Bangla Calendar

The Bangla Calendar is the traditional calendar used in Bangladesh and Bangla (Bengali)-speaking regions of India. The calendar is based on the solar year. New Year's Day falls between 13 April and 15 April.

Organization

The length of a year in the Bangla calendar, as in the Gregorian calendar, is counted as 365 days. However, the actual time taken by the earth in its revolution around the sun is 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 47 seconds. To make up this discrepancy, the Gregorian calendar adds an extra day to the month of February every fourth year (except in century years not divisible by 400). The Bangla calendar, which was based on astronomical calculations, did not make this extra leap year adjustment. Bangla months too were of different lengths. In order to counter this discrepancy and make the Bangla calendar more precise, a committee to reform the Bangla calendar was set up on 17 February 1966 under the auspices of the Bangla Academy and under the guidance of Muhammad Shahidullah. Under the recommendations of the committee, the months from Baishakh to Bhadro were to be counted as of 31 days each, while the months from Ashwin to Chaitra were to be considered as of 30 days. The revised calendar is officially adopted in Bangladesh. However it is not followed in the neighbouring state of West Bengal, India where the old calendar continues to be followed.

Related Topics:
Gregorian calendar - February - 17 February - Bangla Academy - Muhammad Shahidullah - Baishakh - Bhadro - Ashwin - Chaitra - Bangladesh - West Bengal - India

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