Why do use the solar calendar when lunar is more accurate?
Question:
Answer:
it easier to keep track of :)
In USA we use the Roman calendar.. It has 12 months..
Because the men run things here, for better or worse... (solar=male; lunar=female)
Accurate, schmaccurate.
Solar is much more useful.
How would guys ever remember their wives' birthdays with a lunar calendar? Or would they have to give her a birthday present every month?
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Why is a lunar calendar more accurate than a solar?
To measure pregnancy we use lunar calendar. Ordinarily healthy pregnancy lasts 10 lunar months - 10 months x 28 days.
The lunar calendar does not stick with the seasons. It would be a mess after a while.
The solar calendar and the lunar calendar are equally accurate. The solar calendar is much more convenient and that is why we use it.
Yea, what he said, Men think they run things! HA!
It probably has something to do with superstition over the number 13.
Fireball2? WAT THE F**K?
"In USA we use the Roman calendar.. It has 12 months.."
and??
So does the Lunar Calender!
qualify your statement, first of all.
we use the solar calendar because we have a long tradtion of doing so, back to the roman emperors. to change it now would do no great good, and besides, what's the problem with a solar calendar?
as an aside: what is this other person ranting on about solar=man, lunar=woman? the only way that even remotely makes sense it that the menstrual cycle more closely follows lunar months than solar months.
Our current calendar has evolved in the way it has because it keeps the Earth in the same relative position to the Sun on the same calendar day every year. A lunar calendar would have the seasons occuring at different periods every year, e.g., winter starting in July in the northern hemisphere.
Tradition mainly. Calendars are designed to be accurate, convenient, and understandable.
A solar calendar divides the year up in practically random chunks, but each year ends within one fourth of a day from when the year actually ends according to the seasons. There's no really obvious marker for this other than the exact height of the sun at noon each day, which nobody is going to look for, so while a solar calendar requires constantly referring to a bit of paper, Solar calendars are good for planning seasonal activities like planting, harvesting, sheep shearing, and other really important agricultural activities.
A lunar calenar divides the year up in chunks equal to one lunar month, and you can tell about what day of the month it is by the moon. However, you'll have a chunk of several days between lunar periods at the end of the year, which is untidy, and must be "cleaned up" somehow. Jewish calendars sort of just chop it off. Muslim calendars cut the year short, and Chinese calendars use a complicated "leap month" cycle. Jewish lunar calendards change which lunar phase represents which part of the month each year. Moslem calendars have a "year" that is significantly shorter than the seasonally determined year, and Chinese calendars have years which sometimes have twelve months, and sometimes have thirteen months. Any way you slice it, these are harder to use when dealing with important seasonal activities, and civilization, deep down, is based on agricultural production for food.
I never used to think about this, until I started immersing myself in other cultures. The Chinese Autumn Lantern Festival has just finished and preparations for the Indian Deepavali (festival of the lights - or stars) and Hari Raya are in full swing. These ancient cultures looked to the night skies for answers to questions about our planet's seasons and cycles and they were right to do so. It makes sense to follow the lunar calendar. It is more accurate.
Lunar calender goes out of wack with the seasons. It wouldnt be the most efficient calendar.
Accurate? Well yes, the lunar calendar is more accurate for tracking phases of the moon, since by definition it is determined BY the phases of the moon. The months in the solar calendar are arbitrarily divided into twelfths of the year and are useless for tracking moon phases.
On the other hand, the solar calendar stays in sync with the seasons because it is defined by the length of the solar year. The lunar calendar is terrible for tracking seasons because a year is 12 lunar months and 11 days long. A purely lunar calendar, such as the Islamic calendar, drifts 11 days every year so any one holiday is eventually celebrated in every season of the year.
There are compromise calendars, such as the Jewish one that insert leap months as necessary to keep the seasons straight. The "accuracy" of a calendar depends on what you think is important, because the solar year and lunar month have nothing to do with each other.
because -- unto you your religion and unto me mine. its an Freedom of Expression i guess.
The lunar calendar has about 11 days less than the solar calendar. Thus, every year, the month of the lunar calendar occurs 11 days prior to what it had occurred in the previous solar year. Thus, in a span of about 33 lunar years a human being will experience all the different seasons for one particular month of the lunar calendar. This is very important because the yearly activities of a Muslim are based on the lunar calendar. Certain months like Ramadhan and Hajj are very important to the Muslims. During Ramadhan a Muslim has to fast which includes abstaining from food and drink from sunrise to sunset. If the Islamic months were based on the solar calendar where the seasons were fixed, then people living in certain parts of the world would have Ramadhan in summer while in other parts of the world it would be winter. Some Muslims would have to fast for a longer period of time where the days are long while other Muslims would have to fast for shorter period of time where the days are short. If the seasons did not change, then Muslims living in some parts of the world may feel that they are at a disadvantage throughout their lives.
By following the lunar calendar, every Muslim has a taste of fasting in different seasons and for a different time period, in a span of his life. also it helps women be accurate with her monthly overian cycle.
may the peace and blessings of Allah be with us and may He guide us in the right path. may He shower His mercy on us and protect us from Hellfire.
have a nice day and peace.
Thank you, skepsis. One cannot compare the "accuracy" of two systems that measure entirely different things! They both do an equally accurate job measuring the things they measure. Silly question...
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