Buddhist calendar

A calendar tradition used in Buddhist communities that combines lunar months for religious observances with year counts based on the Buddha’s traditional era.

Lunar calendar: A calendar whose months are based on the phases of the Moon. Its lunar months provide the framework for many Buddhist observances.
Buddhist holidays: Religious and cultural observances celebrated by Buddhist communities. The calendar determines the dates of annual celebrations across Buddhist societies.
Theravada Buddhism: A major Buddhist tradition prominent in Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia. Its communities developed influential Buddhist-era and lunar-calendar conventions.
Gregorian calendar: The solar calendar now used as the civil standard in most countries. Its fixed solar year contrasts with Buddhist lunar observance dates.
Lunisolar calendar: A calendar that follows lunar months while periodically aligning them with the solar year. Intercalation keeps lunar observances aligned with the seasons.
Kathina: A Buddhist robe-offering ceremony held after the annual rains retreat. Its observance is tied to the calendar’s post-retreat season.
Sri Lankan calendar: The civil and religious calendar used in Sri Lanka, incorporating Buddhist observances. Sri Lanka’s practices show one historical form of Buddhist calendar reckoning.
Chinese calendar: A lunisolar calendar used to determine traditional Chinese dates and festivals. It also combines lunar months and solar alignment, but uses different era conventions.
Intercalation: The insertion of extra time units into a calendar to keep it aligned with an astronomical cycle. Extra months in some traditions prevent lunar dates from drifting through the seasons.
Vassa: The annual rainy-season retreat observed by monastic communities in Theravada Buddhism. Its start and end are set by lunar-calendar dates.

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