Category: Calendar

by Hla Min

Updated : Aug 2025

Solar Day

• A solar day consists of 24 hours
• 7 days in a week
• 28 – 31 days in a month
• 365 days in a Common Year
• 366 days in a Leap Year

Days in a month

• February has 28 days in a common year, and 29 days in a leap year.
• April, June, September and November have 30 days.
• January, March, July, August, October and December have 31 days.

• January : 31
• February : 28 (or 29)
  February is the shortest month in the year with 28 days in a Common Year and 29 days in a Leap Year.
• March : 31
• April : 30
• May : 31
• June : 30
• July : 31
• August : 31
• September : 30
• October : 31
• November : 30
• December : 31

Days in a year

• A common year has 365 days, while a Solar year has 365.2422 days.
• A year which is not a Century year is a Leap Year if it is divisible by 4. The discrepancy of .9688 days is rounded up to a day.
• A year which is a Century year is a Leap Year if it is divisible by 400. This ensures that there are 97 leap years in four centuries.

Grapevine

• February initially had 30 days, but one day each was transferred to July (honoring Julius Caesar) and August (honoring Augustus Caesar) to have 31 days in those months (worthy of Roman Emperors).
• February was left with 28 days.
• Ripley’s “Believe it or not” illustrated a grave stone which had February 30.

Special Days

We were aware of

• Father’s Day
• Mother’s Day
• Labor Day
• Christmas
• Easter
• Thanksgiving
• Independence Day
• Presidents’ Day
• Valentine’s Day

Differences

For a long time, we were not aware that some special events are celebrated on different days (depending on the country and religious order).

• Most Christian denominations celebrate according to the Gregorian Calendar.
• The Orthodox Church celebrate Christmas and Easter according to the old calendars (e.g. Julian).

• The Theravada Buddhists celebrate the Full Moon Day of Kason as the “Thrice Blessed Day”.
• The Mahayana celebrate the events (Birth, Enlightenment, Maha Parinibbana) on dates different from those of Theravada Buddhists.

Some Thoughts

We later learn about

• Kabyar (Poem) Nay
• Myat Saya (Teacher) Nay
• Secretary Day
• Friend Day
• Pi Day

Some wonder why there is no Grandfather’s Day, Grandmother’s Day or Grandparent’s Day.

Holidays

• Not all special days and events are holidays.
• Even among holidays, there are Public Holidays, State Holidays, and Bank Holidays.
• There may be good reasons (social, commercial) for having the designated days.

Thanksgiving

For us, every day is Thanksgiving (time to repay to our parents and mentors for their unbounded love and care).

Adeline Hpyu Hpyu Aung wrote :

Yes Saya. We should be thanking God, Parents and teachers everyday, without them we will not be who we are.

KMZ wrote :

• My left brain at times over-analyzed many of these days.
• Many of these holidays are the work of “Holiday Industrial Complex”.
• As Ma Adelyne Hpyu Hpyu Aung posted, some of these days like Mothers’ Day/Fathers’ Day should be 365 days a year, not necessarily just the designated day a year.
• Believe it nor not there also is a ‘National Splurge Day’ which is June 18th.
  US Congress eventually passed a law to stop creating those days.