The year is 2023… or is it? Depending on where you are, you may be living in the
past or the future. In much of North Africa, that year is 1444. In two different countries,
the year is 112. And in Israel, it’s the year 5,783 due to the belief that that God created
existence around that many years ago. To be clear, Earth is much older than 5,783 years,
and the universe is much, much older than Earth. However, how time is measured and recorded is
a human construct, which means mistakes are made, and different cultures have their own
way of doing things. Come with us as we go on a journey through time without leaving 2023.
The year is Reiwa 5. The place is present-day Japan. Does this mean
Japan is living 2,018 years in the past? Obviously, not, but the way the Japanese
calendar works means that it’s only the 5th year since this era began. How can this be?
The Gregorian calendar is used in many parts of the world, which is how most of us track
the current date. However, not everyone uses this Christian calendar, nor should they. Most cultures
have their own unique way of keeping track of the date, and depending on where you live,
you might have several different calendars to keep track of. However, due to colonization and
the globalization of our planet, many traditional calendars have been lost or forgotten. In fact,
out of the 195 countries on the planet, at least 168 use the Gregorian calendar in some fashion.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s go back to Japan and find out why
they are living in the year 5. Japan itself is made up of around 14,125 islands; however,
people only live on 260 or so of them. A single government hasn’t always ruled the archipelago,
but after signing the San Francisco Peace Treaty with the Allied Powers in 1952,
the Japanese islands officially became a single nation under one government.
In the Japanese calendar system, the word Reiwa refers to the current era of Japan’s
official calendar. The country also uses the Gregorian calendar,
but the Japanese Calendar is important for cultural and official purposes. China brought
the system that the Japanese calendar is founded on to the island nation around
700 CE. The era name is chosen by the Emperor of Japan when he rises to the throne. In the past,
the Emperor could change the era at any point to commemorate a significant event.
Every time the era changes, the year count goes back to 1. In 1912 Emperor Taishō set the
precedent of having one era for the entire reign of an emperor. The Reiwa era started on May 1,
2019, when Emperor Naruhito, the eldest son of the previous ruler, Emporer Akihito,
took the throne. Emperor Akihito is still alive at 89 years old but abdicated his
throne for his son to replace him. The term Reiwa means “Beautiful Harmony” and is the
first era name that uses characters from a Japanese root source instead of a Chinese one.
The Japanese calendar is used to date most official documents along with government forms,
private business communications, and personal letters. The use of
the Japanese calendar today means that if you were to visit Japan,
you would travel from the year 2023 to the year 5 when you landed.
Moving forward in calendar time, we are traveling to the Republic of China, also known as Taiwan.
Here the Minguo calendar is used, and the year is 112. The calendar is also
known as the Republic of China calendar and is also utilized in Penghu, Kinmen,
and Matsu. This calendar began in 1912, the year that the Republic of China was
established in Nanjing. Although, like most aspects of Taiwan, China does not recognize
the calendar as Beijing’s official stance is the island never separated from China itself,
so they can’t possibly have an independent calendar system.
The Minguo calendar is used on some official documents, but most of the country follows
the Gregorian calendar for day-to-day operations. This makes sense as Taiwan
does business with much of the world, most of which uses the Gregorian calendar. Therefore,
adopting the Gregorian system seemed like a logical move. Taiwan’s main
industry is semiconductor manufacturing. In fact, this small island produces over
50% of all semiconductors bringing in around $115 billion annually.
Interestingly, if you traveled to North Korea, which we would not recommend doing,
the year is also 112. But this is for very different reasons than Taiwan.
In North Korea, the Juche calendar is used. It began with the birth of the founder of North
Korea, Kim Il-sung. The year Kim Il-sung was born is considered Juche 1, but the
calendar itself wasn’t adopted until 1997, three years after the death of the founding dictator.
The calendar combines the traditional Korean calendar system with the Gregorian calendar.
When the Juche calendar was officially adopted, newspapers, news agencies, radio stations, public
transport, and birth certificates all switched over to this new system. Therefore, the 25.97
million people currently living in the country also follow the Juche calendar. If you ever do
find yourself in North Korea, it is the year 112, and due to the oppressive regime that controls
the country, it actually feels like you’ve been transported almost 2,000 years into the past.
In Nepal, the year is 1143.
The Nepal Sambat is a lunisolar calendar that has been used for literally thousands
of years. Its dates have been found on coins, inscriptions, Hindu and Buddhist manuscripts,
and legal documents of the past. The beginning of this calendar has a very interesting story
attached to it. Most calendars link year zero with the birth of a savior or the independence
of a people. However, legend has it the Nepal Sambat starts on the day when the
Nepali people were able to pay back all of their debts to the King. This seems like
an odd thing to commemorate as the epoch of a calendar, but there is more to the story.
According to ancient Nepalese tradition, long ago, an astrologer prophesied that the sands
where the Bhacha Khushi and Bishnumati Rivers in Kathmandu meet would turn to gold. The King
sent his men to collect the sand so that when it turned to gold, his wealth would increase
exponentially. He had been collecting enormous amounts of tribute from the people of Nepal,
showing his greed knew no bounds. Many Nepalese people were deeply in debt to the King. However,
he did not care about the suffering of the people; the king just wanted
more riches. One day a local merchant named Sankhadhar Sakhwa noticed the odd behavior
of the king's men and he convinced them to let him take the sand off their hands.
The next day when Sankhadhar Sakhwa opened the bags, they were full of gold instead of sand.
Sankhadhar took the gold to the King and paid off the debts of every person in Nepal. The
Nepalese people were finally free. This event is year 0 in the Nepal Sambat, corresponding to 879
AD in the Gregorian calendar. To be clear, the Nepalese people and government of today
still have debt. Nepal is ranked 99th out of all major economies, with a GDP of just over
36 million dollars, and the UN estimates that around 20% of the population lives in poverty.
In Myanmar, the current year is 1384.
This is because they use the Burmese calendar alongside the
Gregorian calendar. As with many other calendars discussed in this video,
the Burmese calendar is a lunisolar calendar where the months are based on the lunar cycle
and the years on the revolution of Earth around the Sun. The calendar itself is
founded on the Hindu calendar and incorporates a Metonic cycle as a part of its dating system.
The Metonic cycle is when the phases of the moon recur at the same time of year
as they previously had. This takes approximately 19 years to happen.
For example, if a full moon occurred on January 1st, another full moon wouldn’t
happen on January 1st for another 19 years. This poses problems when creating a calendar
that combines a lunar year and a solar year. To fix this problem, the Burmese calendar needs to
incorporate leap years and a number of days at random intervals to maintain its consistency.
The Burmese calendar is used in Myanmar to mark traditional holidays and festivals,
such as the Burmese New Year. A lot of these celebrations are connected to Burmese Buddhist
practices. When King Popa Saweahan recalibrated the entire system, the calendar’s start date
became March 22, 638 CE. From there, the new era of Kawza Thekkarit began, and the
people of Myanmar have been progressing through time to the current year of 1384 ever since.
The year is 1401 in Iran, as this country uses one of the two Hijri calendars.
More specifically, Iran uses the Solar Hijri, which, as the name suggests,
uses the Earth’s revolution around the sun as a basis for its year. This is either 365
or 366 days long, depending on if a correction is needed. Just to be clear, the actual length
of one revolution of Earth around the sun is 365.2422 days. This is why every four years,
solar calendars that break the days into 24 hours need to include an extra day
to account for the .2422 extra days that accumulate at the end of each revolution.
The Solar Hijri is one of the world's oldest and most accurate calendars. This is unsurprising as
many of the basic scientific principles and advancements in mathematics were developed
thousands of years ago in the Arabic world. That being said, highly precise mathematical practices
also developed independently around the world in places like Latin America and East Asia as well.
The creators of the Hijri Solar calendar used
astronomical observations and calculations to determine the vernal or spring equinox,
which is the start of the calendar. Year zero of the Solar Hijri calendar is marked by the
year that the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers traveled from Mecca to
Medina in the year 622. There is also a Lunar Hijiri calendar that was developed after the
solar calendar that much of the Muslim world uses, but Iran has stuck with the original.
Since the Solar Hijiri is based on the Earth’s movement around the sun and the Lunar calendar
is based on the movement of the moon around the Earth, the year is different in Iran than in the
rest of the countries that use the alternate Hijri calendar. In fact, the two calendars
drift apart by a little more than 11 days each year, meaning that between Mohammad's
journey in 622 CE and the present day, the two calendars are approximately 43 years apart.
In the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent, the year is 1429.
It is here that the Bengali Calendar is used. It’s the official calendar of Bangladesh and has
its roots in an ancient Sanskrit astronomical text called the Surya Siddhanta. The Bengali
calendar has a start date between the 12th and 14th of April, 594 CE. Unfortunately,
this calendar was later modified for the purpose of tax collection. It’s not entirely clear why
this particular start year was chosen. Some scholars think it coincides with the reign of
King Shashanka while Mughal emperor Akbar was credited with modifying it. However,
the exact reason for a beginning year of 594 is still not agreed upon.
In Northern Africa and much of the Middle East, the year is 1444 AH.
It’s in these countries that the Lunar Hijri calendar is used. Unlike its solar counterpart,
this calendar has 12 lunar months in a year, which consists of 354 or 355 days. This is
because the moon takes 27.3 days to complete one revolution and 29.5 days to complete a cycle of
its phases. Like the Solar Hijri Calendar used in Iran, the Lunar Hijri is used to determine
Islamic holidays and rituals. This includes when fasting should occur and the season for
the great pilgrimage. As mentioned before, the start date of both Hijri is the year 622,
but the reason that the current year is different between these two calendars is
because of the discrepancies between the length of a lunar year and a solar year.
The event that marks the beginning of the Hijri calendar is also where
it got its name. The journey Mohammad took from Mecca to Medina was called
the Hijrah. It’s also why the year is termed 1444 AH or Anno Hegirae.
We are now getting closer to the year 2023. The Indian National calendar marks this year as 1944,
which also happens to be the year that India became the most populous
country on the planet. In 2023—1944 on the Indian National Calendar—the population of
India reached over 1.426 billion people, exceeding China’s 1.425 billion citizens.
This calendar is also known as the Śaka calendar and is used in Indian media and
official communications by the government. The calendar started with the ascension of
King Shalivaahan to the throne in 78 AD. He was said to be a legendary emperor of ancient India,
although some believe that Shalivaahan was actually another name attributed to
Vikramaditya of Ujjain or may have also been an enemy of Vikramaditya. Regardless
of exactly who the calendar is based on, the year 78 AD marks the beginning of the Saka era.
The Indian National calendar wasn’t officially adopted until 1957. This was done to ensure all
Indians were using the same dating system. However, many regions still continue to use
their own traditional calendars, such as the Bengali Calendar in Bangladesh.
In Ethiopia, the year is 2015, so if you travel there,
you will only need to adjust your daily calendar by 8 years.
The Ethiopian Calendar, also known as the Coptic Calendar, is different than the Gregorian calendar
because of a dispute over when Jesus was born. Year zero for the Gregorian calendar is the year
that religious scholars and clergymen believe that the Christian savior Jesus Christ miraculously
came into this world, which was 2,023 years ago. The Ethiopian government bases its calendar on
the teachings of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and Coptic Catholic Church,
which puts the date of the Annunciation 8 years after the Catholic Church.
This discrepancy in when exactly Jesus was born has led to Ethiopia being in a
different year than the rest of the countries that use the Gregorian calendar. However,
this is not the only difference. The dates of the years that important religious events occur
differ between the two calendars as well. Again this isn’t based on anything other
than varying interpretations of the Bible between the two branches of Christianity.
We are now about to go into the future. That’s right,
for people who use the Vikram Samvat in India and Nepal, the year is 2079. This calendar is
used alongside the Nepal Samvat in Nepal and the Indian National calendar in India. However,
both countries also use the Gregorian calendar as well. This is why trying to determine the exact
date can be very different depending on who you talk to and which calendar they’re using.
The Vikram Samvat is lunisolar, so, like other calendars of this type,
an extra month needs to be added every three years or 7 times in the 19-year Metonic cycle. This is
done so that important festivals and events fall within the right season. Returning to the legend
of how the Indian National Calendar or Śakas Calendar started, the Vikram Samvat is said to
have gotten its origins when King Vikramaditya of Ujjain established the Vikrama Samvat era
after defeating the Śakas. However, the legend about how this happened is especially intriguing.
It’s said that Gandharvasena, the then-king of Ujjain, abducted the sister of a monk
who was a nun herself. Because of this egregious misstep by the Ujjain king,
the monk decided to help the Śaka King Sahi defeat him. Sahi’s forces attacked
Ujjain but were greatly outnumbered. However, thanks to the miracles enacted by the monk,
the Śaka defeated Gandharvasena. The monk's sister was returned to him, and Gandharvasena was forced
into exile. While in the dense forests of the region, he was slain by a tiger. The king’s son,
Vikramaditya, who had been raised in the forest when the Śaka seized their kingdom,
gathered a force and returned to Ujjain to reclaim it from the Śaka. He succeeded,
and this reclaiming of the Ujjain kingdom by Vikramaditya marks the beginning of the “Vikrama
era.” This is why the Vikram Samvat has a starting year of 56 BCE, and the current year is 2079.
However, if you want to go even further forward in time,
you can go to Thailand, where the current year is 2566.
Thailand actually uses two different calendar systems alongside one another. One is a solar
calendar based on the Gregorian calendar, which is used for most day-to-day activities. However,
there is also a lunar calendar based on the Buddhist calendar that has a starting date of
March 11, 543 BCE. On this date, Gautama Buddha died and broke free from the cycle of rebirth to
attain nirvana. Over 400 million people practice Buddhism across the world today. In Thailand,
the year is 2566 BE, which stands for Buddhist Era. However, this lunar calendar is mostly used
for Buddhist religious practices and events and not for everyday purposes.
This brings us to the calendar with the oldest starting date in the world. In fact,
the Hebrew calendar claims to have begun at the inception of everything,
when God declared: “Let there be light.”
The Hebrew calendar used in Israel puts the current year at Anno Mundi 5783. Anno Mundi
translates to “year after creation.” The Hebrew calendar is used to track Jewish religious
dates and which portions of the Torah should be read at specific times of the year. The Hebrew
Calendar follows the lunar year, so it needs to be reconciled every 19 years. However, even with this
correction, the Hebrew calendar year ends up being 6 minutes and 40 seconds longer than a solar year.
This means every 216 years, the Hebrew calendar falls a day behind the Gregorian calendar.
Now, to be clear, the universe did not start 5,783 years ago. Evidence suggests that the
Earth formed around 4.5 billion years ago when gas, dust, and debris orbiting the sun were
pulled together by gravity. The universe as a whole is estimated to be around 13.7
billion years old. So, if we used a calendar going back to the beginning of the universe,
the year would be 13,700,002,023, give or take a couple of million years.
However, Jewish scholars made calculations based on the writings of the Torah and have determined
that God brought everything into existence on a September sunrise 5,783 years ago. This is why the
year in the Hebrew calendar is seemingly so much further in the future than the year 2023.
This brings us to the current time and place. As we said, much of the world either uses the
Gregorian calendar or a different calendar alongside the Gregorian calendar. That is
why most places you travel to tend to be in the same year as the country you left. So,
where did the Gregorian calendar come from, and why is it so popular?
The Gregorian calendar got its start in 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII set out to reform the
Julian calendar, which had been in use for several centuries. The problem was
that the Julian calendar was falling behind by about a day per century due to the fact
that it estimated a solar year was 365 days and 6 hours long when in reality,
a solar year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes,
and 45.25 seconds. This small inconsistency had lasting effects over time. By the time
Pope Gregory was head of the Catholic church, the calendar was off by approximately 14 days.
In order to fix the issue and realign the calendar, Pope Gregory XIII declared that
on October 4, 1582, the calendar would jump ahead ten days, making the next day October 15,
1582. The Gregorian calendar also declared that no century year could be a leap year unless it is
divisible by 400, such as the year 1600, the year 2000, the year 2400, and so on and so forth. This
keeps the Gregorian calendar accurate to within 1 day every 20,000 years and makes it much more
sustainable than the Julian calendar, which would have continued to lose a day every 100 years.
Not everyone was convinced about the necessity to change their calendar system,
even back in 1582. Deeply Roman Catholic nations such as the Italian states, Portugal, Spain,
and Roman Catholic Germany immediately adopted the Gregorian calendar within
a year. Then realizing that it solved the inaccuracy problems of the Julian calendar,
other rulers followed. Protestant Germany adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1699.
Great Britain and its colonies, including what would become the United States,
adopted it in 1752. This meant that as the British Empire expanded and London controlled
around a quarter of the Earth’s surface at its peak, its territories were forced to adopt the
Gregorian calendar for practical reasons. The same was also true of other European colonies,
such as those of Spain in Latin America and colonies in Africa controlled by Britain,
France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and Italy.
So, many parts of the world didn’t so much choose to follow the Gregorian calendar as
they were forced to do so by their oppressors. Then as nations gained their sovereignty,
they either kept the Gregorian calendar to maintain consistency or as a necessity for
doing business with Western powers. However, as we’ve shown, many people also held onto
their own calendar systems, which is why it actually isn’t 2023 in some parts of the world,
and depending on where you physically travel to, you can also do a little time traveling as well.
Now watch “How England Managed To Invade 90% Of
The World.” Or check out “Real Reason Why America Didn't Colonize Africa.”