Reciting Kammavaca
from Upāli Thein, Bagan, Myanmar
This is the calendar for the new monastic year of 2015/2558. This year is a ‘leap year’, which requires an additional month to be added in. The Thais adjust their calendar earlier than in Myanmar and Sri Lanka they therefore celebrate Vesākha one month later than the former, on June 1st, rather than May 2nd.
As always the Dhammayut sect’s calculations differ from the others, but even after making this calendar for many years I have never found anyone who can explain how they make their calculations, and why they come out different to everyone else (if someone reading this knows, then please put me out of my misery).
For more information on the way the calendars are calculated see here.
Updated, 30th December to show the Chinese Calendar, which is based on astronomical calculations and is used by the Mahāyāna and many of the Theravāda monasteries in Malaysia for dating the new and full moons.
to calculate monastic dawn and midday anywhere in the world
and get a full year chart for your area, see this page.
Bhante, namo buddhaya. Looking at your 2015 calender, according to Chinese Lunar calender, new moon in February falls on 19th Feb (your “catudassi” on 17th Feb) and in April it falls on 19th April (your “catudassi” on 17th Apr). Just wondering how come some of the dates for new moon and full moon coincide with Chinese Lunar calendar and some do not?
Hi Billy, in fact it is always like this, because the Chinese calendar is made by strict astrological calculations, whereas the monks’ calendar is more mechanical. We normally have 15-day uposathas, but the 3rd and 7th in each season (of which there are three) are 14-day uposathas. Because of this we gradually get out of line with the sun, and have to add in leap-years (as in this year), and leap-days sometimes also. For more info follow the link in the article above.