![](/images/icons/social/login/mail.png)
Check your inbox!
Reset your password with the link we just sent to your email.
Please reload and retry in a moment.
Please reload and retry in a moment.
< Previous | Main | Next >
11th Feb 2021
The ball drop in NYC heralds in a new year for many; but, with todays Lunar New Year, societies (past and present) will be celebrating the new year in February. Time, it seems, is relative and how we calculate the passing of the days depends on whether or not a culture is looking at the moon…or the sun…
Nepal Sambat, pre-Islamic south Arabia, Javanese, Yoruba, Igbo, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Egyptian, Hindu, Thai, Tibetan, Iranian, Hebrew, Ancient Greek, Jain, Kurdish, Burmese, Incan, Celtic, Babylonian, and Mayans are all Lunisolar Calendar Societies - that means that calculating the passing of a ‘year’ is an observation of monthly lunar phases, new moon/first quarter/full moon/last quarter- also known as ‘lunation’.
Lunation is approximately 29.5 days. Each society slightly differs in how to treat uncounted or excess days that don’t ‘fit’ into the 12 month rubric, like having a year with 13 months every 2 to 3 years. Gregorian calendar users can sympathize with that problem when having a ‘leap year’, or extra day in February every 4 years. The annual difference between days in a year for solar and lunar calendars is approximately 11 days.
For example, three to four days following a full moon is the best time to harvest bamboo. The higher gravitation of the moon in this phase coincides with the bamboo photosynthesizing and transporting starches from the roots to the leaves in the morning. The farmer that cuts their bamboo recognizing these phenomena will have a piece of bamboo with less bug enticing starches in the nodes of the cut. Farmer wisdom? Hoax? The moon deals in subtleties and requires a keen discernment for interpretation of lunar wisdom.
To everyone ushering in a new year today, Happy New Year! Cheers to the continuation and evolution of time on Earth, peace and prosperity to all!