📅The Months

Solar, Lunar & Javanese Months

Humans have long divided the year up into months. We've tended to do this in two different ways. First, by dividing up the solar year (such as January, February, etc.). Second, by making each moon cycle a month (guess where we get the word 'month' from?).

The EarthCycles calendar shows both the solar and lunar months.

Solar Months

The main focus of the Calendar are the 12 solar months. These months originate from the Julian calendar reform of 46BC. As the official calendar of the roman empire for over a thousand years, the Julian names of the months correspond to Julius and Augustus Caesar and to the various roman gods— which further correspond to various planets.

Unlike the rest of the calendar, where all colors are symbolic, the colors of the months are not symbolic. The calendar the months are simply progressively hued to correspond to the progression of the year.

Lunar Months

It just so happens that the lunar months of the Chinese, Korean, Javanese and Islamic calendars are pretty much the same. The month begins and ends on the new moon. For this reason, the calendar includes the various names of the month in each language.

It is important to note though, that the lunar months of the various traditions do not begin on exactly the same day! The new moon's arrival depends on where one is on the Earth. For this reason the exact start of each lunar month isn't indicated on the Calendar.