arrival, and the beginning of a new year in spectacular ways.
The celebration, fanfare, ecstacy, fireworks, and the religious/cultural attachment to the dawn of a first day in a new year is such a frenzy across religious, national, international, and cultural borders that makes the entire world a beautiful global village.
Peoples of the world, their cultures, religious and spiritual leanings, temporal, corporate and contemporary interpretation of situations, etc are all a mixed grill of undertakings that makes life worthy of living out to the best and fullest.
Calendars, therefore, makes it convenient for years, months, weeks, and days to be observed for the purposes of doing every kind of activities or business with ease for humanity.
This discourse is an attempt to highlight the place of time, dates, seasons, and events as man struggles to place himself within the context of a universal entity.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Ancient human civilizations had invented and utilized some form of occurrence of events observed as essential tools for the reckoning of time and periodic occurrences for event planning and scheduling.
They made use of the solar and lunar phenomena to organize their time, days, months, seasons, and years to align with their cultural, civic, and religious activities.
Modern civilization has found yearly calendars as useful tools for staying organized, coherent, and keeping track of, and planning important strategic events, activities, and appointments.
This ensures that events are not only planned ahead but on schedule, as well as helpful in reviewing such past events for a better future.
ADVANTAGES OF CALENDARS
Calendars help man to structure his time, allowing him to plan according to the changing seasons. Cultural and religious observances like festivals, rituals, and holidays. Calendars allow for synchronization of activities between people and organisations, facilitates communication and collaboration between communities, faiths, regions, countries and across borders.
Calendars allow for astronomical (astronomy) planning such as the seasonal cycles of weather, lunar and solar phenomena in order to understand and predict natural events.
Overall, calendars are essential tools for managing time, coordinating domestic, national, social, business/marketing, educational, religious, and understanding the environment.
Interestingly, the Gregorian calendar which is a modification of the Julian calendar of Julius Caeser which used a 365 and 1/2 day year with 12 months that came to have the number of days we know today is the one used almost universally today.
MAJOR WORLD CALENDARS
Among the major calendars in the world are the following :
1. Julian calendar
2. Gregorian calendar
3. Islamic calendar
4. Buddhist calendar
5. Chinese calendar
6. Ethiopian calendar
7. Hebrew calendar
8. Hindu calendar
9. Igbo calendar.
This presentation is an attempt to focus on the principles, objectives, and functions of calendars in our world, using the Gregorian, Islamic, and Igbo calendars as references to a phenomenon that brings humanity together.
GREGORIAN CALENDAR
In the year 46 BC (Before Christ), the Julian calendar was proposed by Julius Caeser of the Roman Empire as a reform of the earlier Roman calendar.
This new reformed Julian calendar was effective in 45 BC, becoming the prominent calendar in the Roman Empire and the Western World for more than 1,600 years.
The Julian calendar is still in use in parts of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental church as well as by the Berbers.
It was not until 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII promulgated some changes in the Julian calendar which eventually became known as the Gregorian Calendar.
The Gregorian calendar is named after Pope Gregory XIII who introduced it in October 1582.
It is made of 12 months (January to December) of 28 – 31 days in a month, with one day added to February after every 4 years thereby making that year a leap year.
A calendar date is specified by the year, then numbered according to the era, ie either BC = Before Christ, or AD = Anno Domini (Latin).
The Gregorian calendar was initially adapted by the Catholic countries of Europe in 1582, followed by the Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Church/countries over the next 3 centuries.
The Gregorian calendar is the main official calendar widely used by majority of countries in the world.
Egypt adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1875, China in 1912, Russia in 1918, Greece in 1923, and Turkey adopted in 1926.
The current date of the Gregorian calendar is 2025 AD – 1st January 2025.
This day is marked and celebrated as the new year day by all the countries of world that have adopted the Gregorian calendar in the running of their affairs. Nigeria is one.
ISLAMIC CALENDAR
The Islamic calendar also called the Muslim or Hijri calendar is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 months in a year of 354 or 355 days.
The beginning of each month is contingent on the visibility of the moon at the end of the previous month. Once the moon is sighted, the new month commences. Each month starts with a new lunar cycle. Hence the Muslim calendar gives only a tentative dates as the start of each month is subject to sighting of the moon.
The Islamic calendar is used in Muslim countries, and by Muslims to determine the proper days of Islamic functions, holidays, observance of prayer, period of fasting, rituals, rites, tenets and the proper time for the pilgrimage to Mecca.
All religious duties and obligations such as prayer, fasting in the month of Ramadan, and pilgrimage are guided by this calendar. In addition, dates of significant events such as celebration of Holy nights and festivals are calculated according to the Islamic calendar.
The Islamic New Year starts on the 1st of Muharam, which is the first month in the Islamic calendar.
Therefore, the date of 1st Muharam may differ by locality, according to local tradition, time zone, and atmospheric conditions that may affect the sighting of the moon.
The Islamic calendar employ the Hijri era where the Prophet Muhammed and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina and established the first Muslim community.
The Islamic calendar denotes the date followed by AH = in the year of the Hijri, or BH = Before the Hijri.
The Islamic New Year starts off with the month of Muharram, followed by Safar, up to Shaban the 8th month, Ramadan the 9th month, Shawwal the 10th month, and up to Hijjah the 12th month.
According to Saudi Arabia’s Umm al – Qura calendar, the Islamic New Year corresponds to the Gregorian calendar on the following dates :
(1). 31 December, 2022 of the Gregorian calendar was equivalent to 7 Jumada Al-Akhirah, 1444 of the Islamic calendar (subject to sighting of the moon).
(2) 1st January 2023 of the Gregorian calendar was equivalent to 8 Jumada Al-Akhirah 1444 in the Islamic calendar (subject to sighting of the moon).
(3) The New Year for the Islamic calendar in 2023 was 1445 AH, ie 1st Muharram 2023 was on the 29th or 30th of July 2023 in the equivalent of the Gregorian calendar(subject to sighting of the moon).
(4) The Islamic New Year 1446 AH corresponded to 8 July 2024 (subject to sighting of the moon)
(5) The Islamic New Year 1447 AH is going to correspond with 26 June 2025 (subject to sighting of the moon)
THE IGBO CALENDAR
The Igbo calendar otherwise called “Oguafo Igbo” is the only known functional and Organized trbal calendar in Nigeria.
This calendar has 13 months in a year, 7 weeks in a month, 28 days in a month.
The Igbo calendar has 4 market days (Afor, Nkwo, Eke, and Orie) in a week (Izu), plus an extra day at the end of the year in the last month.
In various parts of Igbo land, each community has a market named after each of the aforementioned four market days.
In all of this, the Igbos must be acknowledged for developing a locally home-made calendar that is indigenous to them among all the Nigerian tribal nationalities.
It’s hoped that other nationalities and tribes will emulate the Igbos by attempting to Develop their own calendar.
Southern Kaduna, for example, may borrow the Igbo market days system to model a Southern Kaduna calendar, since there already exists a different market day for every community, town and tribe.
Peace 🙏
