The traditional Burmese calendar is a lunisolar calendar based on both the phases of the moon and the motion of the sun. Within each month of the Burmese calendar, a major festival, often Burmese Buddhist in nature, is held. Despite its religious and cultural importance, the traditional calendar has been largely abandoned, particularly in major urban areas, in favour of the Gregorian calendar. Many newspapers continue to utilise traditional month names, but purely in ceremonial fashion.
The traditional Burmese lunar calendar uses the Burmese era (သက္ကရာဇ်, [θɛʔkəɹɪʔ]; abbreviated ME or BE), which began 638 years after the Christian era. Traditionally it is believed to have begun from the time Buddha attained nirvana in 544 BC, but it is more likely to have been baesd on the founding of Bagan by the Pyu King Duttabaung[1] The Burmese era is different from the Buddhist Era, which is called သာသနာနှစ် ([θàðənà n̥ɪʔ]). Each year in the Burmese era begins with the month of Tagu (approximately April).
There are twelve months in the Burmese calendar:
| Regular year | Small Leap year | Big Leap year | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tagu | 29 days | 29 days | 29 days | ||
| Kason | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | ||
| Nayon | 29 days | 29 days | 30 days | ||
| Waso | 30 days | First Waso | 30 days | First Waso | 30 days |
| Second Waso | 30 days | Second Waso | 30 days | ||
| Wagaung | 29 days | 29 days | 29 days | ||
| Tawthalin | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | ||
| Thadingyut | 29 days | 29 days | 29 days | ||
| Tazaungmon | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | ||
| Natdaw | 29 days | 29 days | 29 days | ||
| Pyatho | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | ||
| Tabodwe | 29 days | 29 days | 29 days | ||
| Tabaung | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | ||
| 12 months | 354 days | 13 months | 384 days | 13 months | 385 days |
The traditional Burmese calendar recognizes eight days in a week. Except for Sunday and Monday, the days of the week are named after the Sanskrit names of the six classical planets in Hindu astrology.
| English name | Burmese name | IPA | Cardinal direction | Sanskrit word | Planet | Planetary vehicle Zodiac sign |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | တနင်္ဂနွေ | [tənɪ́ɴ ɡənwè] | Northeast | Aditya | Sun | Garuda (ဂဠုန်) |
| Monday | တနင်္လာ | [tənɪ́ɴ là] | East | Chandra | Moon | Tiger (ကျား) |
| Tuesday | အင်္ဂါ | [ɪ̀ɴ ɡà] | Southeast | Angaraka | Mars | Lion (ခြင်္သေ့) |
| Wednesday morning | ဗုဒ္ဓဟူး | [bouʔ dəhú] | South | Budha | Mercury | Tusked elephant (ဆင်) |
| Wednesday afternoon | ရာဟု | [jà hṵ] | Northwest | Rahu | Rahu | Tuskless elephant (ဟိုင်း) |
| Thursday | ကြာသပတေး | [tɕà ðəbədé] | West | Brihaspati | Jupiter | Rat (ကြွက်) |
| Friday | သောကြာ | [θauʔ tɕà] | North | Shukra | Venus | Guinea pig (ပူး) |
| Saturday | စနေ | [sənè] | Southwest | Shani | Saturn | Naga (နဂါး) |