Dec 30, 2016

Saudi Calendar Change

As we look forward to a new year, thought I would pass along some calendar info. Saudi Arabia adopted the lunar Islamic calendar when it was founded in 1932. In October 2016, that all changed. Saudi Arabia moved from the lunar based Hijri calendar, which starts with the emigration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina, and adopted the standard Gregorian calendar as a leap into modernity and as a basis for paying civil servants.

Government employees complained they would have to work an extra 11 days each year, because the Islamic lunar calendar is 11 days shorter than the 365-day solar year.

There are other calendars still in use around the world.  It is 1395 in Iran, 2628 in Kurdistan, and 5776 in Israel’s Knesset, 2559 in Thailand, and year 28 (of the Heisei era) in Japan.

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