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TheJavanese calendar (Javanese:ꦥꦤꦁꦒꦭ꧀ꦭꦤ꧀ꦗꦮ,romanized: Pananggalan Jawa) is thecalendar of theJavanese people. It is used concurrently with two other calendars, theGregorian calendar and theIslamic calendar. The Gregorian calendar is the official calendar of theRepublic of Indonesia and civil society, while the Islamic calendar is used by Muslims and the Indonesian government for religious worship and deciding relevantIslamic holidays.

The Javanese calendar is used by the main ethnicities ofJava island—that is, theJavanese,Madurese, andSundanese people—primarily as acultural icon and identifier, and as a maintained tradition of antiquity. The Javanese calendar is used for cultural and spiritual purposes.^[1]

The current system of the Javanese calendar was inaugurated bySultan Agung of Mataram in the Gregorian year 1633 CE.^[2] Prior to this, the Javanese had used theŚaka calendar, which has its epoch in 78 CE and uses thelunisolar cycle for calculating time.^[3] Sultan Agung's calendar retained the Saka calendar year system of counting, but differs by using the samelunar year measurement system as theIslamic calendar, rather than thesolar year. Occasionally, the Javanese calendar is referred to by itsLatin nameAnno Javanico orAJ (Javanese Year).^[4]

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

• the native five-day week, calledPasaran
• the common Gregorian and Islamic seven-dayweek
• theSolar month, calledMangsa
• theLunar month, calledWulan
• the lunar year, orTahun
• the octo-ennia (8 year) cycles, orWindu
• the 120-year cycle of 15Windu, calledKurup

The Javanese calendar year of 1944 occurred entirely within the civil calendar year of 2011.^{[citation needed]} Such years occur once every 33 or 34 Javanese years (32 or 33 civil years). More are listed here:

A Javanese year will be entirely within a Gregorian year of the same number in the year 4195,^{[citation needed]} after which year the number of the Javanese year will always be greater than the number of the concurrent civil year.

Days in the Javanese calendar, like the Islamic calendar, begin atsunset.^[2] Traditionally, Javanese people do not divide the day and night intohours, but rather into phases.^[4] The division of a day and night are:

The native Javanese system groups days into a five-dayweek calledPasaran, unlike most calendars that uses a seven-day week. The name,pasaran, is derived from the root wordpasar ("market"). Historically, but also still today, Javanese villagers gather communally at local markets to socially meet, 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 weekly cycle is related to the number of fingers on the hand,^[5] and that itinerant merchants would rotate their visits to different villages according to a five-day "roster".

The days of the cycle each have two names, as theJavanese language has distinct vocabulary associated with two different registers ofpoliteness:ngoko (informal) andkrama (formal). Thekrama names for the days, second in the list, are much less common.

• ꦊꦒꦶ (Legi) –ꦩꦤꦶꦱ꧀ (Manis)
• ꦥꦲꦶꦁ (Pahing) –ꦥꦲꦶꦠ꧀ (Pait)
• ꦥꦺꦴꦤ꧀ (Pon) –ꦥꦼꦛꦏ꧀ (Pethak)
• ꦮꦒꦺ (Wagé) –ꦕꦼꦩꦺꦁ (Cemèng)
• ꦏ꧀ꦭꦶꦮꦺꦴꦤ꧀ (Kliwon) –ꦲꦱꦶꦃ (Asih)

The origin of the names is unclear, and theiretymology remains obscure. Possibly, the names may be derived from indigenous gods, like theEuropean and Asian names for days of the week.^[5] 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.^[5]

Additionally, Javanese consider these days' names to have a mystical relation tocolors andcardinal direction:

• Legi : white and East
• Pahing : red and South
• Pon : yellow and West
• Wagé : black and North
• Kliwon : blurred colors/focus and 'center'.

MostMarkets no longer operate under this traditionalPasaran cycle, instead pragmatically remaining open every day of theGregorian week. However many markets in Java still retain traditional names that indicated that once the markets only operated on certainPasaran days, such as Pasar Legi, or Pasar Kliwon.^[2] Some markets in small or medium size locations will be much busier on thePasaran day than on the other days. On the market's name day itinerant sellers appear selling such things as livestock, plants and other products that are either less frequently purchased or are more expensive. This allows a smaller number of these merchants to service a much larger area much as in bygone days.

Javanese astrological belief dictates that an individual's characteristics and destiny are attributable to the combination of thePasaran day and the "common" weekday of the Islamic calendar on that person's birthday. Javanese people find great interest in the astrological interpretations of this combination, called theWetonan cycle.

The seven-day-long week cycle (dina pitu, "seven days") is derived from theIslamic calendar, adopted following the spread of Islam throughout the Indonesian archipelago. The names of the days of the week inJavanese are derived from theirArabic counterparts, namely:

These two week systems occur concurrently; thus, a certain Friday may fall on a Kliwon day, and is consequently calledJumat Kliwon.^[2] This combination forms theWetonan cycle.

TheWetonan cycle superimposes the five-dayPasaran cycle with the seven-day week cycle. EachWetonan cycle lasts for 35 (7x5) days. An example ofWetonan cycle:

The "Wetonan" Cycle for 2nd week of May (Mei) 2008:

English	Monday 5	Tuesday 6	Wednesday 7	Thursday 8	Friday 9	Saturday 10	Sunday 11
Javanese seven-day week	Senin 5	Selasa 6	Rebo 7	Kemis 8	Jumat 9	Setu 10	Minggu/ Ahad 11
JavanesePasaran week	28 Pon	29 Wage	1 Kliwon	2 Legi	3 Pahing	4 Pon	5 Wage

From the example above, theWeton for Tuesday May 6, 2008 would be read asSelasa Wage.

TheWetonan cycle is especially important for divinatory systems, important celebrations, and rites of passage. Commemorations and events are held on days considered to be auspicious.

An especially prominent example, still widely taught in primary schools, is that theWeton for theProclamation of Indonesian Independence on 17 August 1945 took place onJumat Legi; this is also theWeton for the birth and death ofSultan Agung, one of the greatest kings of Java and the inventor of the modern Javanese calendar.^[6] Therefore,Jumat Legi is considered an important night for pilgrimage.^[7] There are alsotaboos that relate to the cycle; for example, the ritual dancebedhaya can only be performed onKemis Kliwon.^[8]

The coincidence of thePasaran 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 WesternZodiac and planetary positioning inWestern astrology.^[1]

Pawukon is a 210-day cycle in Javanese calendar,^[2] related to Hindu tradition. Though most associated withBali, 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.

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 ascakra manggilingan orheru cakra.

On the first day of the month, when the moon is small, it is compared to a newborn baby. The 14th day, calledPurnama Sidhi (full moon), represents a married adult. The next day, calledPurnama, 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.^[6]

Because a Javanese lunar year is between 11 and 12 days shorter than a civil year, it begins 11–12 days earlier in the civil year following the civil year in which the previous Javanese year began. Once every 33 or 34 Javanese years, or once every 32 or 33 civil years, the beginning of a Javanese year (1 Sura) coincides with one of the first ten days of January. Subsequent New Years move backwards through the civil year back to the beginning of January again, passing through each civil month from December to January.

Thesolar year is divided into twelve periods (mangsa) of unequal length. Its origin lies inagriculture practice in Java. The names of the first ten months are simply theordinal numbers from 1 to 10 in Javanese language, although the names of the 11th and 12th months are unclear.^[5][9] The cycle begins near theJune solstice, around the middle of the dry season in Java.

In the 19th century, the solar month system orpranata mangsa was much better known among Javanese than the civil or religious year.^[5] The cycle is clearly of Javanese origin, since the specific application to their climate does not match other territories in theIndonesian archipelago, as well as the usage of Javanese names for the months.^[5] Although the cycle matches the weather pattern well, it is still clearly somewhat arbitrary, as can be seen in the lengths of the months.^[5]

Inastrology, the pranata mangsa is used to predict personality traits in a similar manner tosun signs in Western astrology. It is not widely used anymore fordivination, but some practitioners use it as well as the other cycles in their divination.^[1]

The Solar months are :

Eachlunar year (taun) is divided into a series of twelvewulan/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 representgestation 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).^[6]

TheShalivahana 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 theAnno Hegirae to designate those years, but instead continued the count of the Shalivahana era, which was 1555 at the time.^[5] As a result, the Anno Javanico does not in effect count from any time.

Eighttahun makes up awindu. A singlewindu lasts for 81 repetitions of the wetonan cycle, or 2,835 days (about 7 years 9 months in the Gregorian calendar). Thetahun 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)

Thewindu are then grouped into a cycle of four:

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

The cycles ofwulan,tahun, andwindu are derived from theSaka calendar.

Windu' are no longer used much in horoscopy, but there is evidence that it was previously used bycourt officials to predict trends. The passing of awindu is often seen as a milestone and deserving aslametan ritual feast.^[1]

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

Eachkurup is named for date of the wetonan cycle on which thekurup commences. As this always falls in the Alip (first) year of thewindu, it is prefixed with Alip. The currentkurup 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, thekurup is named Alip Selasa Pon.

The nextkurup 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.^[11]

Dina Mulya (ꦢꦶꦤꦩꦸꦭꦾ, literally "noble days") are celebrated by worshippingGusti, the creator of life and the universe. Practitioners of traditional Javanese spiritual teachings have preserved several noble days:^[6]

• Satu Sura, the first of Sura, the New Year
• Anggara Kasih : Tuesday Kliwon
• Dina Purnama: Jemuah Legi/Sukra Manis (Friday Legi)

• Old Javanese calendar, the calendar used before the creation of the Javanese calendar.
• Islamic calendar
• Pawukon calendar, a Balinese numeric calendar of 210 days per year
• Balinese saka calendar, a lunisolar calendar
• Sundanese calendar, a lunisolar calendar

• Pigeaud, Th.,Javaans-Nederlands Woordenboek.Groningen–Batavia: J.B. Wolters, 1938
• Quinn, GeorgeThe Javanese science of 'burglary', RIMA. Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs, IX:1 January–June 1975. pp. 33–54.
• Ricklefs, M.C.,Modern Javanese historical tradition: a study of an original Kartasura chronicle and related materials. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1978
• Soebardi.Calendrical traditions in Indonesia Madjalah IIlmu-ilmu Satsra Indonesia, 1965 no.3.

• Specific calendars
• Culture of Indonesia
• Javanese culture
• Sultan Agung

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