Understanding Sikh Calendar Issue

A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single, specific day within such a system. The term calendar is taken from calendae, the term for the first day of the month in the Roman calendar, related to the verb calare, referring to the "calling" of the new moon when it was first seen. The Latin term was adopted in Old French as calendier and from there in English as calender by the 13th century.

Sikh Nanakshahi Calendar

Indian Calendar

The Bikrami calendar has been historically used by Hindus and Sikhs. The Bikrami or Vikrami calendar is named after king Vikramaditya and starts in 57 B.C.  It is based on twelve syndicalist lunar months and 365 solar days. The lunar new year starts on the new moon in the month of Chet.

Lunar Calendar - 2018

In Bikrami Calendar, a  lunar month has two fortnights. The lunar days are called Tithis. Each month has 30 Tithis, which may vary from 20 – 27 hours.

During the waxing phases, Tithis are called Shukla or the bright phase — the auspicious fortnight, beginning with the day after the new moon called Amaavas. Tithis for the waning phases are called Krishna or the dark phase, which is regarded as the inauspicious fortnight, starting from the day after the full moon or Pooranmasi.

A day consists of 8 Pehars, every Pehar equals to 3 hours of the modern clock. These Pehars are named:

1. Sajar vela or Sver vela = Morning/Day-break (6'o clock to 9'o clock)
2. Dhammi vela = Pre- noon time(9'o clock to 12'o clock)
3. Paishee vela = Noon(12'o clock to 3'o clock)
4. Deegar vela = Afternoon(3'o clock to 6'o clock)
5. Nimasheen/namashan vela = Sunset + Evening + Early hours of night(6'o clock to 9'o clock).
6. Kuftain vela = Pre-midnight time (9'o clock to 12'o clock)
7. Adh Raat vela = Midnight to 3'o clock (12'o clock to 3'o clock)
8. Sarghee vela = Pre Dawn/Very early morning before the sunrise(3'o clock to 6'o clock). 

The word vela means "time of the day" whereas the word Adh means half. While Do Pehar denotes noon time; and Shikhar Do Pehar when the sun is right on the heads.

Problem with Bikrami Calendar

The Sikh diaspora faced a multitude of issues with Bikrami Calendar. The length of the solar year of the Bikrami Calendar (365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes and 10 seconds) does not conform to the tropical year length (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds). This resulted in moving the dates of Sikh festivals at different days.

Most effected was the date of birth of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru. Due to the difference with tropical calendar, some years the date will fall in the end of December and other years it would be in beginning of January. This resulted in this date could potentially occurring twice in a calendar year and not at all occurring in a whole calendar year at the other years.

Julian to Gregorian Calendar

The Julian Calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman lunar calendar. The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months. A leap day is added to February every four years. 

The Gregorian Calendar is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582. The motivation for the adjustment was to bring the date for the celebration of Easter to the time of year in which it was celebrated when it was introduced by the early Church. The error in the Julian calendar (its assumption that there are exactly 365.25 days in a year) had led to the date of the equinox according to the calendar drifting from the observed reality, and thus an error had been introduced into the calculation of the date of Easter. 

Nanakshahi Calendar

The Nanakshahi Calendar was developed by a Canadian Sikh, Pal Singh Purewal, a retired computer engineer. He started work on the calendar in the 1960s. Purewal believed that having a unique calendar was vital for the integrity of the Sikh religion.

Pal Singh Purewal - Founder Nanakshahi Calendar

The Nanakshahi Calendar was adopted in 2003 and made life much easier for Sikhs as their holy days no longer move about the calendar from year to year. Gurpurbs (celebrations devoted to particular Gurus) now always happen on the same date, and occur once (and once only) in every year.

Features of the Nanakshahi Calendar:

1. Uses Bikrami calendar Solar Calendar as Base
2. Uses the accurate Tropical year (365 Days, 5 Hours, 48 Minutes, 45 Seconds) rather than the Sidereal year
3. Year 1 is the Year of Guru Nanak's Birth (1469 C.E.). As an example, January 2018 CE is Nanakshahi 550.
4. Is Based on Gurbani - Month Names are taken from Guru Granth Sahib
5. First Month is Chet, as stated in Gurbani (Ex. Barah Maha Baani)
6. Contains 5 Months of 31 days followed by 7 Months of 30 days
7. Leap year every 4 Years in which the last month (Phagun) has an extra day

The months in the Nanakshahi Calendar are:

Sikh Festivals and Events

The dates for the following festivals and events are fixed in Nanakshahi Calendar:

The modified Nanakshahi Calendar didn't fix the date of all Sikh festivals. Those Sikh festivals that are celebrated commonly by Hindus and Sikhs, such as Diwali, Hola Mohalla, and Birthday of Guru Nanak still have their dates set by the Bikrami calendar. 

Movable dates for Sikh Festivals (These change every year in line with the Lunar Phase):

Adoption of Nanakshahi Calendar

A committee, under the aegis of the Institute of Sikh Studies Chandigarh, was formed to study this problem. This committee held meetings at Chandigarh and formulated proposals. These were formally accepted, in principle, in a larger meeting in which about 40 eminent scholars, from universities and other institutions, participated.

Akal Takht Jathedar releasing Nanakshahi Calender - March 2017

There seems to be no end to confusion within the Sikh community over observing days with religious importance despite adoption of Nanakshahi Calendar since 2003 to fix dates of Gurpurabs and other religious festivals.

Its founder Purewal believes that having a unique calendar is vital for the integrity of the Sikh religion. The arguments about the calendar were concerned not only with its accuracy but also the identity and status of Sikhism and the Sikh community within Hindu-majority India.

Traditional Sikhs opposed the change because it broke with the past, but Sikh diaspora supported it because it gave Sikhs their own calendar and emphasized their separate identity from Hindus. Sikh Organizations in India including Damdami Taksal, Sant Samaj, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) prefer to celebrate festivals on traditional Bikrami Calendar. Hindu organizations such as RSS also support this argument.

Traditionalist Sant Samaj support Bikrami Calendar

The Sikh diaspora including British Sikh Federation, American Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (AGPC), Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC), Panthak Talmel Committee, SAD (Amritsar), and Dal Khalsa support the original Nanakshahi calendar based on solar system.

In the meantime, a common Sikh is left on his own to figure out the dates of Gurpurabs among confusions between Gurdwaraa and Sikh institutions ...