On the first of these pages, a perpetual calendar was shown by means of which one could obtain the last digit of the Julian Day for any date. However, obtaining the whole Julian Day Number is useful for relating specific dates, and is also a different kind of problem.
As with the perpetual calendars on the first of these pages, for simplicity one treats January and February as though they belong to the end of the preceding year.
Start from this number, giving the Julian Day number for noon GMT (or, rather, noon UTC) on March 1st on the first year of a century (strictly speaking, year 0 of the century, or the last year of the century before):
Julian:
0 1721118 400 1867218 800 2013318 1200 2159418 1600 2305518
100 1757643 500 1903743 900 2049843 1300 2195943 1700 2342043
200 1794168 600 1940268 1000 2086368 1400 2232468
300 1830693 700 1976793 1100 2122893 1500 2268993
Gregorian:
1600 2305508 2000 2451605 2400 2597702 2800 2743799
1700 2342032 2100 2488129 2500 2634226 2900 2780323
1800 2378556 2200 2524653 2600 2670750 3000 2816847
1500 2268983 1900 2415080 2300 2561177 2700 2707274 3100 2853371
3200 2889896 3600 3035993
3300 2926420 3700 3072517
3400 2962944 3800 3109041
3500 2999468 3900 3145565
Revised Julian:
1500 2268984
1600 2305508 2000 2451605 2400 2597702
1700 2342032 2100 2488129 2500 2634226 2900 2780323 3300 2926420
1800 2378556 2200 2524653 2600 2670750 3000 2816847 3400 2962944
1900 2415080 2300 2561177 2700 2707274 3100 2853371 3500 2999468
2800 2643798 3200 2889895 3600 3035992
3700 3072516
As noted for the perpetual calendar for the days of the week, while there is no year 0, the entry for the year 0 is required for the years from 1 A.D. to 99 A.D.
add this number for the year of the century:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
00 0 365 730 1095 1461 1826 2191 2556 2922 3287
10 3652 4017 4383 4748 5113 5478 5844 6209 6574 6939
20 7305 7670 8035 8400 8766 9131 9496 9861 10227 10592
30 10957 11322 11688 12053 12418 12783 13149 13514 13879 14244
40 14610 14975 15340 15705 16071 16436 16801 17166 17532 17897
50 18262 18627 18993 19358 19723 20088 20454 20819 21184 21549
60 21915 22280 22645 23010 23376 23741 24106 24471 24837 25202
70 25567 25932 26298 26663 27028 27393 27759 28124 28489 28854
80 29220 29585 29950 30315 30681 31046 31411 31776 32142 32507
90 32872 33237 33603 33968 34333 34698 35064 35429 35794 36159
add this number for the day of the year:
Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
1 0 31 61 92 122 153 184 214 245 275 306 337
2 1 32 62 93 123 154 185 215 246 276 307 338
3 2 33 63 94 124 155 186 216 247 277 308 339
4 3 34 64 95 125 156 187 217 248 278 309 340
5 4 35 65 96 126 157 188 218 249 279 310 341
6 5 36 66 97 127 158 189 219 250 280 311 342
7 6 37 67 98 128 159 190 220 251 281 312 343
8 7 38 68 99 129 160 191 221 252 282 313 344
9 8 39 69 100 130 161 192 222 253 283 314 345
10 9 40 70 101 131 162 193 223 254 284 315 346
11 10 41 71 102 132 163 194 224 255 285 316 347
12 11 42 72 103 133 164 195 225 256 286 317 348
13 12 43 73 104 134 165 196 226 257 287 318 349
14 13 44 74 105 135 166 197 227 258 288 319 350
15 14 45 75 106 136 167 198 228 259 289 320 351
16 15 46 76 107 137 168 199 229 260 290 321 352
17 16 47 77 108 138 169 200 230 261 291 322 353
18 17 48 78 109 139 170 201 231 262 292 323 354
19 18 49 79 110 140 171 202 232 263 293 324 355
20 19 50 80 111 141 172 203 233 264 294 325 356
21 20 51 81 112 142 173 204 234 265 295 326 357
22 21 52 82 113 143 174 205 235 266 296 327 358
23 22 53 83 114 144 175 206 236 267 297 328 359
24 23 54 84 115 145 176 207 237 268 298 329 360
25 24 55 85 116 146 177 208 238 269 299 330 361
26 25 56 86 117 147 178 209 239 270 300 331 362
27 26 57 87 118 148 179 210 240 271 301 332 363
28 27 58 88 119 149 180 211 241 272 302 333 364
29 28 59 89 120 150 181 212 242 273 303 334 365
30 29 60 90 121 151 182 213 243 274 304 335
31 30 91 152 183 244 305 336
and the total is the Julian Day number for noon GMT on the day for which one has consulted the table.
For years B.C., the table for the year of the century needs to be changed slightly:
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
90 0 365 731 1096 1461 1826 2192 2557 2922 3287
80 3653 4018 4383 4748 5114 5479 5844 6209 6575 6940
70 7305 7670 8036 8401 8766 9131 9497 9862 10227 10592
60 10958 11323 11688 12053 12419 12784 13149 13514 13880 14245
50 14610 14975 15341 15706 16071 16436 16802 17167 17532 17897
40 18263 18628 18993 19358 19724 20089 20454 20819 21185 21550
30 21915 22280 22646 23011 23376 23741 24107 24472 24837 25202
20 25568 25933 26298 26663 27029 27394 27759 28124 28490 28855
10 29220 29585 29951 30316 30681 31046 31412 31777 32142 32507
00 32873 33238 33603 33968 34334 34699 35064 35429 35795 36160
and the table for centuries becomes:
2999 626098 1999 991348 999 1356598 2899 662623 1899 1027873 899 1393123 2799 699148 1799 1064398 799 1429648 2699 735673 1699 1100923 699 1466173 2599 772198 1599 1137448 599 1502698 2499 808723 1499 1173973 499 1539223 2399 845248 1399 1210498 399 1575748 2299 881773 1299 1247023 299 1612273 2199 918298 1199 1283548 199 1648798 2099 954823 1099 1320073 99 1685323
These three tables make it simple to calculate a Julian Day Number by adding only three numbers together.
For dates outside the range of the table, one can use the fact that a Julian century is exactly 36,525 days long, or the fact that four Gregorian centuries are exactly 146,097 days long. In the former case, one also needs to remember that going 100 years back from 100 A.D. brings you to 1 B.C., and going another 100 years back reaches 101 B.C., and so on.
Essentially, these tables are constructed by adding the number of days in the major cycles of the Gregorian calendar.
A year is normally 365 days long. But four years, including one leap year, is normally 1,461 days long. A hundred years, in the Gregorian calendar, normally includes one span of four years without a leap year, so it is 36,524 days long. But four hundred years in the Gregorian calendar includes one century where every span of four years has its leap year, so they are 146,097 days long.
Thus, one might construct smaller tables, each involving only one of these rules, starting from Julian Day 2305507, one day before March 1st, 1600 AD.
Thus, the first table, adding 146,097 each time, would be:
1600 2305507 2000 2451604 2400 2597701 2800 2743798
Then, for intermediate centuries, we use the preceding rule to construct this table:
0 0 100 36524 200 73048 300 109572
and combining these two tables for convenience produces the first compound table above.
Similarly, for years within the century, we can start with a table that shows the number of days for every fourth year:
0 0 20 7305 40 14610 60 21915 80 29220 4 1461 24 8766 44 16071 64 23376 84 30681 8 2922 28 10227 48 17532 68 24837 88 32142 12 4383 32 11688 52 18993 72 26298 92 33603 16 5844 36 13149 56 20454 76 27759 96 35064
combined with a short table allowing us to handle individual years:
0 0 1 365 2 730 3 1095
Combining these two tables to save another addition gives us the second combined table above.
And the final table can be replaced by just one of its rows,
Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb 0 31 61 92 122 153 184 214 245 275 306 337
since one can always add the day of the month to the month number. And since the first day of the month is numbered "1", not zero, that's why the starting century numbers were one smaller in the first of these tables than in the combined tables.
A JavaScript program to convert to and from Julian Day Numbers is available on this page.
While the Islamic calendar is defined in terms of direct observation of the Moon, and in Turkey it is calculated in advance using comprehensive astronomical calculations, in some parts of the Muslim world, a conventional version of the Islamic calendar is used which is as simple as the Julian or Gregorian calendars.
If the mean synodic month is 29.530588853 days, then a year of twelve lunar months in which the odd-numbered months are 30 days long and the even-numbered months are 29 days long will be 0.367066236 days too short. If we organize the years in groups of 30, and make 11 of them into leap years in which the last month is also 30 days long, a group of 30 years will only be 0.01198708 days too short, leading to an error of one day in just over 2,500 years (about 2,502.69 years by this calculation).
This is exactly how the tabular version of the Islamic calendar works. In its most common version, of a group of 30 years, the 2nd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 21st, 24th, 26th, and 29th years are leap years.
A table giving a Julian day to start from for each 300 years is the following:
0 1948084
300 2054394
600 2160704
900 2267014
1200 2373324
1500 2479634
A table dividing 300 years into ten periods of 30 years looks like this:
0 0 30 10631 60 21262 90 31893 120 42524 150 53155 180 63786 210 74417 240 85048 270 95679
A single cycle of 30 years involves the following displacements from the starting point of the cycle:
10) 3189* 20) 6733 30) 10277
1) 0 11) 3544 21) 7087*
2) 354* 12) 3898 22) 7442
3) 709 13) 4252* 23) 7796
4) 1063 14) 4607 24) 8150*
5) 1417* 15) 4961 25) 8505
6) 1772 16) 5315* 26) 8859*
7) 2126* 17) 5670 27) 9214
8) 2481 18) 6024* 28) 9568
9) 2835 19) 6379 29) 9922*
The asterisks indicate which years are leap years.
Thirty years in this calendar contain 10,631 days.
The twelve months of the Islamic calendar, and their displacements in days in this tabular version of this calendar, are:
1) Muharram 0 2) Safar 30 3) Rabi' al-Awwal 59 4) Rabi' al-Thani 89 5) Jumada al-Ula 118 6) Jumada al-Akhirah 148 7) Rajab 177 8) Sha'ban 207 9) Ramadan 236 10) Shawwal 266 11) Zulqiddah 295 12) Zuljijjah 325
and then add the day of the month, from 1 to 30.
October 1, 1952 is Julian Day 214 + 18993 + 2415080 = 2,434,287 from the tables above; that is, it began on J. D. 2,434,286.5 and ended on J. D. 2,434,287.5. Some sources will simplify to an integer by calling it Julian Day 2,434,286, instead of 2,434,287 as I have chosen to do in my tables above; that is, for example, the usual convention in discussions of an epoch for the Mayan calendar.
Subtracting 2,434,286 from the Julian Day for a given date (or 2,434,285, if this other convention is used) will give the number of the day, or Clarke (named after MAD artist Bob Clarke, not Arthur C. Clarke, even if it is the period of a geosynchronous orbit) in the calendar given in the Potrzebie system of units.
Thus, I write these words on February 9, 2008, which is Julian Day 2451605 + 2556 + 345 = 2,454,506. Subtracting 2,434,286, one obtains 20,220, which would make today the 10th Clarke of the second Mingo (the Mingo of Calculated) of Cowznofska Madi 203 (not 202, as the Potrzebie calendar also begins with Cowznofski 1, not Cowznofski 0).
To make this comprehensible, one must take a moment to explain how the Potrzebie calendar works.
As noted, one day is called a Clarke. A Mingo is ten days long, and a Cowznofski is 10 Mingoes or one hundred days.
Like years, the Cowznofskis are numbered serially; the Cowznofskis that proceed from the date of October 1, 1952 are Cowznofski Madi, with Cowznofski Madi 1 consisting of the 100 days from October 1, 1952 to January 8, 1953.
Like months, the ten Mingoes of a Cowznofski have names.
1) Tales 6) Humor 2) Calculated 7) In 3) To 8) A 4) Drive 9) Jugular 5) You 10) Vein
Note that no Mingo is named Mad.
In this connection, one might also note that the 9th Clarke of the sixth Mingo of Cowznovska Madi 12 would be Julian Day 2,434,286 plus 1159, or December 3, 1955, while the 6th Clarke of the ninth Mingo of Cowznovska Madi 12 would be Julian Day 2,434,286 plus 1186, or December 30, 1955. Thus, as the latter date would fall during the Christmas holidays, during which the Physics Lab of Miluwakee Lutheran High School would be closed and inaccessible, we can take it that the historic date of 6-9-12, on which the measurement of MAD Magazine issue #26 was made, on which the Potrzebie system of measurments is based, is December 3, 1955, which, however, fell on a Saturday.
MAD Magazine #26 was the November, 1955 issue, and so it would likely have been available on newsstands sometime in October, 1955.
Before the Julian Day system was invented, when Copernicus wanted a uniform sequence of days for calculating the motions of the planets, he used the ancient Egyptian calendar, which gave 365 days to each year without any leap years; 12 months of 30 days, and 5 extra epagomenal days. The ancient Mayan calendar included a component, the Haab, which worked similarly, but with 18 months of 20 days, and an extra period of 5 days called Uayeb.
First, one can go from the Gregorian calendar to the Julian calendar by noting that the difference in days between them changes by a day three times in every 400 years:
0 100 200 300 -2 -1 0 1 400 500 600 700 1 2 3 4 800 900 1000 1100 4 5 6 7 1200 1300 1400 1500 7 8 9 10 1600 1700 1800 1900 10 11 12 13 2000 2100 2200 2300 13 14 15 16
The differences shown come into effect on March 1st of the Gregorian calendar, it being the more complicated one that includes the skipped leap year day that causes the difference to change. (Since the Julian calendar has more days, this difference is how many days sooner a given date occurs on the Gregorian calendar, or how many days later a given day is by the Gregorian calendar: thus, at the present time, with a difference of 13 days, Christmas on the Julian calendar falls on January 7th by the Gregorian calendar.)
The difference between the Julian calendar and the Egyptian calendar changes by one day every four years, and thus can be calculated by simple arithmetic.
July 20 on the Julian Calendar, the 141st day after March 1 of the year, or the 200th day of the year in a year that is not a leap year, was the Egyptian New Year's Day in 139 A.D. according to both Censorinus and Wikipedia. To avoid dealing with an exception for things happening in January and February of leap years, then, I will use a Julian calendar starting on March 1st, so that I can say the Egyptian calendar starts 141 days later than the Julian for the years 136, 137, 138, and 139, and then only 140 days later than the Julian for the years 140, 141, 142, and 143, and so on.
So this difference is 175 days for the years 1 BC, 1 AD, 2, and 3, and from this difference, one subtracts the year divided by four; the year 2000 divided by four yielding 500 days to subtract. Currently, then, this being 2007, the Julian calendar starts 13 days later than the Gregorian, and the Egyptian calendar starts 326 days earlier than March 1 of the Julian calendar, or 267 days earlier than the Julian calendar using January 1 again as the starting day.
Since the Haab section of the ancient Mayan calendar (which was called the xiuhpohualli by the Aztecs) is a cycle that is also exactly 365 days long every year, it has a fixed relation with the Egyptian vague year.
Thus, the traditional Egyptian calendar (ignoring the fact that leap years were added to it, bringing the Egyptian calendar into harmony with the Julian calendar, by the emperor Augustus, leading to its first leap year day in the year 22 BC) from April 2006 to December 2009, and the Haab section of the ancient Mayan calendar for that period, would proceed as shown in the table below:
April 9, 2006/7 * Thoth 1 9 Muan 11 Xocotlhuetzin Mareri 1 April 8, 2008/9 April 20, 2006/7 Thoth 12 0 Pax 2 Ochpaniztli Mareri 12 April 19, 2008/9 May 9, 2006/7 Paophi 1 19 Pax 1 Teoleco Margach 1 May 8, 2008/9 May 10, 2006/7 Paophi 2 0 Kayab 2 Teoleco Margach 2 May 9, 2008/9 May 30, 2006/7 Paophi 22 0 Cumhu 2 Tepeihuitl Margach 22 May 29, 2008/9 June 8, 2006/7 Hathor 1 9 Cumhu 11 Tepeihuitl Hrotich 1 June 7, 2008/9 June 19, 2006/7 Hathor 12 0 Uayeb 2 Quecholli Hrotich 12 June 18, 2008/9 June 24, 2006/7 Hathor 17 * 0 Pop 7 Quecholli Hrotich 17 June 23, 2008/9 July 8, 2006/7 Choiak 1 14 Pop 1 Panquetzalitli Aweleach 1 July 7, 2008/9 July 13, 2006/7 Choiak 6 19 Pop 6 Panquetzalitli * Nawasardi 1 July 12, 2008/9 July 14, 2006/7 Choiak 7 0 Uo 7 Panquetzalitli Nawasardi 2 July 13, 2008/9 August 3, 2006/7 Choiak 27 0 Zip 7 Atemotzli Nawasardi 22 August 2, 2008/9 August 7, 2006/7 Tybi 1 4 Zip 11 Atemotzli Nawasardi 26 August 6, 2008/9 August 23, 2006/7 Tybi 17 0 Zotz 7 Tititl Hori 12 August 22, 2008/9 September 6, 2006/7 Mechir 1 14 Zotz 1 Izcalli Hori 26 September 5, 2008/9 September 12, 2006/7 Mechir 7 0 Tzec 7 Izcalli Sahmi 2 September 11, 2008/9 September 26, 2006/7 Mechir 21 14 Tzec 1 Nemontemi Sahmi 16 September 25, 2008/9 October 1, 2006/7 Mechir 26 19 Tzec * 1 Atlcahualo Sahmi 21 September 30, 2008/9 October 2, 2006/7 Mechir 27 0 Xul 2 Atlcahualo Sahmi 22 October 1, 2008/9 October 6, 2006/7 Phamenoth 1 4 Xul 6 Atlcahualo Sahmi 26 October 5, 2008/9 October 21, 2006/7 Phamenoth 16 19 Xul 1 Tlacaxipehualiztli Tre 11 October 20, 2008/9 October 22, 2006/7 Phamenoth 17 0 Yaxkin 2 Tlacaxipehualiztli Tre 12 October 21, 2008/9 November 5, 2006/7 Pharmouthi 1 14 Yaxkin 16 Tlacaxipehualiztli Tre 26 November 4, 2008/9 November 11, 2006/7 Pharmouthi 7 0 Mol 2 Tozoztontli K'aloch 2 November 10, 2008/9 December 1, 2006/7 Pharmouthi 27 0 Chen 2 Hueytozoztli K'aloch 22 November 30, 2008/9 December 5, 2006/7 Pachon 1 4 Chen 6 Hueytozoztli K'aloch 26 December 4, 2008/9 December 21, 2006/7 Pachon 17 0 Yax 2 Toxcatl Arach 12 December 20, 2008/9 January 4, 2007/8 Payni 1 14 Yax 16 Toxcatl Arach 26 January 3, 2009 January 10, 2007/8 Payni 7 0 Sac 2 Etzalcualiztli Mehekani 2 January 9, 2009 January 30, 2007/8 Payni 27 0 Ceh 2 Tecuilhuitontli Mehekani 22 January 29, 2009 February 3, 2007/8 Epiphi 1 4 Ceh 6 Tecuilhuitontli Mehekani 26 February 2, 2009 February 19, 2007/8 Epiphi 17 0 Mac 2 Hueytecuilhuitl Areg 12 February 20, 2009 March 5, 2006/7 Mesore 1 14 Mac 16 Hueytecuilhuitl Areg 26 March 4, 2008/9 March 11, 2006/7 Mesore 7 0 Kankin 2 Tlaxochimaco Ahekani 4 March 10, 2008/9 March 31, 2006/7 Mesore 27 0 Muan 2 Xocotlhuetzin Ahekani 24 March 30, 2008/9 April 4, 2006/7 Epagomenes 1 4 Muan 6 Xocotlhuetzin Ahekani 26 April 3, 2008/9 April 9, 2006/7 * Thoth 1 9 Muan 11 Xocotlhuetzin Mareri 1 April 8, 2008/9 April 20, 2006/7 Thoth 12 0 Pax 2 Ochpaniztlin Mareri 12 April 19, 2008/9 May 9, 2006/7 Paophi 1 19 Pax 1 Teoleco Margach 1 May 8, 2008/9 May 10, 2006/7 Paophi 2 0 Kayab 2 Teoleco Margach 2 May 9, 2008/9 May 30, 2006/7 Paophi 22 0 Cumhu 2 Tepeihuitl Margach 22 May 29, 2008/9 June 8, 2006/7 Hathor 1 9 Cumhu 11 Tepeihuitl Hrotich 1 June 7, 2008/9 June 19, 2006/7 Hathor 12 0 Uayeb 2 Quecholli Hrotich 12 June 18, 2008/9
and one could add a year, the dates up to February 9, 2007 shown above being valid for 2007/2008 as well as 2006/2007. Since 2008 is a leap year, Epiphi 27 and 0 Ceh would fall on February 29, 2008, and following dates would also arrive a day earlier by our calendar, as the table above illustrates.
It should be noted, though, that some sources claim that Haab component of the Mayan calendar was kept in harmony with the seasons; every fourth year, there were six, rather than five, epagomenal days, so that the day 0 Pop corresponded, at least most of the time, to July 16th in the Julian calendar. Others claim that the Mayan calendar was a more accurate representation of the tropical year than even the Gregorian calendar. This is not the case for the Haab calendar as generally used, 365 days without any intercalation, but it is possible that the Maya did keep track of the advance of the tropical year relative to the Haab using an approximation closer than that on which the Gregorian calendar was built. But while the adance of the seasons was noted, it was not used to modify the calendar itself.
In the absence of intercalation, a year of 365 days is not relatively prime to the 20-day week of the Tzolkin component of the Mayan calendar. As a result, the year can only begin on the days Kan, Muluc, Ix, or Cauac.
The claim of a cycle like the Julian for the Mayan calendar is accompanied by the statement that years beginning on Cauac are leap years. Adding a day to the Haab calendar alone would, of course, result in succeeding years beginning with Chicchan, Oc, Men, and Ahau in order. This means that, for this to be the rule, the intercalary day must stand outside the Tzolkin cycle as well as being intercalary to the Haab cycle, thus making it invisible: that is, one cannot tell that intercalation has taken place by its effect on the day of the week on which the year starts.
There is reason to believe that at least some Aztecs did adopt the intercalation rule of the Julian calendar in this fashion for a time after the Conquest, but no reason to think this was done prior to the Conquest by the Maya.
The year of the seasons was monitored, rather than simply relying on the Haab to supply the dates for planting and harvesting; this was done by noting the day on which the Pleiades first rose before sunrise. Thus, unless the precession of the equinoxes was noted, one would expect any approximation to the offset between the seasons and the Haab to be based on the sidereal year instead of the tropical year.
In addition to the Haab and Tzolkin calendars, which were used by the Aztecs (and the Toltecs, who may have been an Aztec myth) after the Maya, and by the Zapotec and Olmec before them, the Maya used a system of dating unique to themselves, called the Long Count which resembles our system of Julian Day numbers closely.
In this system, the date 0.0.0.0.0 may have stood for September 6, 3114 B.C. by the Julian calendar (Julian day 584284 as I note it here, since on that day the actual Julian Day number goes from 584283.5 to 584284.5, others will note that date as 584283). The numbers are recorded in a modified base-20 system, the second-from last digit being in base 18 so that the last two digits give the date in a span of 360 days.
Despite the fact that the Haab calendar also used by the Maya had 18 months of 20 days, plus 5 intercalary days, the Long Count did not note the intercalary days as ending in numbers from 18.0 to 18.4, but did instead count the days in multiples of 360 rather than counting the years.
For the purpose of easily converting to Julian Day Numbers, what one could simply do is note that just as a vague year is a regular and unvarying succession of 365-day periods, the Julian calendar is a regular and unvarying succession of 1,461-day periods, since there is a leap year in every four, because the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the Julian calendar changes only infrequently; conversion to that calendar being therefore much simpler than conversion to a vague year.
In the Julian calendar, the sequence of four years making up 1,461 days is completely unbroken, and thus the sequence of calendars for 28 successive years always repeats.
If we look up the year 4714 B.C. in the table on this earlier page, since, for simplicity, it is based on a year that starts on the first of March, we will find that January 1st, 4713 B.C. falls on a Sunday, and, further, that it is a leap year.
Note that since 1 B.C. was the year before 1 A.D., it, too, was a leap year, so the fact that this year is odd-numbered should not be surprising.
The Julian period, on which the Julian Day Number was later based by William Herschel, was based on the recurrence of three calendrical cycles; one was the 28-day cycle of repetitions of the Julian calendar, called the solar cycle, so we see here that its starting point was taken to be a leap year that started on a Sunday. Incidentally, the year immediately following a leap year that would start on a Sunday, as might be more likely to be thought of as the natural starting point for this cycle, would be the sixth year of the cycle actually used by Joseph Justus Scaliger.
The next one of the three cycles used was the Metonic cycle, the 19-year cycle which approximately harmonizes the lunar months with the solar calendar.
A 19-year cycle which begins in 4713 B.C. and ends in 4695 B.C. would coincide with one that starts in 1 B.C. and ends in 18 A.D., and it would also, then, coincide with one that starts in 1919 and ends in 1937, or one that began in 1995 and ends in 2013. And, indeed, for the 19 years beginning in 1995 and ending in 2013, their Golden Numbers start with 1 and end with 19, in order.
These two cycles, a 28-year cycle and a 19-year cycle, create a period which repeats every 532 years.
In Canada, the national census is held every 10 years, on years ending with the digit 1; so a complete census was performed in 1961, 1971, and 1981 and so on; the census day is currently in the middle of May, although that appears to have varied historically. The census of Great Britain is also performed on such years, but near the end of April.
In the United States, censuses are also held every 10 years, but one year earlier, on years ending in the digit 0; the census day is near the start of April.
At one time in the Roman Empire, the amount of taxes to be paid by each of the various provinces to the Empire was set once every fifteen years. This period was called the Indiction,
The first year of an Indiction would be a year whose number is equal to 13 modulo 15, so the years 1996 through 2010 represent one indiction (or, historically, the period from September 23, 1995 through September 22, 2010), the years from 3 B.C. to 12 A.D. would be another indiction, and, since 4710 is a multiple of 30, the years 4713 B.C. through 4708 B.C would also be one indiction.
This multiplies the length of the cycle by 15, yielding a cycle of 7.980 years. Thus, a single cycle extends from 4713 B.C. to 3267 A.D., and is long enough to cover all of recorded history.
In addition to the normal numbering of the years as B.C. (Before Christ) and A. D. (Anno Domini), other eras can and have been used with the Gregorian and Julian calendars.
Rome is traditionally held to have been founded on April 21, 753 B.C.. Thus, at least for dates on or after the 21st of April, 753 B.C is A.U.C. 1, 1 B.C. is A.U.C. 753, 1 A.D. is A.U.C. 754, and 2019 A.D. is A.U.C. 2772.
Ethiopia and the Coptic Christians of Egypt use a calendar based on the Julian calendar.
The months of these calendars are:
Coptic Ethiopian Julian starting date Current Gregorian
starting date
(from 1901 until 2099)
1) Thout Maskaram August 29 September 11
2) Paopi Taqamt September 28 October 11
3) Hathor Hedar October 28 November 10
4) Koiak Tahsas November 27 December 10
5) Tobi Terr December 27 January 9
6) Meshir Yakatit January 26 February 8
7) Paremhat Magabit February 25 *March 10
8) Parmouti Miyazya *March 27 *April 9
9) Pashons Genbo *April 26 *May 9
10) Paoni Sane *May 26 *June 8
11) Epip Hamle *June 25 *July 8
12) Meson Nahase *July 25 *August 7
Epagomenal days *August 24 *September 6
In the Gregorian and Julian calendars, during a leap year, the extra day added is February 29, so in a leap year, the date corresponding to a given date in the Coptic or Ethiopian calendars is one day earlier. These dates are marked by an asterisk. The extra day is added as a sixth epagomenal day in the Coptic and Ethiopian calendars.
The Coptic era begins with August 29, 284 A.D. starting year 1 of the Coptic calendar. Thus, September 11, 2019 began the Coptic year 1736.
The Ethiopian Era, Amata Mehrat (Year of Mercy), begins with August 29, 8 A.D., and so September 11, 2019 begins the year 2012 A.M.
Finally, another alternative era based on the Gregorian calendar is the Juche era, used in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, more widely known in the Western world as North Korea.
1912 A.D. was Juche 1, and 2019 A.D. was Juche 108.
As well, in South Korea until 1961, and in North Korea until the Juche era was adopted in 1997, the era used with the traditional luni-solar calendar of Korea was also applied to the Gregorian calendar.
This era. the Dangun era, has 1 Dangun for 2333 B.C., and hence 2333 Dangun for 1 B.C., 2334 Dangun for 1 A.D, and 4352 Dangun for 2019 A.D..
With the Chinese luni-solar calendar, the Year of the Boar that began on February 5, 2019 A.D. is the Huangdi year 4717, based on the reign of the Yellow Emperor, or the Yao year 4175.
One will also find occasional use of a Japanese Imperial Year, usually used with the Gregorian calendar, in which the year 1 is 660 B.C., hence the year 660 is 1 B.C., the year 661 is 1 A.D., and the year 2679 is 2019 A.D..