Javanese calendar

The Javanese calendar is the calendar used by the Javanese people. It is used together with two other calendars, the Gregorian calendar and the Islamic calendar. The Gregorian calendar is the official calendar of the Republic of Indonesia and civil society, while the Islamic calendar is used by Muslims and the Indonesian government for religious worship and deciding connected Islamic holidays.

The Javanese calendar is used by the main ethnicities of Java island—that is, the Javanese, Madurese, and Sundanese people—mainly as a cultural icon and identifier, and as a maintained tradition of antiquity. The Javanese calendar is used for cultural and spiritual purposes.^[1]

The epoch of the Javanese Calendar was in the year 125 CE (AD 125).

The current system of the Javanese calendar was started by Sultan Agung of Mataram in the Gregorian year 1633 CE.^[2] Before this, the Javanese had used the Śaka calendar, which has its epoch in 78 CE and uses the lunisolar cycle for calculating time.^[3] Sultan Agung's calendar kept the Saka calendar year system of counting, but differs by using the same lunar year measurement system as the Islamic calendar, rather than the solar year. Occasionally, the Javanese calendar is referred to by its Latin name Anno Javanico or AJ (Javanese Year).^[4]

1. ↑ Arciniega, Matthew. "More about Javanese Wetonan". Archived from the original on 2006-08-30.
2. ↑ Oey, Eric. Java. Tuttle Publishing. p. 70. ISBN 978-962-593244-6.
3. ↑ Ricklefs, M.C. (1993). A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1300. Stanford University Press. p. 46. ISBN 0-8047-2195-5.
4. ↑ Raffles, Thomas Stamford (1817). The History of Java. Black, Parbury, and Allen : and John Murray.