History of the lunar calendar

The power of the Moon has been known for tens of thousands of years. The first lunar calendars were discovered in caves in France and Germany. According to NASA, these calendars date back to the late Palaeolithic era - around 32,000 years before Christ! The Maya, Celts and Incas knew no better than to live daily with the rhythm of the Moon. Time for a history lesson on the origins of historical lunar calendars and how they are still used daily in some cultures. 

Discovery of the first lunar calendars
In his much discussed research 'The Roots of Civilization' (1972), Alexander Marshack developed the theory that the carvings on various Palaeolithic bone plaques (carvings on animal bones) were not necessarily for communicating, but actually served to indicate time. They noted this time on the basis of the position of the Moon. According to him, finds from the cave Thaïs in France indicated 29 notches, corresponding to the duration between two moons.¹ (cycle of the Moon lasts 29 days)

The oldest Mesolithic lunar calendar monument was found in Warren Field, Scotland. It dates from around 8,000 BC and consists of twelve hollows that are thought to represent the twelve phases of the moon. This is a very recent discovery and the site was only excavated in 2004.

Many of the lunar calendars have been found on loose stones, in caves or on animal bones. These small artefacts were ideal because they could readily be taken on the hunt, which sometimes lasted many weeks. People at the time hunted horses, bison and mammoths. The aurochs, on the other hand, an ancestor of the bison and cattle as we know them today, was regarded, according to NASA as magical or even sacred, which is why the animal plays an important role in the first drawings of the star signs.

Introduction of the Gregorian calendar

The fact that the Gregorian calendar is now dominant in the West is not self-evident. The calendar is based on the Sun and was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII just after the Middle Ages. However, he was not its inventor, that was Julius Caesar - the Gregorian calendar is in fact a variant of the Julian calendar. Before Julius Caesar introduced his 'own' calendar - he was advised by astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria - the lunar calendar was the dominant calendar. Sosigenes advised Caesar, in order for the new calendar to succeed, to completely do away with the lunar calendar of the time. The months of the new calendar were based on the different seasons and a year had a length of 365,25 days. In addition, the calendar was based entirely on the Sun. Later, according to Britannica, because 365.25 days was inconvenient (for example, to collect taxes), a leap year was introduced. Every four years, there was a year with an extra day: 24 February occurred twice.

The introduction of the Gregorian calendar had two reasons: the number of days, in which the Earth revolved around the Sun, was not correct; per century it would deviate by one day. Secondly, faith came into play: the Christians needed a basis for determining the date of Easter each year, which in turn coincided with the Equinox. This was not possible with the incorrect Julian calendar. The revised - Gregorian - calendar is used nowadays in almost all Western countries. During the twentieth century, more and more non-Western countries switched over too, but the Gregorian calendar is certainly not leading for the entire world population. 

Current lunar calendars
As the name suggests, a lunar calendar is based on the time it takes for the moon to revolve around the Earth. This time is referred to as a month. The Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar and is therefore based on how long it takes the Earth to revolve around the Sun.

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) played a major role in the discovery and decipherment of historical lunar calendars. He was a renowned philosopher, writer and esoretician with great influence on how we view the relationship between man and the planets. According to his theory, man is the result of influences from Earth and the rest of the cosmos - consisting of stars, the Sun and the Moon.²

Whatever your views are, it is a fact that lunar calendars – sometimes of a religious nature, sometimes used for systematic counting – have maintained a hold on mankind for tens of thousands of years. We will describe the most well-known lunar calendars below.

Lunar calendar in Asian culture
Chances are you are familiar with the Chinese lunar calendar. The Chinese year is based on the position of the Moon - not the Sun, like the standard calendar in the West - and is made up of twelve months, each consisting of 29 or 30 days. The total year is thus eleven days shorter than a year as we know it. The era is also slightly different, because it is not based on Christianity, but started on the day of the coronation of the first Chinese emperor, 2697 BC. Nevertheless, the Chinese calendar is not used everywhere in China. Because of, among other things, trade with the West, the Gregorian calendar is also becoming more dominant in Asia. The Chinese calendar is especially used for holidays, like the Chinese New Year. Because a lunar year is 11 days shorter than a solar year, the months would eventually fall into different seasons. To prevent this, there is no leap day, but seven times every nineteen years a full leap month.
 
The Incas and their Quipu calendar
A brief history: over the centuries the Inca empire spread across the Andes mountains in South America, with Cuzco in Peru as its capital. There is a reason behind the saying ‘pride comes before a fall’: at a time when the Incas - an Indian people – had reached the peak of their powers, their leader and his successor died, probably from smallpox, the deadly epidemic of the time. Around the same time Spain slowly began its conquest of South America, the pre-colonial era came to an end, and Columbus’ discovery of the Americas in 1492 led to the fall of the Inca Empire.  

The Incas had their own language: Quechua. However, they had no writing, but communicated with each other by means of quipus: knotted cords strung on a kind of chain. The knots stand for certain dates and units. Well-known research by Tom Zuidema³ has shown that the Quipu was also used as a lunar calendar. The calendar used by the Incas consisted of twelve synodic months - months related to celestial bodies - that were calculated from New Moon to New Moon. To keep roughly in step with a solar year, a thirteenth month was introduced every two or three years. The calendar was used practically, but also ritually - and the latter still happens today. Meanwhile, the calendar has become a status and power symbol and is used in important rituals.⁴

It is not surprising that the Incas lived their lives on the basis of a lunar calendar. Their religion revolved around the Sun and the Moon; sun god Inti played a major role, as did moon god Quilla and supreme god Viracocha. Based on the lunar calendar and the phases of agriculture, religious festivals took place every month in the Inca Empire, during which gods were honoured and peoples were fraternised.

Mayan calendar
Around ten years ago the world spontaneously found itself in the grip of the Mayan calendar. 21 December 2012 would be the end of the world, according to the Mayas. Luckily this was not the case and a new date was selected: one in 2017, which we also survived. How exactly does the Mayan calendar work and why do these kinds of predictions keep occurring?  

The Maya live in Mesoamerica, which stretches across Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Belize. As with the Incas, the Maya Empire came to an end with the arrival of European settlers. But traditions live on and around nine million Maya still live in the area. Whereas many tribes and cultures use only one calendar, the Maya have three dominant systems. One is the religious calendar Tzolkin, which consists of twenty periods of thirteen days. This calendar was mainly used to make predictions. The Moon, stars and other planets were seen by them as gods, who exercised influence on daily life on earth. On the basis of a person's day of birth, priests would predict how his or her life would go. In addition, there was the Haab - a 365-day calendar that was used for 'civil affairs'. Then there was the Long Count: a calendar that placed events in a historical order. Together, the three calendars formed a 'kering'.⁶

What distinguishes the Tzolkin calendar from others is that you can use it to calculate your own birth energy. This comes under four themes: passion, introspection, transformation and fulfillment. Introspection, for example, may indicate significant transformational changes in your life and the importance of occupying your own space. The list is endless and complicated, but there are enough calculators available to buy which you can use to obtain a reading of your date of birth based on the Mayan calendar.

Celtic lunar calendar

What we describe as the ‘Celtic calendar’ is in fact a combination of Celtic systems that recorded the time, even predating the Christian era. The Gallic Coligny calendar is one of these. It indicates the length of the day, week and month, including holidays, and is the oldest Celtic solar and lunar calendar found in France. The calendar attempts to meld the solar and lunar cycles together, but the lunar cycle is dominant. So it’s not at all surprising that the Celts attached great value to the night: the waxing and waning Moon was central to their lives. By the way, they didn’t refer to the Moon by its name, but as the ‘Queen of the night’.⁷

In the Celtic calendar, each month begins with a Full Moon. The calendar consists of cycles of thirty years, which in turn consist of five cycles of 62 months based on the Moon - one cycle consists of 61 months. Weeks as we know them do not exist, periods are indicated by fourteen days. Days are designated as 'good' or 'not good' (MAT and ANM), based on observation. 

Source: Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala

The Celtic year begins with Samhain that falls around 31 October. It marks the start of the fall, for the Celts the decay of nature – although this season can also be very beautiful. For them, the fall showed that the here and now was very close to the hereafter. See it as the start of Halloween as we know it, even including pumpkins :-)  

Imbolc is the next significant moment, taking place at the end of January and celebrating the approaching end of winter. This was followed by the Celts’ celebration of Beltain around the 1st of May, which was all about fertility. Livestock was moved out into the open air, people traded with each other, and above all it was a time of celebration.  

Then followed Lughnasadh, a summer festival that lasted two weeks around the end of July. The holiday was in honor of the god Lugh, which the Celts linked to skill and dexterity such as horse racing.  

These days the Celtic Tree Calendar is very popular – a calendar that divides thirteen months into different tree species. The Celtic ‘tree astrology’ is based on the idea that the date and time of your birth is linked to the development of your behavior and personality. This system has been developed from the extensive knowledge the Druids possessed over the natural cycles and their link to trees.  

It’s perhaps a rather complicated subject, but this history lesson gives us plenty of food for thought. The calendar based on the sun is a relatively recent development – the lunar calendars have almost always guided the life of mankind. Sometimes in a religious way, sometimes for more practical reasons. Both emphasize the magic and huge influence of the moon on life on Earth. Are you already familiar with the power of the Moon? Read all about it here all about it.

Marshack, A. 1972. The Roots of Civilization: the Cognitive Beginning of Man's First Art, Symbol and Notation. New York: McGraw-Hill
² Steiner, R. 1994. How to know higher worlds: A modern path of initiation. New York: Anthroposophic Press Inc
³ Zuidema, R.T. 1982. The sidereal lunar calendar of the Incas. In: Aveni AF (ed) Archaeoastronomy in the New World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
⁴ Laurencich-Minelli, L. 2008. A calendar Quipu of the early 17th century and its relationship with the Inca astronomy. Milan: Dipartimento di Matematica del Politecnico di Milano
⁵ Hagen, Von, V.W. 1961. The realm of the Incas. New York: The New American Library
⁶ Calleman, C.J., PhD 2004. The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness.
⁷ Koch, John T. (2006). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO.