The 2033 Calendar error: what do we learn?

In the previous article ‘Chinese Calendar and Vedas’, I had mentioned similarities between the Chinese Calendar and a Vaidic calendar. In this article, we shall discuss the 2033 Chinese Calendar problem, what we learn from it and why the vaidic way is better.

Since nowadays solar terms are used in a Chinese lunar calendar to ascertain the thirteenth intercalary month, i.e. the adhik masa, in 2033 they are facing an astronomical problem as the 13th leap month falls after the eleventh month and which obviously would drag the seasons forward by one month. In their traditional calendar, though, the leap month is shown after the seventh month and that has obviously been done manually to overcome the eleventh month problem.

What do we learn from it?

The Chinese solar terms are nothing but the tropical rashi ingress of the Sun within a lunar month to ascertain the thirteenth leap month. Now, the problem is the basic revolution of the Sun is not tropical but sidereal.

When we use sidereal Sun ingress in a rashi to ascertain the sidereal lunar months such as Chaitra, Vaisakha, we aren’t bothered about any alignment since both the setups are sidereal, be it Moon or the Sun, and therefore, handling the manual adjustment situation that arises due to the use of the true Sun instead of the mean Sun is easy and more or less natural.

But when we involve a tropical rashi ingress of the Sun to ascertain an adhik masa, the thirteenth month, for seasonal lunar months, we may face alignment issues since seasons are tropical while the Moon’s revolution, which is being considered here, is sidereal. It is a natural phenomenon and no one can change it.

Hence, anybody who tries to use tropical rashi ingress to ascertain an adhik masa, the thirteenth leap month, in a seasonal calendar is likely to see a seasonal derailment like the 2033 problem, sometime or the other.

The Vaidic method, on the other hand, employs observing both sidereal months as well as a tropical phenomenon to align the two, and thus faces no such roadblock since adhik masa, the intercalary month, is not inserted based on the tropical rashi ingress of the Sun.

In a nutshell, not just to the Chinese calendar guys but also to our Indian fellows, who are employing or supporting the use of tropical rashi ingress of the Sun (the seasonal solar terms) to find an intercalary month, here is a lesson to learn.

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