# Reading A Calendar

August 26, 2022

A calendar is one of the important tools that we use in our everyday lives. A calendar helps in managing our time by allowing us to keep track of the days, weeks, months, and years and thus helps us time ourselves. A calendar has many components like months, leap years, weeks, days of weeks, etc. Reading a calendar is one of the important skills that everyone should have. Let’s learn about a calendar and the terms related to it.

## What is a Calendar?

A calendar is a system for dividing time over extended periods, such as days, months, or years and arranging such divisions in a definite order. A calendar is convenient for regulating our life and religious observances and for historical and scientific purposes.

The word is derived from the Latin calendarium, meaning ‘interest register’ or ‘account book’, itself a derivation from calendae (or kalendae), the first day of the month in the Roman republican calendar, the day on which future market days, feasts, and other occasions were proclaimed.

## Parts of a Calendar

A modern calendar normal year of $365$ days or a leap year of $366$ days is divided into $12$ months. The names of the months and the order in which they appear in a calendar are:

The month names are after Roman gods, but also have historical figures and Latin terms.

Each of the months has a fixed number of days, except February which has $28$ days in a normal year and $29$ days in a leap year.

A quick way to remember the number of days in a month.

Further months are divided into weeks.

• Each week has $7$ days
• Each month has $4$ complete weeks and
• $1$ extra day when the number of days is $29$
• $2$ extra days when the number of days is $30$
• $3$ extra days when the number of days is $31$
• Each year has $52$ complete weeks and
• $1$ day in normal years
• $2$ days in leap years

The names of the days of a week and the order in which they appear in a calendar are:

Is your child struggling with Maths?
We can help!
Country
• Afghanistan 93
• Albania 355
• Algeria 213
• American Samoa 1-684
• Andorra 376
• Angola 244
• Anguilla 1-264
• Antarctica 672
• Antigua & Barbuda 1-268
• Argentina 54
• Armenia 374
• Aruba 297
• Australia 61
• Austria 43
• Azerbaijan 994
• Bahamas 1-242
• Bahrain 973
• Belarus 375
• Belgium 32
• Belize 501
• Benin 229
• Bermuda 1-441
• Bhutan 975
• Bolivia 591
• Bosnia 387
• Botswana 267
• Bouvet Island 47
• Brazil 55
• British Indian Ocean Territory 246
• British Virgin Islands 1-284
• Brunei 673
• Bulgaria 359
• Burkina Faso 226
• Burundi 257
• Cambodia 855
• Cameroon 237
• Cape Verde 238
• Caribbean Netherlands 599
• Cayman Islands 1-345
• Central African Republic 236
• Chile 56
• China 86
• Christmas Island 61
• Cocos (Keeling) Islands 61
• Colombia 57
• Comoros 269
• Congo - Brazzaville 242
• Congo - Kinshasa 243
• Cook Islands 682
• Costa Rica 506
• Croatia 385
• Cuba 53
• Cyprus 357
• Czech Republic 420
• Denmark 45
• Djibouti 253
• Dominica 1-767
• Egypt 20
• El Salvador 503
• Equatorial Guinea 240
• Eritrea 291
• Estonia 372
• Ethiopia 251
• Falkland Islands 500
• Faroe Islands 298
• Fiji 679
• Finland 358
• France 33
• French Guiana 594
• French Polynesia 689
• French Southern Territories 262
• Gabon 241
• Gambia 220
• Georgia 995
• Germany 49
• Ghana 233
• Gibraltar 350
• Greece 30
• Greenland 299
• Guam 1-671
• Guatemala 502
• Guernsey 44
• Guinea 224
• Guinea-Bissau 245
• Guyana 592
• Haiti 509
• Heard & McDonald Islands 672
• Honduras 504
• Hong Kong 852
• Hungary 36
• Iceland 354
• India 91
• Indonesia 62
• Iran 98
• Iraq 964
• Ireland 353
• Isle of Man 44
• Israel 972
• Italy 39
• Jamaica 1-876
• Japan 81
• Jersey 44
• Jordan 962
• Kazakhstan 7
• Kenya 254
• Kiribati 686
• Kuwait 965
• Kyrgyzstan 996
• Laos 856
• Latvia 371
• Lebanon 961
• Lesotho 266
• Liberia 231
• Libya 218
• Liechtenstein 423
• Lithuania 370
• Luxembourg 352
• Macau 853
• Macedonia 389
• Malawi 265
• Malaysia 60
• Maldives 960
• Mali 223
• Malta 356
• Marshall Islands 692
• Martinique 596
• Mauritania 222
• Mauritius 230
• Mayotte 262
• Mexico 52
• Micronesia 691
• Moldova 373
• Monaco 377
• Mongolia 976
• Montenegro 382
• Montserrat 1-664
• Morocco 212
• Mozambique 258
• Myanmar 95
• Namibia 264
• Nauru 674
• Nepal 977
• Netherlands 31
• New Caledonia 687
• New Zealand 64
• Nicaragua 505
• Niger 227
• Nigeria 234
• Niue 683
• Norfolk Island 672
• North Korea 850
• Northern Mariana Islands 1-670
• Norway 47
• Oman 968
• Pakistan 92
• Palau 680
• Palestine 970
• Panama 507
• Papua New Guinea 675
• Paraguay 595
• Peru 51
• Philippines 63
• Pitcairn Islands 870
• Poland 48
• Portugal 351
• Puerto Rico 1
• Qatar 974
• Romania 40
• Russia 7
• Rwanda 250
• Samoa 685
• San Marino 378
• Saudi Arabia 966
• Senegal 221
• Serbia 381 p
• Seychelles 248
• Sierra Leone 232
• Singapore 65
• Slovakia 421
• Slovenia 386
• Solomon Islands 677
• Somalia 252
• South Africa 27
• South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands 500
• South Korea 82
• South Sudan 211
• Spain 34
• Sri Lanka 94
• Sudan 249
• Suriname 597
• Svalbard & Jan Mayen 47
• Swaziland 268
• Sweden 46
• Switzerland 41
• Syria 963
• Sao Tome and Principe 239
• Taiwan 886
• Tajikistan 992
• Tanzania 255
• Thailand 66
• Timor-Leste 670
• Togo 228
• Tokelau 690
• Tonga 676
• Trinidad & Tobago 1-868
• Tunisia 216
• Turkey 90
• Turkmenistan 993
• Turks & Caicos Islands 1-649
• Tuvalu 688
• U.S. Outlying Islands
• U.S. Virgin Islands 1-340
• UK 44
• US 1
• Uganda 256
• Ukraine 380
• United Arab Emirates 971
• Uruguay 598
• Uzbekistan 998
• Vanuatu 678
• Vatican City 39-06
• Venezuela 58
• Vietnam 84
• Wallis & Futuna 681
• Western Sahara 212
• Yemen 967
• Zambia 260
• Zimbabwe 263
Age Of Your Child
• Less Than 6 Years
• 6 To 10 Years
• 11 To 16 Years
• Greater Than 16 Years

## Reading a Calendar

By reading a calendar, you can know about the current year, month, and day. You can keep yourself aware of and prepared for future events and their respective dates accordingly. Thus, you can keep track of the days, weeks, months, and years.

Suppose you want to know the day on which Independence Day will fall in the year $2022$.

• Open the calendar for the year $2022$.
• Open the August page.
• Mark August $15$.
• Following the column upwards you can see that Independence Day is on Monday.

## What is a Leap Year?

As mentioned above a leap year has $366$ days. What does a leap year mean?

A leap year is a year when $1$ extra day, referred to as a leap day(February $29$) is added to the shortest month, February. It is done to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the Sun. The Earth takes approximately $365.242189$ days which is equivalent to $365$ days, $5$ hours, $48$ minutes, and $45$ seconds – to complete one revolution around the Sun referred to as a tropical year.

A leap year has 366 days instead of the usual 365 days and occurs almost every four years.

Note:

The actual time Earth takes to complete one revolution = $365$ days, $5$ hours, $48$ minutes, and $45$ seconds

Number of days in a normal year = $365$ days

Extra time left = $5$ hours, $48$ minutes, and $45$ seconds = $0.242189$ days

Extra time accumulated in $4$ years = $0.242189 \times 4 = 0.968756 \approx1$ day

## How To Check For a Leap Year?

To check for a leap year divide the year by $4$. If it is completely divisible by $4$, it is a leap year. For example, $2020$ is divisible by $4$, thus it is a leap year with a February of $29$ days.

But there is an exception to this rule and that is in a century year.

Century years like $600$, $900$, $1300$, $2000$, and many like these need to be divided by $400$ to check whether they are leap years or not. For example, a century year like $2000$ is divisible by $400$, so it is a leap year. However, a century year like $1300$ is not divisible by $400$, thus it is not a leap year, even though it is divisible by $4$.

## Conclusion

A calendar is a chart or series of pages that shows the days, weeks, and months of a particular year. The complete year is divided into $12$ months and $52$ complete weeks, where a week is a period of $7$ days. A normal year has $365$ days whereas a leap year has $366$ days. Reading a calendar is one of the important skills one should have as it helps in time management.

## Practice Problems

State True or False

• There are $7$ months in a year
• There are $12$ months in a year
• There are $7$ days in a week
• There are $10$ days in a week
• The number of having $30$ days is greater than the number of months having $31$ days
• The number of having $31$ days is greater than the number of months having $30$ days
• To check for a leap year you divide it by $400$
• To check for a leap year you divide it by $4$
• To check for a century leap year you divide it by $400$
• To check for a century leap year you divide it by $4$
• There are $50$ complete weeks in a year
• There are $52$ complete weeks in a year
• When the number of days in a normal year is divided by $7$, $1$ day is left
• When the number of days in a normal year is divided by $7$, $2$ days are left
• When the number of days in a leap year is divided by $7$, $1$ day is left
• When the number of days in a leap year is divided by $7$, $2$ days are left

## FAQs

### What does the term calendar mean?

A calendar is a chart or series of pages that shows the days, weeks, and months of a particular year. The word is derived from the Latin calendarium, meaning ‘interest register’ or ‘account book’.

### What is the purpose of a calendar?

Calendars are useful tools for keeping track of upcoming meetings, deadlines, and milestones. They can help you visualize your schedule and remind you of important events, such as holidays and vacation time.

### How many days are there in a year?

There are $365$ days in a normal year and $366$ days in a leap year which comes after every $4$ year.

### What are the calendar months named after?

The first calendar, the Roman year calendar, which was ascribed to the legendary king Romulus, had ten months. The king named the first month, Martius, after his own father, Mars, the god of war. The months-September, October, November, and December are named after Roman numbers $7$, $8$, $9$, and $10$, which were originally the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth months of the Roman year. The months- July and August were renamed after Roman rulers, they were called Quintilis and Sextilis, which meant fifth and sixth months.

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}