Javanese calendar

Calendar cycles

The Javanese calendar contains multiple, overlapping but separate measurements of times, called cycles. These include:

Division of time

Days in Javanese calendar, like in the Islamic calendar, start at sunset. Traditionally Javanese people didn't divide day and night into hours, but divided it into phases. The division of a day and night are:

Five-day week (Pasaran)

The native Javanese system groups days into a five-day week called Pasaran ((Javanese)), unlike many calendars that used seven-days week. The name, pasaran, is derived from the root word pasar ("market"). Historically, but also still today, Javanese villagers gather communally at local markets to meet socially, engage in commerce, and buy and sell farm produce, cooked foods, home industry crafted items and so on. John Crawfurd (1820) suggested that the length of the week/cycle is related to the number of fingers on the hand, and that itinerant merchants would rotate their visits to different villages according to a five-day "roster".

The days of the cycle have two names each, because the Javanese language has distinct vocabulary associated with two different registers of politeness: ngoko (informal) and krama (formal). The krama names for the days are much less common, and so are given in parentheses.

The origin of the names is unclear, and their etymology remains obscure. Possibly, the names may be derived from indigenous gods, like the European and Asian names. An ancient Javanese manuscript illustrates the week with five human figures (shown at right below the day names): a man seizing a suppliant by the hair, a woman holding a horn to receive an offering, a man pointing a drawn sword at another, a woman holding agricultural produce, and a man holding a spear leading a bull.

Additionally, Javanese consider these days' names to have a mystical relation to colors and cardinal direction:

Markets no longer operate under this traditional Pasaran cycle, instead pragmatically remaining open every day of the Gregorian week. However many markets in Java still retain traditional names that indicated that once the markets only operated on certain Pasaran days, such as Pasar Legi, or Pasar Kliwon.

Javanese astrological belief dictates that individual characteristics or future are attributable to the combination of the Pasaran day and the 'common' weekdays of the Islamic calendar of that person's birthday. Javanese people find great interest in their astrological interpretations in this combination, which is called the Wetonan cycle.

Seven-day week

The seven-day-long week cycle (dina pitu, "seven days") is derived from the Islamic calendar, adopted following the spread of Islam in Indonesian archipelago. The names of the days of the week in Javanese are derived from their Arabic counterparts, namely:

These two week systems occurred concurrently, thus a certain Friday may fall on a Kliwon day, and thus called Jumat Kliwon. This combination form the wetonan cycle explained below.

Wetonan cycle

The Wetonan cycle superimposes the five-day Pasaran' cycle with the seven-day week cycle. Each Wetonan cycle lasts 35 (7x5) days. An example of wetonan cycle:

From the example above, the Weton for Tuesday May 6, 2008 would be read as Selasa Wage.

The Wetonan cycle is especially important for divinatory systems, and important celebrations, rites of passage, commemorations and so forth are held on days considered to be auspicious.

An especially prominent example widely still taught at primary schools is the Weton for the Proclamation of Independence of Indonesia on August 17, 1945, which was at Jumat (Friday) Legi. It was also coinciding with the Weton for the birth and death of Sultan Agung, considered one of the greatest kings of Java history,. Therefore, Jumat Legi is considered an important night for pilgrimage. There are also taboos that relate to the cycle; for example, the ritual dance bedhaya can only be performed on Kemis (Thursday) Kliwon.

The coincidence of the Pasaran day with the common day on the day of birth is considered by Javanese to indicate the personal characteristics of that person, similar to the Western Zodiac and planetary positioning in Western astrology.

Pawukon cycle

Pawukon is a 210-day cycle in Javanese calendar, related to Hindu tradition. Though most associated with Bali, it is still used in Java for special purposes. The calendar consists of concurrent weeks, and has a set of ten weeks, which have a duration of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 days.

The first day of the year is considered the first day of all ten weeks. As 210 is not divisible by 4, 8, or 9, extra days must be added to the 4-, 8-, and 9-day weeks.

Dates numbering

For timekeeping, days are numbered within the lunar month (wulan) as is common in other calendar systems. The date indicates the change in the moon, and symbolizes the life of a human in the world. This process of revolving life is known as cakra manggilingan or heru cakra.

On the first day of the month, when the moon is small, it is compared to a newborn baby. The 14th day, called Purnama Sidhi (full moon), represents a married adult. The next day, called Purnama, occurs as the moon begins to wane. The 20th day, Panglong, symbolizes the point at which people begin to lose their memory. The 25th day, Sumurup, represents the point at which the adult requires care like when they were young. The 26th day, Manjing, represents the return of the human to his or her origin.

Mangsa

The solar year is divided into twelve periods (mangsa) of unequal length. Its origin lies in agriculture practice in Java. The names of the first ten months are simply the ordinal numbers from 1 to 10 in Javanese language, although the names of the 11th and 12th months are unclear. The cycle begins near the summer solstice, around the middle of the dry season in Java.

In the 19th century, the solar month system or pranata mangsa was much better known among Javanese than the civil or religious year. The cycle is clearly of Javanese origin, since the specific application to their climate does not match other territories in the Indonesian archipelago, as well as the usage of Javanese names for the months. Although the cycle matches the weather pattern well, it is still clearly somewhat arbitrary, as can be seen in the lengths of the months.

In astrology, the pranata mangsa is used to predict personality traits in a similar manner to sun signs in Western astrology. It is not widely used anymore for divination, but some practitioners use it as well as the other cycles in their divination.

The Solar months are :

Wulan

Each lunar year (taun) is divided into a series of twelve wulan (sasi) or lunar months. Each consists of 29 or 30 days. This is adapted from the use of months in the Islamic calendar. The names of the month are given below in Javanese and Arabic which can be used interchangeably:

Length of the last month may be 29 or 30 days, depending on whether the year is normal or a leap year (taun kabisat).

The cycle of months is sometimes considered metaphorically to represent the cycle of human life. The first nine months represent gestation before birth, while the tenth month represents the human in the world, the eleventh the end of his or her existence, and the twelfth the return to where he or she came from. The cycle thus goes from one spark or conception (rijal) to another, traversing through the void (suwung).

Year designation

The Shalivahana era, which started in 78 CE and continues to be used on Bali, was used in Hindu times on Java, and for well over a century after the appearance of Islam on Java.

When Sultan Agung adopted the Islamic lunar calendar in 1633 CE, he did not adopt the Anno Hegirae to designate those years, but instead continued the count of the Shalivahana era, which was 1555 at the time. As a result, the Anno Javanico does not in effect count from any time.

Cycles of years

Eight tahun makes up a windu. A single windu lasts for 81 repetitions of the wetonan cycle, or 2,835 days (about 7 years 9 months in the Gregorian calendar). Note that the tahun are lunar years, and of shorter length than Gregorian years. The names of the years in the cycle of windu are as follows (in krama/ngoko):

1. Purwana/Alip (354 days)
2. Karyana/Ehé (354 days)
3. Anama/Jemawal (355 days)
4. Lalana/Jé (354 days)
5. Ngawanga/Dal (355 days)
6. Pawaka/Bé (354 days)
7. Wasana/Wawu (354 days)
8. Swasana/Jimakir (355 days)

The windu are then grouped into a cycle of four:

1. Windu Adi
2. Windu Kunthara
3. Windu Sengara
4. Windu Sancaya

The cycles of wulan, tahun, and windu are derived from the Saka calendar.

Windu' are no longer used much in horoscopy, but there is evidence that it was previously used by court officials to predict trends. The passing of a windu is often seen as a milestone and deserving a slametan ritual feast.

Kurup

The kurup is a period of 120 tahun, or lunar years. There are thus 1440 lunar months, or 15 windu in a kurup. One day is dropped from the last month of Besar having 30 days, resulting in the last windu of the kurup having one less day than usual. Thus, the total number of days in a kurup is 42,524 (2,835 days in a windu x 15 windu - 1 day). This is the same number of days as in 120 lunar years of the Tabular Islamic Calendar.

Each kurup is named for date of the wetonan cycle on which the kurup commences. As this always falls in the Alip (first) year of the windu, it is prefixed with Alip. The current kurup started on Tuesday, March 24 of 1936 CE, which corresponds to Muharram 01 of 1355 AH in the Tabular Islamic Calendar, and will end on Sunday, August 25 of 2052 CE. As the wetonan date of that day was Selasa Pon, the kurup is named Alip Selasa Pon.

The next kurup will commence on Monday, August 26 of 2052 CE, which corresponds to Muharram 01 of 1475 AH in the Tabular Islamic Calendar, and will end on Saturday, January 28 of 2169 CE, and will be named Alip Senin Pahing.

Dino Mulyo

Dino Mulyo (literally "noble days") are celebrated by worshipping Gusti, the creator of life and the universe. Practitioners of traditional Javanese spiritual teachings have preserved several noble days: