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calendar [n.]
[pl. calendars] 1. a chart or series of pages showing the days, weeks, and months of a particular year, or giving particular seasonal information. 2. a list of days or events
of a specified kind. 3. a book in which to note daily appointments
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ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French ‘calendier’, from Latin kalendarium ‘account book’, from kalendae [see calends].
We all use calendars for a wide range of reasons. Where did they come and why were they created ? Do they use the same calendar all around the world ? Are we still using the same calendar they used centuries ago ? Did other cultures use different calendars ? If they have changed, why have they changed ? …
These questions and more will find answers through the links below. As well, you will find ways to create calendars, discover information about special features such as solstices and equinoxes and convert dates between different calendars.
Calendars provide the big picture in terms of how we arrange time, but we also need to understand time each day, how we measure it, why time zones are important and how some features, such as daylight savings, have come into existence over recent times. Do we measure time in the same way as in the past ? If not, why has this changed ?
Find information about time, how we measure it, how this has changed, what tools we use and more by using the links provided. You can also find the time anywhere in the world by using the special tool provided.
Calendars
Calendar Creators & Printers
- Calendar Magic
‘Calendar Magic is an easy-to-use Freeware Windows based program that is entertaining, informative, educational, and of equal applicability in the home and in the office’. Information more than a creator. - CalendarPainter
‘CalendarPainter is a picture calendar builder and printer progam providing several calendar designs. Any bitmap image can be added [even via Drag and Drop] to a month and any color can be selected for the month frame and week days’.
Calendar Templates
- Blank Calendar
‘Printout blank calendars and year-round planners all completely Free. There is also a 2010 year planner. Use a blank calendar to plan ahead’. - Excel Calendar Template
‘This Free template allows you to create a monthly calendar by simply choosing a year and month. You can also choose a colour scheme for your calendar using simple form controls’. - Free Printable Calendar Templates
‘We provide professional-looking printable calendars in a matter of moments. Every download is a perfectly formatted Microsoft Word® document that contains the finished calendar - you’ll never need to fill the dates in yourself’. - Perpetual Calendars in Excel
‘Our One Month and One Year perpetual calendars are listed below. These Excel file calendars do not use macros and can be used in OpenOffice or other Excel compatible software’.
- Make a Customized Calendar
From TimeandDate.com. Online calendar creator that allows you a wide range of options in terms of month/months/year, set out, holiday inclusions [covers Australia] and more. In addition, there are related calendar resources available from the site.
Highly Recommended ! - My Free Calendar Maker
Online calendar creator using a PDF format. Multiple options. - PDF Pad Calendars
‘Organise your life with Free customisable calendars. All month, year and perpetual calendars are ready for printing’. Multiple options. - TKexe Kalender
‘TKexe Kalender enables you to create printable calendar pages from your personal photos or designs. You can add up to 20 images to each monthly display and customize the page layout via drag and drop of elements. The design can be applied individually to each page or the entire year. Other features include support for personal events, public holidays [10 countries], image effects, gradients and more’. Home page is in German, but program will run in English. - UK’s Kalender
‘UK’s Kalender is a Windows program intended to remind you of upcoming events and to dos. There are several views for your dates that are organised similar to a calendar sheet. Dates and appointments can be entered into the calendar via an input form. You can enter a forewarn time, so as long as UK’s Kalender is running in the background you’ll be reminded of your dates as soon as the forewarn time is reached. Independent from the calendar function there is also a todo list where you can enter tasks with a deadline and a forewarn time’.
General Sites
- 10,000-Year Calendar !
‘With this calendar you can view a month or year calendar for any year 1 to 10 000 A.D. All leap years and calendar changes are accounted for’. Clear instructions provided. - Calendar
Calendar systems, solar calendars, other types, uses, current calendars, Gregorian calendar, Physical calendars, calendars in computing, list of calendars, references, further links. From Wikipedia. - Calendar Converter
‘This page allows you to interconvert dates in a variety of calendars, both civil and computer-related. All calculations are done in JavaScript executed in your own browser; complete source code is embedded in or linked to this page, and you’re free to download these files to your own computer and use them even when not connected to the Internet’. - Calendars and Their History
Quite a technical presentation for those with a particular interest. Provides complex computations. - Calendars, Keeping Track of Time
An article from Nova Science in the News giving a background to calendars. Looks at several areas. - Calendar Zone, The
all kinds of calendars, Calzone recipes, calendar quotes and poetry. - Calendar, a History
Origin of calendars, the Western calendar, Gregorian/Julian/Roman calendars and more. - Calendar Studies - Hermetic Systems
Has a special emphasis on lunar and lunar related calendars, information on ISO dating, date converter, Julian and Gregorian calendars and more. - Calendopaedia
Initial section on comparing calendars, an extensive menu of calendars from around the world, finally, a menu of topics. Described on site as ‘The source of data on calendars’. - Frequently Asked Questions about Calendars
‘This document is available in three formats : as a set of web pages, as a single text file [or] as an Adobe Acrobat [PDF] file’. - Rosetta Calendar
‘Rosetta Calendar is named after the Rosetta Stone, an ancient tablet found in Egypt. It allowed scholars to decipher hieroglyphics, just as the Rosetta Calendar displays the same date in multiple calendar systems’. - Time and Date Calendars
Create calendars for almost any year. Varying styles. - World Events Calendar
Find what is happening around the world on a given day.
Solstices
- Solstice
Extensive information with embedded links. Covers all solstices. From Wikipedia. -
Solstices & Equinoxes
Information on both topics. Also covering both is Equinoxes.
Summer Solstice
- Celebrating the Summer Solstice
Understanding the solstice, celebrations by a range of peoples and more. - Summer Solstice
Scientific information. - Summer Solstice : How and Why Seasons Change
Information from Space.com. - The Summer Solsticebr>Understanding the solstice from a scientific viewpoint. Graphical presentations in addition to the text.
Winter Solstice
- Winter Solstice
The beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere. -
Winter Solstice Celebrations
Of Christianity, Judaism, Neopaganism, etc.. Multiple topics are covered including links to a wide range of websites on this topic covering celebrations, history and more.
Special Calendars & Formats
- Calendars
From Scienceworld. Covers 21 calendar systems and has several other link directories to related calendar information. - Calendars through the Ages
[Calendars from the Sky]
‘Explore the fascinating history of the human endeavour to organise our lives in accordance with the sun and stars’. Sections on calendars, timelines and more.
Chinese Calendars
- Chinese Calendar
Information on early history, Taichu calendar, true sun & moon, calendar rules, year markings, hours of the day, twelve animals, solar term, holidays, relevance today, influence on others, references and links to further information. From Wikipedia. - Mathematics of the Chinese Calendar
Information that goes beyond the mathematical aspect including characters, Chinese New Year dates, sexagesimal cycle, software Java Applets, articles, papers and student projects.
Gregorian Calendars
Modified from the Julian calendar and forming the basis of today’s calendar. Not universally accepted when introduced.
- Gregorian Calendar
Lunar aspects, Gregorian reform, adoption information, differences to the Julian calendar, beginning of the year, dual dating, proleptic Gregorian calendar, months of the year, the week, its accuracy, numerical facts, references, links to further specific information. From Wikipedia. - Gregorian Calendar [Answers]
Compiled information from a range of sources, including the above site. - History of Our Calendar
Poses questions and then provides answers that explain some of anomalies that seem to exist in our calendar. - The Curious History of the Gregorian Calendar
Text articles, with embedded links, from Infoplease.
Julian Calendars
Initial development of the Roman calendar which was, in turn, modified to become the Gregorian calendar forming the basis of today’s calendar.
- Julian Calendar
Covers motivation for development, the reform, leap year error, month names and lengths, year numbering, New Year’s Day, transition to the Gregorian calendar, notes and links to other information. From Wikipedia. - The Julian Calendar
Text-based article covering a range of information. From Calendopaedia. - The Roman Calendar
Follows development of the Roman calendar through to the Julian and Gregorian follow-ons. - The Julian and Gregorian Calendars
Extensive information presented in 8 sections and covering the Julian calendar and its transition to the Gregorian.
Lunar Calendars
- Lunar Calendar [1]
Displays moon phases for each month of the year. - Lunar Calendar [2]
Covers lunisolar calendars, start and length of the lunar month, the Old English 13-month lunar year, references and links to other information. From Wikipedia. - Paula Burch’s Lunisolar Calendar
A completely different approach and one which provides you with a range of options to try lunisolar style calendars. It is North American in orientation but still interesting to check just because it is different. - Universal Lunar Calendar
Calendars for different cities, months and years plus a wealth of other information in tabbed sections.
Other Specific Calendars
- Aztec Calendar
Clear description including graphical presentation. Date calculator [get your Aztec name] and a very clear introduction to the calendar. - Babylonian Calendar The
First inclusion in a group of calendars including Jewish, Iranian, Lunisolar and more. Provides textual information and several tables of ideograms. - Islamic Calendar
‘The Islamic calendar (or Hijri calendar) is a lunar calendar. It contains 12 months that are based on the motion of the moon, and because 12 lunar months is 12 x 29.53=354.36 days, the Islamic calendar is consistently shorter [11 Days] than a solar year’. Other information can also be found at the Islamic calendar - Wikipedia. - Kaluach - Online Hebrew Calendar
Calendar, Jewish holidays, specific times and more. - The Mayan Calendar
Considered to be central to the whole Mayan way of life, this site provides information about the calendar and a study of Mayan civilisation as well. ‘The Maya Calendar’s ancestral knowledge guided the Maya’s existence from the moment of their birth and there was little that escaped its influence’.
Time
Clocks, Watches, Sundials, …
- A Walk Through Time
Ancient time keeping, clocks through the ages, world time scales and zones, bibliography, a revolution in timekeeping and time in the atomic age. - A History of Clocks
Find out about clocks and watches - water clocks, hourglasses and the variety of modern clocks. Huge range of links. - Clocks and Time
[A History of Timekeeping]
Links to A Brief History of Clocks, A Walk Through Time, Clepsydrae [water clocks] and Heroes of Horology [famous people connected with timekeeping]. - Clock and Watch Museums
Links to museums that are specifically for clocks and watches [Europe and US]. -
Clocks
This Britannica site provides information on what a clock is and includes links to nuclear and atomic clocks and also watches, while you can find links to Related Articles listed here. - Kid Klok
An interactive and re-settable clock that helps people learn to use analogue clocks. - Quartz Watch, The
The history of the most common time piece used at present. Follow a timeline of development as well as other information. - Speaking Clock
Multilingual shareware. Could be used with people having visual difficulty or with younger children. - Sundial Links
Before clocks there were sundials and other time measuring devices. This site provides links to information about sundials including construction and history.
General Sites
- Exploring Time
Linked to a 2 hour television presentation. Several sections are still useful including the Classroom, Playground and Video Archive areas. - Keeping Time
Article from ABC Science [Australia]. Covers from the past to the future. - Playing With Time
‘Here at the Playing With Time web site, unseen worlds of change will be revealed. You will see time sped up and slowed down, and behold the beauty of change. Time will be in your hands to witness, replay, and even create’. Check time lapse videos and photos to see what can be recorded. -
Royal Observatory Greenwich
The place in the world where time is measured from and what occurs there. Also check this site. - Seven Things You Need to Know About Time
‘Seven articles about the nature of time and the way humans relate to it’. - Time
Temporal measurement, definitions & standards, religion, philosophy, physical definition, Time & The Big Bang, time travel, judgement of time, newsgroup, further reading, links, more. From Wikipedia. - Time and Date
Covers calendars and time. Time section has the world clock, time zones and a personal clock while the calendar section has a calendar generator, calendar customizer, duration between dates, etc.. There is also a countdown section. - Understanding Time
Done by the Discovery Channel. Looks at the history of time and timekeeping and at timekeeping around the world.
Specific Time Information
Daylight Saving
- About Daylight Saving Time
US based but it includes sections on worldwide daylight saving and the rationale and original idea behind the concept. - Great Moments in
Science - Daylight Saving
Information from Dr Karl about Daylight Saving, and daylight saving & accidents.
- Earth Viewer
Find regions of the world in night or day in real time. - How Time Works
‘Time is something that most of us take for granted. Have you ever thought about why, for example, there are 12 months in a year ? Why are there 30 days in September ? … In this article, we’ll help to clarify the subject of time’. - On the Units of Time
In 3 parts. First looks at seconds to days, second at months and weeks, third covers The Year.
Time Zones & World Time Variation
- Time Ticker
Provides times for cities and time zones around the world. - Time Zone Converter
Find relevant time zone that matches time here. - World Clock, The
Find time zones around the world, times in cities, set up your own personal world clock and link to calendars. - World Time Server
By selecting a city from a country and/orstate find the time anywhere in the world. - Worldtime
Provides a set of times for a number of world cities and a listing of public holidays around the world. Another is at the White Pages [so you don’t ring at the wrong time !].