"Lunar date" redirects here. For uses not on Earth, see timekeeping on the Moon.
A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases (synodic months, lunations), in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based on the solar year. The most widely observed purely lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar.[a] A purely lunar calendar is distinguished from a lunisolar calendar, whose lunar months are brought into alignment with the solar year through some process of intercalation – such as by insertion of a leap month. The details of when months begin vary from calendar to calendar, with some using new, full, or crescent moons and others employing detailed calculations.
Since each lunation is approximately 29+1⁄2 days,[1] it is common for the months of a lunar calendar to alternate between 29 and 30 days. Since the period of 12 such lunations, a lunar year, is 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, 34 seconds (354.36707 days),[1] purely lunar calendars are 11 to 12 days shorter than the solar year. In purely lunar calendars, which do not make use of intercalation, the lunar months cycle through all the seasons of a solar year over the course of a 33–34 lunar-year cycle (see, e.g., list of Islamic years).
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^ abP. Kenneth Seidelmann, ed. (1992). Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac. p. 577. For convenience, it is common to speak of a lunar year of twelve synodic months, or 354.36707 days. (which gives a mean synodic month as 29.53059 days or 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes and 3 seconds)
observed purely lunarcalendar is the Islamic calendar. A purely lunarcalendar is distinguished from a lunisolar calendar, whose lunar months are brought...
known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar, is a lunarcalendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to...
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between twelve lunar cycles (354 lunar days) and approximately 365 solar days, the Hindu calendar maintains the integrity of the lunar month, but inserts...
or the moon. The most common type of pre-modern calendar was the lunisolar calendar, a lunarcalendar that occasionally adds one intercalary month to...
The Thai lunarcalendar (Thai: ปฏิทินจันทรคติ, RTGS: patithin chanthrakhati, pronounced [pà.tì.tʰīn t͡ɕān.tʰrá(ʔ).kʰā.tìʔ], literally, Specific days according...
Lunar New Year is the beginning of a new year based on lunarcalendars or, informally but more widely, lunisolar calendars. Lunarcalendars follow the...
A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, incorporating lunarcalendars and solar calendars. The date of lunisolar calendars therefore indicates...
available. In contrast, the Gregorian calendar is a pure solar calendar, while the Islamic calendar is a pure lunarcalendar. Valid at least for 1999-2050. In...
day-to-day purposes, and the Thai lunarcalendar (a version of the Buddhist calendar, technically a lunisolar calendar), used for traditional events and...
In lunarcalendars, a lunar month is the time between two successive syzygies of the same type: new moons or full moons. The precise definition varies...
A lunar phase or Moon phase is the apparent shape of the Moon's directly sunlit portion as viewed from the Earth (because the Moon is tidally locked with...
The Zulu calendar is the traditional lunarcalendar used by the Zulu people of South Africa. Its new year begins at the new moon of uMandulo(September)...
Gregorian calendar, widely accepted as a standard in the world, is an example of a solar calendar. The main other types of calendar are lunarcalendar and lunisolar...
calendar is the one the rural (agrarian) population follows in Punjab, Pakistan. In Punjab though the solar calendar is generally followed, the lunar...
Calendar of saints Advent calendar Wall calendar Geologic Calendar Cosmic CalendarLunarcalendar World calendar Parker, Richard A., "The Calendars of...
365.25 days, and the Hebrew calendar has an average length of 365.2468 days. The Lunar Hijri calendar is a lunarcalendar consisting of 12 months in a...
in those lunarcalendars in which each month begins on the day of the new moon, the full moon falls on either the 14th or 15th day of the lunar month. Because...
error. It is older than the Lunar Hijri calendar used by the majority of Muslims (known in the West as the Islamic calendar); though they both count from...
month in lunar or lunisolar calendars. Most reforms for calendars have been to make them more accurate. This has happened to various lunar and lunisolar...
measuring months defined in lunar cycles as well as years measured in solar cycles, and distinct from the purely lunar Islamic calendar and the predominantly...
Thai lunarcalendar and by the Thai solar calendar. The Southeast Asian lunisolar calendars are largely based on an older version of the Hindu calendar, which...
roughly 8,000 BC, has been described as a lunarcalendar and was dubbed the "world's oldest known calendar" in 2013. A ceramic artefact from Bulgaria...
Baltic Finnic peoples, were also known to have a lunarcalendar. Calendars such as the Runic calendar fixing the beginning of the year at the first full...
1894 and 1895, the lunarcalendar was used with years numbered from the foundation of the Joseon Dynasty in 1392. The Gregorian calendar was adopted on 1...
The Attic calendar or Athenian calendar is the lunisolar calendar beginning in midsummer with the lunar month of Hekatombaion, in use in ancient Attica...
The Tibetan calendar (Tibetan: ལོ་ཐོ, Wylie: lo-tho), or Tibetan lunarcalendar, is a lunisolar calendar, that is, the Tibetan year is composed of either...
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