Armenian calendar

The Armenian calendar is the calendar traditionally used by the Armenian people, and remains in use today for cultural and religious purposes. In 1918, the civil calendar in Armenia was changed to the Gregorian calendar.

In the Julian calendar year 352, tables compiled by Andreas of Byzantium were introduced in Armenia to determine the religious holidays. When those tables exhausted on 11 July 552 (Julian), the Armenian calendar was introduced.^[1] The epoch (Year 1) of the Armenian calendar began on 11 July 552.^[1] The calendar was adopted at the Second Council of Dvin.^[2]

An analytical expression of the Armenian date includes the ancient names of days of the week, Christian names of the days of the week, days of the month, Date/Month/Year number since the epoch, and the religious feasts.^[3] The Armenian calendar is divided into 12 months of 30 days each, plus an additional (epagomenal) five days, called aweleacʿ ("additional").

Years in the Armenian era are usually given in Armenian numerals (written in Armenian letters) preceded by the abbreviation ԹՎ, for t’vin (թուին, meaning "in the year"). For example, ԹՎ ՌՆԾԵ, which means "the year 1455." Another prefix is Թ.Հ., standing for t’vin Hayocʿ (թուին Հայոց "in the Armenian year").^[4]

The Armenian calendar is based on an invariant year length of 365 days. Because a solar year is about 365.25 days and not 365 days, the correspondence between the Armenian calendar and both the solar year and the Julian calendar slowly drifted over time, shifting across a year of the Julian calendar once in 1,461 Armenian calendar years (see Sothic cycle). Thus, the Armenian year 1461 (Gregorian & Julian 2011) completed the first Sothic cycle since the epoch, and the Armenian calendar had gained one year. Armenian year 1462 (the first year of the second cycle) began on 11 July 2012 of the Julian calendar (24 July 2012 of the Gregorian calendar).