From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A
lunar calendar
is a
calendar
that is based on the
phases of the Moon
. Because there are slightly more than twelve lunar months (29.53 days each) in a solar year, the period of 12 lunar months (354.37 days) is sometimes referred to as a
lunar year
.
A common purely lunar calendar is the
Islamic calendar
.The First Islamic Calendar was First introduced in the reign of 2nd khalipha Umar ibn khitab(r.a). It is calculated from one
crescent moon
to the next crescent moon.
[1]
A feature of the Islamic calendar is that a year is always 12 months. So the months are not linked with the
seasons
. They
drift
each solar year by 11 to 12 days. It comes back to the position it had in relation to the
solar year
approximately every 33 Islamic years. It is used mainly for
religious
purposes
, but in
Saudi Arabia
it is the official calendar. Other lunar calendars often include extra months added occasionally to
synchronize
it with the
solar calendar
.
The oldest known lunar calendar was found in
Scotland
. It dates back to around 8,000
BC
.
[2]