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Subdivisions of the Calendar
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Tags: Calender, Subdivisions of Calender, days, months
The following is a concise, high-level list of the key subdivisions of the lunar and solar calendars.
| | Nearly all calendar systems group consecutive days into "months" and also into "years". |
| | In a solar calendar a year approximates Earth's tropical year (that is, the time it takes for a complete cycle of seasons), traditionally used to facilitate the planning of agricultural activities. |
| | In a lunar calendar, the month approximates the cycle of the moon phase. Consecutive days may be grouped into other periods such as the week. |
| | Because the number of days in the tropical year is not a whole number, a solar calendar must have a different number of days in different years. |
| | This may be handled, for example, by adding an extra day (29 February) in leap years. |
| | The same applies to months in a lunar calendar and also the number of months in a year in a lunisolar calendar. This is generally known as intercalation. |
| | Even if a calendar is solar, but not lunar, the year cannot be divided entirely into months that never vary in length. |
| | Cultures may define other units of time, such as the week, for the purpose of scheduling regular activities that do not easily coincide with months or years. |
| | Many cultures use different baselines for their calendars' starting years. |
| | For example, the year in Japan is based on the reign of the current emperor--2006 would be Year 18 of the Emperor Akihito. |
| | In addition to the Christian calendar, the United States also refers to the number of years since American independence in some official documents (i.e., 2006 would be the Year 231--since Year 1 was 1776, when America declared independence). |
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