Traditional Burmese calendar

The traditional Burmese calendar is a lunisolar calendar based on both the phases of the moon and the motion of the sun. Within each month of the Burmese calendar, a major festival, often Burmese Buddhist in nature, is held. Despite its religious and cultural importance, the traditional calendar has been largely abandoned, particularly in major urban areas, in favour of the Gregorian calendar. Many newspapers continue to utilise traditional month names, but purely in ceremonial fashion.

The traditional Burmese lunar calendar uses the Burmese era (သက္ကရာဇ်, [θɛʔkəɹɪʔ]; abbreviated ME or BE), which began 638 years after the Christian era. Traditionally it is believed to have begun from the time Buddha attained nirvana in 544 BC, but it is more likely to have been baesd on the founding of Bagan by the Pyu King Duttabaung The Burmese era is different from the Buddhist Era, which is called သာသနာနှစ် ([θàðənà n̥ɪʔ]). Each year in the Burmese era begins with the month of Tagu (approximately April).

There are twelve months in the Burmese calendar:

1. Tagu (တန်ခူး)
2. Kason (ကဆုန်)
3. Nayone (နယုန်)
4. Waso (ဝါဆို)
5. Wagaung (ဝါခေါင်)
6. Tawthalin (တော်သလင်း)
7. Thadingyut (သီတင်းကျွတ်)
8. Tazaungmone (တန်ဆောင်မုန်း)
9. Nataw (နတ်တော်)
10. Pyatho (ပြာသို)
11. Tabodwe (တပို့တွဲ)
12. Tabaung (တပေါင်း)

Burmese calendar

Regular year		Small Leap year		Big Leap year
Tagu	29 days		29 days		29 days
Kason	30 days		30 days		30 days
Nayon	29 days		29 days		30 days
Waso	30 days	First Waso	30 days	First Waso	30 days
		Second Waso	30 days	Second Waso	30 days
Wagaung	29 days		29 days		29 days
Tawthalin	30 days		30 days		30 days
Thadingyut	29 days		29 days		29 days
Tazaungmon	30 days		30 days		30 days
Natdaw	29 days		29 days		29 days
Pyatho	30 days		30 days		30 days
Tabodwe	29 days		29 days		29 days
Tabaung	30 days		30 days		30 days
12 months	354 days	13 months	384 days	13 months	385 days

Weeks

The traditional Burmese calendar recognizes eight days in a week. Except for Sunday and Monday, the days of the week are named after the Sanskrit names of the six classical planets in Hindu astrology.

Weekdays

English name	Burmese name	IPA	Cardinal direction	Sanskrit word	Planet	Planetary vehicle Zodiac sign
Sunday	တနင်္ဂနွေ	[tənɪ́ɴ ɡənwè]	Northeast	Aditya	Sun	Garuda (ဂဠုန်)
Monday	တနင်္လာ	[tənɪ́ɴ là]	East	Chandra	Moon	Tiger (ကျား)
Tuesday	အင်္ဂါ	[ɪ̀ɴ ɡà]	Southeast	Angaraka	Mars	Lion (ခြင်္သေ့)
Wednesday morning	ဗုဒ္ဓဟူး	[boʊʔ dəhú]	South	Budha	Mercury	Tusked elephant (ဆင်)
Wednesday afternoon	ရာဟု	[jà hṵ]	Northwest	Rahu	Rahu	Tuskless elephant (ဟိုင်း)
Thursday	ကြာသပတေး	[tɕà ðəbədé]	West	Brihaspati	Jupiter	Rat (ကြွက်)
Friday	သောကြာ	[θaʊʔ tɕà]	North	Shukra	Venus	Guinea pig (ပူး)
Saturday	စနေ	[sənè]	Southwest	Shani	Saturn	Naga (နဂါး)

References

• Myanmar:100 Years Myanmar Traditional Calender.
• Myanmar: Before you come (Calendar)

See also

• Buddhist calendar