The Hindu religious concept that various eras have distinct characteristics is one of the most basic Hindu religious beliefs.
Some periods are believed to be more auspicious and favorable, while others are thought to be more inauspicious and hazardous.
These judgements may be used to define the overall characteristics of certain periods or to identify the best time to do specific tasks.
As a result, Hindus place a high value on time management and foreseeing auspicious events.
Many contemporary Hindus utilize several calendars at the same time, but they may use them for distinct reasons.
To begin, the Gregorian calendar of the common period is used for daily timekeeping, which may represent the impact of the British empire or, more simply, the effect of contemporary business and communications.
It's worth noting that the only holidays observed on this calendar are national holidays like Independence Day, Gandhi Jayanti, and Republic Day, which are all set dates.
There are a variety of different ways to measure time, some of which overlap with each other and others of which are only found in certain parts of the nation.
- The movement of the sun is used in many of these systems.
- The solar day, of course, is the most fundamental unit, which typically starts and finishes with the rising of the sun rather than the clock.
- There are seven solar days in a week.
- The year is divided in half by the sun's movement, with the uttarayana phase happening when the sun moves northward and the dakshinayana period occurring when the sun moves southward.
In addition, there are two different variants of the solar year, each with twelve solar months.
These months in northern India correlate to the twelve zodiac signs and record the passage of the sun through them.
The Tamil solar year is an identical calendar found in southern India, in which the names of the months are derived from the names of specific nakshatras, or lunar zodiac signs.
The Vikram era (fifty-six or fifty-seven years later than the common era) and the Shaka era (fifty-six or fifty-seven years later than the common era) are still used to date history using the lunar calendar (seventy-eight years earlier than the common era).
Each lunar month has thirty days, making the lunar year twelve months long.
A lunar day is somewhat shorter than a solar day since the moon's cycle is only approximately twenty-eight solar days long.
The lunar month is split into two parts, each lasting fifteen days: the "dark" (krishna paksha) half, which occurs when the moon is waning and ends with the new moon, and the "bright" (shukla paksha), which occurs when the moon is waxing and concludes with the full moon.
In northern India, the lunar month starts with the dark half of the moon and finishes with the full moon, while in the south, it is frequently the other way around.
Because the solar year has about 365 days and the lunar year has approximately 354, each lunar year would begin eleven solar days sooner than the previous one if allowed unchecked.
Every two and a half years, an intercalary month is added to rectify the difference.
Although the celebration of a specific festival may vary by several weeks from one year to the next, this helps to maintain the lunar months falling around the same time every year.
The lunar calendar is used to commemorate almost all Hindu festivals.
The festivities of certain festivals are linked to specific lunar days, and therefore occur twenty-four times in a twelve-month lunar year:
- The god Vishnu is honored on the eleventh day (ekadashi) of each lunar month;
- the Goddess, especially in her form as Durga, is honored on the eighth day (ashtami);
- the god Shiva is honored on the thirteenth day (trayodashi) and the fourteenth day (chaturdashi);
- and the god Ganesh is honored on the fourth day (chaturthi).
The lunar month, half of the moon, and specific lunar day are used to determine when yearly religious festivals are held.
For example, Bhadrapada Krishna eight, the eighth day of the dark (waning) half of the lunar month of Bhadrapada, is dedicated to the deity Krishna.
The lunar calendar is also used to commemorate the birthdays of many significant historical religious leaders, including Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith, the Buddha, and devotional poet-saints.
Because of the overlapping calendars, any one day may be identified by multiple distinct markers: the day of the week and the day in the common period (as in many cultures), the day on the conventional solar calendar, and the day on the lunar calendar.
Depending on the situation—business, astrology, or a festival—any of these may be chosen.