Standard Calendar
It is proposed that the standard Kurdish calendar should start at 612 BC or the taking of Nineveh by the Medes. According to this if the Gregorian calendar is used as a reference for calculation then it is realized that the simple equation will give the correct Kurdish year on 20 or 21 March depending on the Gregorian year;
- 1+ (Actual Gregorian Year + 611) = Kurdish Year
- 1+ (2011 + 611) = 2623 on March 21, 2011
- 1+ (2012 + 611) = 2624 on March 20, 2012
The Gregorian calendar has no year 0. The year 1 AD (or 1 CE) was proceeded by the year 1 BC (or 1 BCE). Because this is so awkward for evaluating time periods that include 1 BCE to 1 CE, astronomers sometimes use a different form, employing negative dates and zero. For them it is not confusing: a "-" year or a zero year is always interpreted according to the astronomical reckoning, and a year recorded as BC (or BCE) is always interpreted according to the historians' reckoning. Year 0 is 1 BC, year -1 is 2 BC etc. Then it is just simply said -612 BC as the starting year while the Georgian calendar is being used as references; practically, a nomenclature is used that adheres to neither standard.
It is assumed that the Kurdish calendar starts on March 20 in 612 BCE (year -611 in the astronomers' style), starting with the Kurdish year 1 (the practice of counting from a year 0 generally seems restricted to astronomers). The Gregorian date March 20, 612 BCE would be close to the vernal equinox, and an event shortly after this would be in Kurdish year 1. An event during the summer of 2004 CE would be a bit more than 2004+611 years later, or 1+(2004+611) = year 2616 of the Kurdish calendar. Today, in 2004 CE, before the vernal equinox of 2004, it would be year 2615 of the Kurdish calendar. Furthermore, if it is chosen instead to start the Kurdish calendar count with year 0 for the year starting March 20, 612 BCE, today would be year 2614 in the Kurdish calendar. It Should be mentioned that if the Kurdish year is defined by the date of the true vernal equinox (in Kurdistan), it will diverge from the Gregorian calendar, amounting to about 19 hours over 2615 years.
Read more about this topic: Kurdish Calendar
Famous quotes containing the words standard and/or calendar:
“A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“To divide one’s life by years is of course to tumble into a trap set by our own arithmetic. The calendar consents to carry on its dull wall-existence by the arbitrary timetables we have drawn up in consultation with those permanent commuters, Earth and Sun. But we, unlike trees, need grow no annual rings.”
—Clifton Fadiman (b. 1904)